I didn't want to shred carrots for carrot cake and he doesn't like the texture of coconut, so my choices were narrowed down a bit. Then I came across Southern Living's Hummingbird Cake with Browned Butter Icing. Instead of putting coconut flakes in the mix, I substituted half the vegetable oil with coconut for a very mild coconut flavor. I also chose to put 1/2 cup chopped pecans in the mix. I only had two bananas ( maybe a cup and a quarter) so I chose to use the whole 20 oz can of pineapple chunks, tossed with juice into the food processor with the bananas to make into crushed. Robert said that the pineapples were not big enough, so I will just pulse them a few times the next time I make this cake. The mix came out a bit runny, so I added another cup of flour, an egg, 1/2 cup sugar and a little more salt and baking soda. The mix seemed more normal consistency and this too is why it took longer to bake. I baked in a sheet cake pan and it took about fifty minutes to bake. I just kept doing the toothpick test until it didn't come out wet. The cake is big and beautiful, fragrant and heavy. It has been cooling for over an hour and is still not cool enough for icing.
Here is the printed version from Southern Living:
Hummingbird Cake
Cake Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups diced ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
1 cup vegetable oil
1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained
Cake Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Stir together first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in bananas and next 5 ingredients, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into 4 greased and floured 9-inch square or round cake pans.
2. Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely (about 1 hour).
Browned Butter Frosting
Ingredients
1 cup butter1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation
1. Cook butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, 8 to 10 minutes or until butter begins to turn golden brown. Remove pan immediately from heat, and pour butter into a small bowl. Cover and chill 1 hour or until butter is cool and begins to solidify.2. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add sugar alternately with milk, beginning and ending with sugar. Beat at low speed until well blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
The icing seemed loose and so I added about a cup more powdered sugar. Also, I didn't have milk and used half-and-half in its place. It tasted fabulous!
I didn't want to add the cream cheese custard filling that is commonly used between layers of this cake because, first of all, mine is one layer, and secondly, I don't want to have to refrigerate it. The cooling time for my big cake is long. It has been an hour and a half and I just flipped the cake over to cool the other side of this dense cake. I hope it is good as it smells.
Here is Southern Living's cream cheese custard filling that goes between the layers of the cake:
Cream Cheese Custard Filling
Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, cubed and softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preparation
Whisk together first 2 ingredients in a heavy saucepan; whisk in eggs and milk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, 8 to 10 minutes or until mixture reaches a chilled pudding-like thickness. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly; boil, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Remove from heat, and whisk in cream cheese and vanilla until cheese melts. Cool to room temperature (about 1 hour). Place plastic wrap directly on mixture (to prevent a film from forming), and chill 6 to 24 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment