Hummingbird Cake

With such a lovely name, this is a cake for the tropics. Packed with pineapple, banana and coconut; topped with a cream cheese icing, it is a great cake to make for any occasion but especially good for afternoon tea on a sunny day. If you have a couple of blackened bananas you are thinking about turning into banana bread, I highly recommend you try this as an easy, delicious alternative.

Ingredients:
Cake

• ¾ Cup of Plain Flour
• ¾ Cup of Self-Raising Flour
• ½ Teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda
• 1 Teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 450g tin of crushed pineapple in juice, drained (reserve the juice)
• ½ cup of desiccated coconut
• 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 small bananas)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• ½ cup extra light olive oil
• ½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

Icing

• 125g cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2c icing sugar mixture

Preheat oven to 180 and grease and line a 23cm square cake pan.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon into a large bowl. Mix in the sugar. Now add the pineapple, 1/3 cup of pineapple juice, coconut, banana, oil, eggs and ¼ cup of cold water.

Mix together well and pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Stand in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
While it cools, beat the cream cheese using an electric beater until light and fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar gradually and beat until smooth. Once the cake has cooled, spread the icing over the cooled cake and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Best enjoyed the day it’s made but it will keep well in an air-tight contained for a few days, if it lasts that is!