Sarah Tuck's Hummingbird-ish Cake
Photography by Sarah Tuck .
Sarah Tuck's take on a Hummingbird cake is moist and a little less spongey than they usually are. Deliciously sandwiched with passion fruit curd and slathered in cream cheese ice cream, it's the ultimate 'mid-afternoon with a big cup of tea' cake.
INGREDIENTS
2 ½ cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups caster sugar
3 eggs
3 large, ripe bananas, mashed
439ml can crushed pineapple, drained (liquid reserved)
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup slivered almonds
Cream Cheese frosting
100 grams soft cream cheese
25 grams soft butter
5 cups (don’t look at me like that!) icing sugar
¼ cup coconut cream
zest of 1 lime
reserved pineapple juice**
¼ cup toasted shaved coconut
1 cup passion fruit curd or lemon curd
Edible flowers to decorate
METHOD
Line the sides and base of a 26cm, baking tin with a removable base with baking paper and pre-heat the oven to 170˚C (335˚F).
Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl, making a large well in the centre. In a food processor whiz oil, vanilla, caster sugar, eggs, bananas, pineapple, coconut and almonds until well blended. Pour into dry ingredients and fold together. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (one baker found that it cooked faster but I' not sure if she was using an even bigger tin, so to be on the safe side, perhaps start checking it from 45 minutes). Leave to cool in the tin then remove and halve.
Whiz all frosting ingredients together just until smooth – if you would like the frosting a little softer add pineapple juice a tablespoon at a time until your desired consistency is a achieved.
Spread curd onto base layer of the cake. Spoon on ⅓ of the icing and spread out. Top with remaining cake half and cover with remaining icing. Sprinkle with coconut shavings and edible flowers to serve.

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