Triple Layer Hummingbird Cake

July 4^th is a special day for all Americans and  it is for us too.. We celebrate the birth of our little prince who turns 2 on this day.

I have been thinking of which new cake to bake on this special day. Checked out a lot of cakes but was not able to decide which one and wanted to try something new which I have never heard of before. Being an amateur in baking I was quite apprehensive about choosing the cake recipe. Finally I decided on the Hummingbird Cake. Found it very interesting because of its ingredients and because it was quite hassle free compared to the rest. J

Just loved the flavors. It was amazing! Crunchy, at the same time could get the taste of pineapple and it just melts in your mouth. I don’t like the taste of banana cake but in this cake the taste of banana was not so evident so I loved it. It is truly a fruit and nut studded super moist cake.

The best part about this cake is that there is no beating, forming peaks, sifting and stuff. It is quite easy. This was my first trial with layered cakes and quite happy with the result.

INGREDIENTS

Recipe Source: Godairyfree.org

All Purpose Flour – 3 cups

Sugar – 2 cups

Baking Soda - 1 teaspoon

Ground Cinnamon – 1 teaspoon

Salt – 1 teaspoon

Eggs – 3 large beaten

Vegetable Oil - 1 ½ cup

Crushed Pineapple – 227 gm (8 ounce)

Bananas – 2 Chopped

Almonds/Pecans – 1 cup chopped

Vanilla Extract – 1 ½ teaspoon

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Recipe Source: Joy of baking

Unsalted Butter – ¼ cup at room temperature

Cream Cheese – 227 gm at room temperature

Confectioners/Icing Sugar – 454 gm sifted

Vanilla Essence – 1 teaspoon

½ cup – Chopped Almonds/ Pecans

METHOD

Preheat oven 180 degree C.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Stir well with a ladle.

Beat the eggs slightly and add to the powder mixture.

Add the oil and mix again. Do not beat just mix well so as to combine all the ingredients.

Stir in the pineapple with the juice, banana, 1 cup of the nuts and vanilla.

Grease 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with butter. Line the bottoms of the cake pans with parchment paper. Grease each pan with 1 tbsp. butter and dust with a little flour; shake pans so that flour evenly coats them. Invert pans and tap out excess flour.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until a until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 10 – 15 minutes. Invert pans and remove parchment paper and let cool on rack.

Frosting

The actual recipe for the frosting is given above. As I did not manage to get Cream Cheese I had to go for the butter icing. Just beat the butter (approx 400 gm) to make it soft and then keep adding the icing sugar as per your preference. The butter icing recipe calls for 1:2 ratio of butter and icing sugar but I find that too sweet. So keep adding till you get the right texture and stop adding icing sugar when the sweetness level is as per your palate.

Assembly

Place one layer of the cake on the cake stand.

Apply the icing evenly on the top. Place the second and third layer repeating the same process.

Spread the frosting on the sides. Decorate with the chopped Almonds/ Pecans.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Sending this recipe to Pari's  'Only Series' of events is hosted at Tamalapaku's  by Harini - Jaya