Gluten free hummingbird cake

Here’s a rather fabulous recipe for an extremely delicious gluten free hummingbird cake.

I was inspired to rustle up this gluten free hummingbird cake, after chatting all things cake, with my friend Emma the other night. Emma said her cake of choice, would be a hummingbird cake. After delving deeper, and discovering all the lovely things that go into this truly yummy, gently spiced, soft cake, topped with velvety cream cheese frosting, I was sold, and just HAD to make one!

The original hummingbird cake recipe I used is by Esther Clark and features on the Good Food website. I simply switched the flour to gluten free and reduced the amount of sugar and honey that was suggested. I also added the finely grated orange zest to the cream cheese frosting, with LOVELY results!

Whilst there are quite a few ingredients to gather up for this recipe, don’t be put off, as the method is nice and simple, and the cake looks so impressive when it’s assembled. I was SO thrilled with my finished cake, that when Neil came home from work, I greeted him with “my cake’s a showstopper”!!

Ingredients

For the cake
220ml vegetable oil
300g gluten free self-raising flour (add ¼ teaspoon of xanthan gum if your flour doesnt already include this or guar gum)
½ teaspoon gluten free baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
250g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon *cinnamon powder
2 cardamon pods, seeds removed and finely crushed (discard the outer pod)
Roughly ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg (*ground nutmeg would be fine instead)
2 medium sized ripe bananas
3 large eggs
150g pineapple chunks, either from a tin that’s been drained or fresh
80g *pecans, finely chopped

For the cream cheese frosting
200g *full fat soft cheese
150g unsalted butter, softened
60g runny honey
80g *icing sugar, sifted
Finely grated zest of 1 orange

To finish
40g *pecans, lightly toasted, (either under the grill or roasted in a hot oven) cooled and roughly chopped

Method 

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4/160C Fan.

Lightly grease and line the base of two (loose bottom, if you have them) 18cm round cake tins. The original recipe does suggest 20cm tins, so if that’s what you have on hand that’s great!

Blitz the pineapple with either a stick blender or liquidiser. If you don’t have either of these, then just chop the chunks as small as you can. Once done, set to one side.

Sift the gluten free flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt, golden caster sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and crushed cardamon seeds. Stir with a fork to blend.

In another good sized bowl, mash the bananas well, before adding the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Next, pour in the oil and then using a balloon whisk, whisk until everything is nicely blended.

Pour this wet mixture into the bowl that has the flour and other bits and bobs in and stir well until the mixture is nice and smooth. Add the pineapple and chopped pecans and stir through to evenly combine.

Divide the mixture between the prepared tins. To ensure an even bake, I filled and weighed each tin to ensure I’d divided the mixture evenly.

Bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes, or until when you insert a skewer into the centre it comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the oven, and leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin before turning them out onto a cooling rack. I like to turn my cakes out upside down, as I read somewhere that this improves the texture.

Whilst the cake is cooling, it’s a good time to make the cream cheese frosting. Place the butter into a large mixing bowl. If necessary, beat the butter to soften, before then adding all the other ingredients for the frosting to the bowl (I didn’t soften my butter as I should have, so then ended up having to mix the frosting for a long time to ensure it was lump free). Stir to combine everything together, before whisking with an electric hand whisk until the icing is deliciously smooth.

Cover and pop the frosting into the fridge for 30 minutes.

To assemble the cake once it’s cold, place one of the sponge layers onto a plate and spoon over just under half of the frosting. Using a spatula or palette knife, smooth out to not quite the edge of the cake.

Place the other sponge layer on top and then pile on the remaining frosting and smooth out as before.

Once your happy with how it looks, sprinkle over the toasted pecan nuts.

You can of course cut into the cake and enjoy immediately or you may like to pop it into the fridge for a half an hour or so to firm the frosting up a little.

Recipe notes and suggestions:

Thanks to the extremely yummy cream cheese frosting, this hummingbird cake needs to be stored in the fridge for safe keeping.

If using gluten free plain/all purpose flour instead of self-raising, then add 1 level teaspoon of gluten free baking powder and ¼ teaspoon of xanthan gum, if this or guar gum is not already in the flour.

The original recipe suggests decorating the cake with edible flowers and dried pineapple rings, which on the original recipe looks lovely! I didn’t have the time to grab these, but certainly will consider when making again.

I think this recipe would work splendidly in cupcake version. Especially decorated with edible flowers. Should you wish to make cupcakes instead, reduce the baking time accordingly. I’m thinking 20 minutes should do the trick!

For accuracy I’ve just confirmed measurements as per original recipe, except where I’ve made my own adjustments.

It’s been great sharing with you how I rustled up this delicious gluten free hummingbird cake. Don’t forget, if you get around to making it, let me me know how it goes in the comments below. Encouraging comments don’t half tempt others to give recipes a go!

Finally credit and thanks to Esther Clark for the original recipe that I worked with. It’s an absolute cracker!

For now,
Liz x

P.S. I took the majority of step by step pictures for this recipe on my camera. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to download them to my laptop. So for now I can only offer you the pictures I took on my phone Hoping to update the recipe with the pictures I intended to share ASAP.

*Check this product to ensure that there are no gluten containing ingredients, ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ for a coeliac/gluten free diet warnings on the pack.