Hummingbird Bundt Cake – Sally’s Baking Habit

With its signature flavors of banana, pineapple, pecans, and spice, this hummingbird Bundt cake will fly your tastebuds off to someplace heat and sunny. Prime with a cinnamon-spiced cream cheese icing and extra toasted pecans for a cake that may disappear as rapidly because the fowl it’s named after. 😉

There are many implausible recipes on the market for hummingbird cake, and so they’re all fairly comparable. I tailored this Bundt cake variation from Southern Dwelling‘s ever-popular recipe. It has all the primary parts of the basic hummingbird layer cake:

• Banana
• Pineapple
• Toasted pecans
• Somewhat spice
• Cream cheese icing

…however in Bundt type. This can be a tremendous plush cake with tons of textures and flavors to like (and minimal adorning required). Right here is my hummingbird layer cake when you ever wish to attempt it, too!

FAQ: Why Is It Referred to as Hummingbird Cake?

Once I first started making this cake from scratch, I used to be interested by its identify and origins. The cake taste originated in Jamaica. A model of the recipe was revealed by Southern Dwelling journal within the late Seventies, which led to the cake’s recognition within the American South. Now hummingbird cake is sometimes called a Southern basic. And as for its identify, the cake was named for Jamaica’s nationwide fowl!

Hummingbird Bundt Cake Components:

• Pecans: Toast them first. It makes a world of distinction, belief me! I all the time advocate this for carrot cake, too. You’ll use some within the batter and the remainder as garnish on prime.
• Flour: All-purpose flour is the bottom of this cake.
• Baking Soda + Baking Powder: We’re utilizing each leaveners right here, for double-duty to raise up this naturally heavy cake.
• Cinnamon + Allspice: These heat spices pair fantastically with the banana and pineapple.
• Salt: Somewhat salt balances the candy.
• Eggs (from chickens, not hummingbirds!): Eggs bind all of the elements collectively.
• Vegetable Oil: A neutral-tasting oil makes this cake splendidly moist whereas letting its essential flavors shine.
• Bitter Cream: Bitter cream lightens up the crumb of this cake, so it isn’t overly dense.
• Granulated Sugar + Brown Sugar: A mixture of each sugars sweetens the cake.
• Vanilla: Taste-enhancer extraordinaire!
• Bananas: You need the super-ripe, brown and spotty ones such as you use for banana cake. You may also use thawed, beforehand frozen bananas. See The right way to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking.
• Pineapple + Juice: You should use contemporary or canned pineapple on this cake. Finely chop it, and embody just a little pineapple juice within the batter, too.

Behind the Recipe Testing

After making at the least half a dozen hummingbird Bundt muffins, my group and I are very proud of the ultimate consequence. Once I began growing this recipe, I checked out a number of different bakers’ recipes for hummingbird cake, in addition to my very own hummingbird cake recipe. For probably the most half, the recipes that exist on-line for the layer cake are all fairly comparable. Listed here are the 4 notable modifications I made for this Bundt cake variation, and why:

1. Much less banana: Our early makes an attempt got here out tasting sort of like banana bread, with some pineapple in it. Whereas clearly I really like banana bread, the banana taste was overpowering the whole lot else on this cake. Utilizing equal quantities of banana, pineapple, and pecans within the batter leads to a extra balanced taste profile, with no single taste hogging the highlight.
2. Chopped pineapple as an alternative of crushed: Most hummingbird cake recipes name for a can of crushed pineapple, however I choose to cut it up myself. This manner you possibly can management how giant you need the items to be, and select whether or not you begin with contemporary pineapple, canned slices, or chunks/tidbits measurement. A pair spoonfuls of juice go within the batter, too, for much more moisture.
3. Decreased the sugar: Nearly all of recipes appear to name for two cups of white sugar within the batter, however my style testers and I believed this made the cake method too candy. There’s a number of pure sweetness coming from the pineapple and banana, so I diminished the quantity of sugar. I additionally use some brown sugar, for just a little additional moisture and that heat molasses taste brown sugar offers (which pairs so nicely with the spice taste).
4. Added bitter cream: This was a late addition within the recipe testing course of, and my group and I might actually style the distinction! Bundt muffins are usually fairly dense, and bitter cream serves to loosen up the crumb.

I like to make use of pineapple chunks. Finely chop them on a slicing board. You should use canned or contemporary:

The batter is thick and textured. Use a Bundt pan that holds 10 to 12 cups of batter, equivalent to this one or this one. As a result of Bundt cake pans fluctuate a lot in depth and form, the bake time will differ. I like to recommend you start checking it at 50 minutes. It is going to almost certainly want extra time, so proceed checking each 3 minutes or so. My hummingbird Bundt muffins all took about 58 minutes.

Cinnamon-Spiced Cream Cheese Icing

To get the attractive drippy look you see pictured right here, beat collectively equal components softened cream cheese and butter, then add in confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and—the shock addition—just a little heat milk. This makes a cream cheese icing that’s simply the fitting consistency for adorning this hummingbird Bundt cake. I additionally stir in a sprinkle of cinnamon for an additional kiss of spice, however that’s fully non-obligatory.

Spoon the icing over the cake slowly; it can start to drip down the edges, and you need to use the spoon to assist information it the place you need it to go.

End with a sprinkle of toasted pecans, and this hummingbird cake is able to fly… proper off the cake stand! (The one pictured is that this one. It’s stunning in particular person!) You possibly can additionally enhance the iced cake with coconut, like I do with this coconut Easter cake.

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