Friday 16 March 2012

Hummingbird cake

Baking a decent chocolate cake spurred me on and I decided to try the recipe for a hummingbird cake. It was also mainly because I had a pineapple at home (an ingredient I am not likely to have on the shelf) and I figured it ought to be better than using canned fruit. I baked the three layers as suggested by the recipe and got three really nice looking cakes. The road to getting them baked was quite challenging since the Offspring decided to help and dunked flour on himself, the floor...we basically made a big mess. But in the end it all got done and the cakes were baked. I had no cream cheese so I refrigerated the cakes to frost later. 

 

The downside to leaving things for another time is that I tend to meddle. I used nine inch pans and felt the cakes were larger than the ones in the picture (I know!), so I 'trimmed' them. I ended up with three cakes of different sizes. On the upside, the edges I cut out were tasty, a little too sweet for my liking, but yummy. I can see why its called hummingbird cake, it is very sweet.

The next day I went out and got the cream cheese, made the frosting while Michael Buble sang me a few ballads and frosted the cake and sprinkled the coconut, and did it look lovely or what! It looked so pretty. I wish I had the Girl to take photographs for me.

Pretty hummingbird cake
 Sadly the cake was not as yummy as it was pretty. It is rather a heavy cake. Moist, yes, but not soft. The tanginess of the cream cheese frosting does balance the sweetness of the cake, some people may love it, but not me. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I am not sure I would bake it again. I might try making cup cakes with the recipe, that might be a better way to go. I would also try reducing the quantity of sugar. In all fairness my cake was not as dark as the one in the picture shown with the recipe and I needed more frosting between layers. That may have affected how it tasted, or not. All in all, not a good effort. 


I am disappointed but certainly not deterred from trying something else. 

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