Hummingbird Meets Cake

Before animal rights activists come rushing at me with pitchforks or there is any other sort of misunderstanding, let me make one thing title – no birds were harmed in the making of this cake.

There were no shootings or other illegal activity of that kind or boiling in a witches cauldron – after all, I myself am a vegetarian 🙂

The title is simply a small, feeble attempt at comedic wordplay by yours truly because what I made next today is called a Hummingbird Cake. I found this recipe during my extensive searches of the one and only Exclusively Food (I swear, if I keep going at this rate, I will end up making all of their sweet recipes and even many savouries!) and it stood out to me because

a)  It was a simple two bowl (I made it into 1 bowl) cake

b)  It had a blend of many different flavours which I was a little apprehensive about and therefore wanted to try and prove myself wrong

After a couple of adaptations, which is kind of becoming my staple way of doing things, I popped this cake into the oven, out of the oven and into my mouth almost as soon as possible since the aroma given off by this cake is simply killing – it is exotic and sweet and, I know this will sound weird, light – as if it could lift you out of your depression or stress. Seriously, stay out of the kitchen and any rooms within a 20m radius because the smell is seriously delicious and seriously makes you hungry (I should know!)

So my adaptations were:

• Increasing the pineapple juice/syrup to 6 tbs (or 1/4 cup + 2 tbs)
• Increasing drained pineapple (which I forgot to crush and had to mash with my potato masher) to 2/3 cup
• Increasing ground cinnamon to as much as desired (for me around 2 tsp)
• Adding in 2 tsp of allspice for extra flavour
• Substituting crushed walnuts in place of pecans
• Using specifically LIGHT brown sugar (since dark would be a little too rich with the cream cheese frosting which OF COURSE was off limits for myself)
• Substituting melted butter (1/2 cup = 113g) instead of oil since I am a firm no-oil-in-sweets believer

And I really recommend:

• Adding in 1-2 tsp vanilla or a fruity essence – if it is something strong lower to 1 tsp
• Adding in a little bit of desiccated coconut, perhaps 1/2 cup – 2/3 for a little extra texture-ality
• Adding in 1-2 tbs of orange (lemon and lime are not big brown sugar fans) zest
• That you keep an eye on baking time – I made 1/2 the recipe in a heart shaped tin and it took only 1/2 hr to bake as opposed to the 1 hr 10 minutes for a normal sized cake
• That you leave your cake to cool in the oven so it does not deflate

Anyway, I am not exactly sure why this is called a Hummingbird Cake (is there even really a bird called a Hummingbird because many-a bird hum or at least sing) – my take on this is then that, due to the exotic flavours of spices, bananas and pineapples, it is a very exotic bird which feasts on only the most natural fruit on a sunny and sandy beach – makes sense right???
And is it just me or does this cake which is meant to be with cream cheese frosting remind you of carrot cake?