Today we will learn how to cook an amazing dessert from the Western hemisphere - the Hummingbird cake. Jamie Oliver, known to many for his TV show “The Naked Cook,” kindly provided the recipe. We ask everyone who wants to amaze their families with an original and amazingly tasty innovation for tea to join the reading of our publication.
What is this cake famous for?
The dessert presented is noteworthy in that it won an award at the Kentucky State Fair in 1978. A little earlier, from the middle of the 19th century, the Hummingbird cake was a huge success in the countries of South America. In the year of recognition at the fair, the dessert recipe was published in one of the magazines in the USA and immediately made a splash on American citizens. Since then, dessert has not lost its position in the countries of the Western Hemisphere; moreover, it has migrated to the tables in European families.
Features
Of course, having a rich history, the Hummingbird cake, the recipe of which we will provide a little lower, could not fail to undergo all sorts of changes. Many housewives, honing their skills, try to cook various creams for this dessert. However, the classic things, which are not undergoing modifications, nevertheless remained. As a nut supplement, quite fat pecans are traditionally used, as a fruit component - banana puree and chopped pineapple.
Hummingbird cake will appeal to all those who do not like dry sponge cake, because in this dish there is even more fruit than the dough itself. The original cake is two-layer, someone is used to making 3 or even more layers. Americans use cream cheese as a glaze. Jamie Oliver interpreted the composition of the glaze a little, making his culinary masterpiece even tastier.
What does the British master think of the dish?
The “Naked Cook” often shares his thoughts and comments about this or that dish. What thoughts does the Hummingbird cake inspire the master? Jamie reviews say that an unusual dish exudes an amazing aroma. One has only to cut the first piece, a smile will surely appear on the face. But when a piece of delicious pastries is in the mouth, a person realizes that here it is - the true perfection of taste.
Hummingbird cake: recipe with photo. Baking composition
From these ingredients should be 14 servings. Here is a complete list of products that will be needed for the test:
- pancake flour - 350 g;
- overripe bananas - 4 pieces;
- olive oil - 250 ml;
- ground cinnamon - 1 teaspoon;
- perfect chicken egg - 2 pieces;
- canned pineapples - 1 can (425 ml);
- pecans - 50 g;
- powdered sugar - 350 grams;
- vanillin - 1 teaspoon;
- sea salt - 1 large pinch.
Please note that to lubricate the form you will need some more olive oil. Choose bananas of medium size. We also note that a product such as pancake flour has the ability to rise. Now let's move on to the ingredients for the icing to decorate the Hummingbird cake. We need:
- butter (unsalted) - 150 grams;
- powdered sugar - 400 grams;
- lime - 2 pieces;
- cream cheese - 200 grams.
Glaze oil should be at room temperature. Well, to decorate the cake, we will need some more components:
- pecans - 50 grams;
- icing sugar - 100 grams.
As you can see, the recipe completely lacks granulated sugar and ordinary wheat flour. Well, the products are prepared, it's time to do the cooking. Perhaps someone is already looking forward to an unusual and original taste.
Cooking method
First we’ll preheat the oven, where in a few minutes the Hummingbird cake will go. Jamie Oliver claims that the dish will not cause any difficulties for amateur chefs on the way to sending to the oven. By the way, the oven must be heated up to 180 degrees, no more. Prepare 2 baking dishes with a diameter of 23 cm, soak parchment paper with olive oil and cover both containers.
Cooking the dough. Pancake flour should be sifted through a sieve along with cinnamon. Now add powdered sugar and sea salt to the flour . In a separate bowl, peel the ripe bananas and crush them with a fork until smooth. Canned pineapples need to be drained and cut into slices as finely as possible.
By the way, you can add fresh pineapples to the Hummingbird cake, the recipe of which we are now mastering.
Sliced pineapples are sent to a bowl of banana puree in a bowl, and then add olive oil, eggs and vanilla to the same container. Mix the fruit component of the dish. Now it is time to combine the dry mix and fruits, as well as add chopped pecans to the composition. The kernels lend themselves well to slicing with a knife, but you can use the good old proven way of crushing nuts with a rolling pin.
Baking
As you can see, the dough is preparing very quickly and we did not even need a mixer. It remains to pour the dough evenly over the tins and send the Hummingbird cake to the oven for 35-40 minutes. After the cakes are removed from the oven, separate the side surfaces of the baking dish from the mold using the blunt side of the knife, however, do not remove the contents until 10 minutes have passed. After the indicated time, the baked cakes are slightly cooled and can no longer settle. Accordingly, the appearance of the cake will be on top.
Hummingbird Cake: a recipe from Jamie Oliver. Glaze preparation
And now you need a mixer. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl, add soft butter and beat in a lush foam. Now put cream cheese in a bowl. With limes, you need to do the following: with one using a fine grater, remove the zest, cut the other in half and squeeze the juice. After the cheese, send only the juice, leave the zest for decoration. Stir the resulting composition with a whisk, but do not whisk. What further advises Jeremy Oliver? The Hummingbird cake has 3 stages of preparation. Now you need to start preparing nuts decorations, and the icing should be temporarily removed in the refrigerator.
Baking decoration
Take a non-stick pan, put icing sugar in it, add a tablespoon of water to the container. Do not turn on a strong fire, the composition will in any case reach a boil in a couple of minutes. Do not use a stirring spoon, just rotate the pan and the powder will dissolve itself. Now add nuts to the pan, and finally another pinch of sea salt. Take the parchment sheet, put the contents of the pan there. When the composition has cooled pecans can be detailed.
Assembly process
Collect immediately on the serving platter. Put one of the cooled cakes there and coat with a piece of glaze. Then lay on top of the glaze and the second cake. Lubricate the top of the baking dish. Now the turn has reached the finely grated zest - decorate the surface of the cake with it, then lay out the cooled pecans. But that is not all. Ideally, such a dessert is decorated with edible flowers: thyme, violets, sage, cucumber grass. It turns out amazingly beautiful!
If you follow the figure, then the following information will be useful to you. Hummingbird cake (recipe from Jamie Oliver) is quite high-calorie. The “king" among the ingredients used (in addition to butter) is pecans - a regular of various delicious desserts. So, one piece of goodies contains 684 kcal. However, such an amazing dessert is really worthy of each of us to try this piece at least once in our lives.
Cream glaze cooking options
There are options for the preparation of glaze, however, the characteristic acidity should invariably be maintained. Another time, for comparison, you can prepare the glaze from the following components:
- sour cream 30% fat - 300 g;
- cream cheese - 350 g;
- lemon - 2 pieces;
- powdered sugar - 2 glasses;
- cognac - 100 ml.
Use lemons in the same way as lime was used in the recipe from Jeremy: remove zest from one of them and squeeze juice from the other. Important: in this method, half of the citrus juice is mixed with cognac exclusively for impregnation. The remaining glaze ingredients are whipped with a mixer. In this case, the edges of the product are also smeared with glaze.
Cooking Options
There are also other ways to decorate the cake. As the ingredients used:
- pecans - 1 cup without a hill;
- honey - 2 tablespoons;
- cinnamon - ½ teaspoon;
- vanilla sugar - 2 tablespoons.
In this case, caramel is cooked from honey, cinnamon and vanilla, in which each nut kernel is dipped, and then laid out on a cake. There are also options where crushed pecans cover the sides of the baking dish and leave the top unadorned. Have a nice tea party!