Hummingbird Cake with Virgin Coconut Oil

I was recently given a copy of a recipe for Hummingbird Cake.   The person who gave it to me had baked the cake using coconut oil and it was okay. The next time, he used Lav Kokonas Organic Virgin Coconut Oil and could not believe the difference in the taste.

I made the cake this weekend – those who ate it agreed, it was devine!  I am unsure as to which cookbook this was published in, I suspect it might be from Robert Oliver’s Me’a Kai. I believe the recipe belongs to Maiki McKay; a well known personality in the fashion industry of New Zealand. However, I have added in a few specific ingredients that really made this cake special for my family.   I hope you enjoy it too.

 

 

Hummingbird Cake

2 cups self raising flour (I used plain high grade flour and added 2 tsp of baking powder)

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon Venui Ground Ginger

270g (1 ½ cups) brown sugar

440g (just under 2 cups) finely chopped fresh pineapple (I used the “gold” variety, a little sweeter than its counterparts)

50g (1/2 cup) shredded coconut

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

½ cup chopped pecan nuts

2 eggs, lightly beaten

250ml (1 cup) Lav Kokonas Virgin Coconut Oil

 

Preheat the oven to 170C.   Grease and line the base of two 23cm baking tins.

Sift the flour, baking soda (and baking powder if appropriate) and spices, into a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir well to combine. Spread into two oiled and lined baking tins and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre, comes out clean.

Place on a rack and set aside to cool.

 

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

250g tub cream cheese (I used the full cream variety – not “lite”)

125g unsalted butter (I used standard butter)

1 teaspoon Venui Vanilla Extract (I used Venui Vanilla Paste, so I could enjoy seeing the vanilla seeds)

Juice of 1 lemon (I used one kaffir lime and one lemon)

565g (3 ¾ cups) icing sugar

Garnish – toasted coconut if you wish

 

With cream cheese and butter at room temperature, bet with an electric beater then add Vanilla Extract (or Paste) and lemon juice and continue to beat until the mixture is fluffy.

Slowly add the icing sugar while beating until smooth.

Spread the top of one cake with the cream cheese icing.   Place the other cake on top, then spread cream cheese icing over the top and around the sides.   Decorate with toasted coconut if you like.

 

NOTE:

The Venui range of products we stock at Lav Kokonas are all Certified  Organic.   The Vanilla Extract is two-fold; meaning it is chef quality and  the volume required is around half of what you would use with other  brands; making it very economical.