Hummingbird Cake

Somehow, this beautiful cake became lost in the mounds of pictures I have. If memory serves me correctly, I made this cake for Mother's Day, months ago! It's a shame I forgot about it, because it was truly a delicious cake. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hummingbird cakes, they are filled with banana and pecan chunks, moistened with crushed pineapple, and tasting lightly of cinnamon spice. Topped with a whipped cream cheese frosting, and we're talking scrump-diddly-umptious. Yes that is a word.

I think that although this cake made a wonderful dessert for late spring/early summer, it would make an equally amazing dessert for the fall. Due to the density of the cake and the warm spices included, it could easily fit into the fall season. It reminded me of Apple Caramel Cake that I made last Thanksgiving for my birthday, which I had decided was my favourite cake to the date. Although I don't think this Hummingbird cake topped it, it's sidled right up behind it! I particularly like this version of cream cheese frosting, because with the whipped cream it makes it much lighter and not as sweet- sometimes with cream cheese frosting the sugar level starts to burn the back of my throat. Too much info? Oops... well, did I mention the whole thing is super easy and quick to make??

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
8 oz. can crushed pineapple, liquid included
2 cups diced ripe bananas
2 cups pecans, chopped and toasted

Frosting:
16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy cream, cold

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour 3 9-inch cake pans.

Prepare toasted pecans: chop pecans in small pieces and place on a parchment covered baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, watching them so that they do not burn. Set aside and let cool.

Whisk together flour, soda, salt, sugar and cinnamon in large bowl. Add lightly beaten eggs, oil and vanilla to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Add crushed pineapple (liquid as well) and cut up bananas, and stir until combined. Finally stir in 1 cup of chopped toasted pecans. Reserve the rest of the pecans to sprinkle on top of the cake if desired.

Spread batter evenly among cake pans and bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.

For the frosting: beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream to nearly stiff peaks, then add the whipped cream into the cheese mixture and quickly and briefly beat to combine. Do not over beat.

To assemble the cake: gently level the cake layers using a large serrated knife to remove any mounded tops. Place first layer cut side down and spread frosting on top with an offset spatula. Continue with the remaining two layers and then frost the sides. Sprinkle with remaining pecans, if desired. Store in fridge.

Source: cake from Bakerella, who adapted from Southern Living.com; frosting from Not So Humble Pie. Pin It

Brown Butter Banana Bread Cookies

Anybody familiar with the phenomenon of slowly browning bananas? You know, the ones that have passed that 'perfect to eat' stage and as days pass they continue to sit on your counter and become more brown, until the point comes where you decide to either make something with them or give them the toss. That's almost  what happened to me here. 2 lonely bananas had just passed the perfect stage when I saw a post on Tracey's Culinary Adventures for Brown Butter Banana Bread Cookies, and I knew they'd have to be saved for this recipe. The name does give a perfect description of what these cookies are: soft and fluffy cookies that have a spiced banana bread flavour and texture, while being topped with a delicious brown butter frosting. If left sitting out, these cookies will be gobbled up in no time, unlike your poor brown bananas sitting in the corner :(.

This was my first try at browning butter, and I was a bit nervous. I'd never even seen it done before, and after my multiple failed attempts at caramel sauce, I was almost certain I would fail. What resulted was me hovering over the saucepan, my nose 2 inches from the butter (probably not a smart idea), trying to catch a waft of that unmistakable 'nutty' aroma that is supposed to occur when the butter has browned. In the midst of that, I was running back and forth to my laptop rereading the instructions over and over, to the point where I finally brought my laptop into my kitchen and started googling other instructions on how to brown butter. Can you say slightly neurotic and over-anxious? I can't defend myself... I'm not perfect in the kitchen and it kills me to have to throw out butter, having done it more times than I can count on various occasions.

Yield: About 2-3 dozen depending on the size
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 medium bananas)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:
4 cups powdered sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon half-and-half (or evaporated milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves together in a medium bowl. Add the butter to a medium skillet set over medium heat and let it start melting. Continue cooking, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter becomes golden brown and smells nutty (be patient and watch carefully, it can go from brown to burnt quickly). Remove the skillet from the heat and pour the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Allow the butter to cool for a few minutes. The butter will most likely have flecks of what you think is burnt butter. Don't worry about these.

Add the sugar to the mixer bowl and beat on medium for 1-2 minutes, or until well combined. Mix in the egg until completely incorporated. Combine the mashed bananas and baking soda in a medium bowl, then let sit for 2 minutes. Add the banana mixture and vanilla to the mixer bowl and beat until completely incorporated. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl in 3 additions, mixing until just combined before adding the next batch.

Use a small cookie scoop to drop balls of the dough (about 1 tablespoon each) onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches in between them. If you don't have a cookie scoop, like myself, simply use a spoon or even your hands if it's not too sticky. Make sure that you flatten the cookies down a bit- if not they will stay in the same original round shape, which is not what you want. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown around the edges, and the centres spring back when lightly pressed. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies cool for a few minutes before removing them to the rack.

To make the icing: Add the powdered sugar to a large heatproof bowl. Put the butter in a small saucepan, set over medium heat and let it start melting. Use the same process as before to brown the butter. Once done, remove it from the heat and pour it over the powdered sugar, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan as well. Add the half-and-half and vanilla and stir until the icing is smooth. If you don't have half-and-half, a slightly lesser amount of milk will do. I had heavy cream and milk, so made a mixture of the two. Using a spatula or knife, spread icing on each cookie. If the icing stiffens up too much before all of the cookies are frosted, add a little more cream to lighten it up.

Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

Source: slightly adapted from Tracey's Culinary Adventures, (who slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats, who adapted from Simply Recipes) Brown Butter Icing from Martha Stewart's Cookies

Pin It

Banana Pancakes

I'm not a huge breakfast person. That's not to say that I don't enjoy breakfast; in fact, at times it can be my favorite meal of the day. It's just that I'm often too lazy or unmotivated to make anything more complicated than a fried egg sandwich. Every so often I'll make something that takes a little more effort on the weekend, such as pancakes. Oddly enough though, pancakes do not seem to be my strong suite. Give me a boxed mix and I'm good to go, but making them from scratch? For some reason I have a tendency to under cook them, which leads to a mushy middle. Ask Sean, he can attest to my failed, but still tasty, attempts.

Fortunately enough, this recipe worked out well for me. In my own defence, I have one old school oven. Before moving into my apartment, I had never even seen something like my current oven. Rather than having a dial for the different temperatures, it has buttons. The buttons are: off, warm, low, 3, 2, and High. Huh? Well, see for yourself:

I understand if you're gaping in confusion at this picture. Perhaps a close-up will help clarify things.

So this is what I have to work with. I recognise that my inability to make a perfect pancake lies somewhat with me- but can you blame me when I'm working with this? The problem is that the ideal temperature lies somewhere in between 2 and 3, as 2 cooks the pancakes too fast and results in burning, and 3 goes way too slow. I end up flipping 2 on for half a minute before turning it back. And if you turn the oven on... that changes everything. As a result, everything burns much hotter. So number 3 can turn into 2 or even 1. And you better watch yourself- touch the top of the stove (not on the element unless it's off of course) when the oven is on, and you will burn yourself. It becomes outrageously hot and raises the temperature of my tiny apartment by several degrees. That also might have something to do with the fact that the door doesn't shut properly.

Anyways, now that I've whined about my inadequate appliances, I'll get back to the banana pancakes! These babies miraculously did turn out as hoped. They had a lovely banana flavour, and topped with sliced bananas and warm maple syrup they made a tasty and filling breakfast, that is what I like to think somewhat healthy! In the future I may even substitute half the flour for whole wheat flour, which is something I often do in breads or muffins.

Yield: about 10 pancakes
Ingredients:

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, plus additional for greasing the pan
1½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
2½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 small ripe banana, mashed
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
½ tsp. vanilla extract
Additional banana slices, for serving
Maple syrup, whipped cream, etc. for serving

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 150˚ F. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl; set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; whisk together to combine.
In a another bowl, combine the mashed banana, milk, eggs and vanilla and whisk to blend. Add the melted butter and the banana mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix gently with a rubber spatula until just blended (the batter will be slightly lumpy).

Heat a skillet or griddle over medium heat. Grease lightly with butter. Drop the batter in 1/3 cup portions onto the heated cooking surface. Cook until a few bubbles form in the top surface and the bottom is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Carefully flip the pancake over and cook on the remaining side until golden brown, 1-2 minutes more. Transfer finished pancakes to a plate in the warm oven while you use the remaining batter, re-greasing the pan as needed. Serve warm with maple syrup and sliced bananas as desired.

Source: Williams Sonoma

Pin It