07 April 2010

Happy Spring!

My first Hummingbird Cake!
I've been wanting to do this recipe for ages, and finally decided to go for it for a very special person born on the first day of spring. It is a banana-pineapple-coconut-pecan cake with cream cheese frosting.
And no, those are not fungi growing on top, as my roommate supposed, but actually homemade dried pineapple slices!  Really elegant and really quite easy. Just trim a pineapple and dig out the prickly parts, slice it thin and bake on a parchment paper lined pan for about a half hour at 225 F and flip over for another half hour. It depends on the thickness, mine took closer to an hour per side, but well worth it.
6" cake double layered, I really like making this size of cake. I think part of it is that I don't like to surprise people with a big 10"er because that's far too much cake without a party, 6" is still more than enough. But mainly, I think cakes are cute at this size. I'm thinking about cutting the layers in half next time and making it four layers, probably with a red velvet for Josh's birthday. Shh... he doesn't read this :)
With the left-over batter I made cupcakes, which decidedly divine by all who got a taste.