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Prep time
40 minutes -
Cook time
20 minutes -
makes
16
Author Notes
Quite possibly my favourite cake ever.
These Hummingbird cupcakes are covered in the moussiest cream cheese frosting, whipped up like fluffy meringue and so addictive to just lick off your finger. However. The recipe isn’t the 100% straightforward ‘add this to that, hey presto done’ – there’s a bit of ‘add cream cheese to this bowl and add some more cream cheese to another bowl’. But I promise that it works, so please bare with me!
Plus, feel free to pour the cake mixture into cupcake tins, or into a 2lb loaf tin which needs to bake for 45-50 minutes. —Ally Mitchell
Ingredients
- For the hummingbird cupcakes
2
bananas
200 grams
sugar
165 grams
crushed canned pineapple (or chopped canned pineapple, crushed by your own hands or by a food processor)
200 grams
self-raising flour (or plain flour with 1 tsp baking powder)
2 teaspoons
ground cinnamon
2
eggs
130 milliliters
vegetable oil
35 milliliters
pineapple juice
35 milliliters
coconut milk
80 grams
desiccated coconut
- For the cream cheese frosting
150 grams
softened unsalted butter
260 grams
fall-fat cream cheese
200 grams
icing sugar
2-3 teaspoons
lemon juice
2
passion fruit
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly grease the moulds of two cupcake trays with butter.
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas, then add the sugar and pineapple. Sift over the flour and cinnamon then stir all together until combined.
- In another bowl or jug whisk together the oil, pineapple juice, coconut milk and eggs. Pour into the banana cake mixture, add the desiccated coconut and stir until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the cupcake moulds until almost full – the cakes won’t rise very much. There is enough batter to make 16-20 cupcakes so if you don’t have two trays, you can leave the leftover batter to stand as the first tray bakes.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cakes are springy and golden around the edges. The centres may seem a little wet but that’s because the batter is very moisture-heavy with fruit.
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After 5-10 minutes of resting the cakes in the cupcake tray, remove them onto a cooling rack. Now it’s time for the frosting!
- Take two large mixing bowls. In one, add the softened butter and 150g of cream cheese. Beat them together with an electric whisk until creamy.
- In the second bowl, add the remaining cream cheese and sift over the icing sugar. Beat with the electric whisk again – no need to clean the whisk if you’re lazy. The cream cheese will soften and appear like liquid. Add the lemon juice and beat again.
- Now, pour the sweetened cream cheese mixture into the butter-cream cheese a little at a time, beating well and scraping the sides with a spatula after each addition. Don’t add it all at once as it could become liquid. The frosting should remain pillowy soft and thick.
- Spread the frosting on top of the cooled cakes. Halve the passion fruits and, using a teaspoon, scoop out the seeds and juice and drizzle it over the surfaces. Scatter with some extra desiccated coconut.
