Yesterday was one of those fab days that you look forward to and then it turns out even better than you had hoped. I had two of my best friends over, Valerie and Lynette, I have known these lovely ladies for many years, far to many to state as it would give away just how old I really am ! It was a great opportunity to catch up, laugh a lot and test this Hummingbird Style Cake. Testing recipes on friends and family is always very important, their feedback always goes along way to wether a recipe will make it to the blog or not, even if they don’t like it and I do, it helps to comment on this in a post as it may give the reader an idea of who the recipe is suitable for and if they themselves may or may not like it.
On May 10th 2015 my blog turned 5 years old, with nearly 400 recipes posted and that doesn’t include the 100’s that did’t make it, thats a lot of testing by family and friends, I would just like to say here that they were all willing participants and no testers were harmed in the making of this blog. Ok, so a few may of gained a few pounds, but hey, its all in the line of duty.
Sadly I missed this monumental moment this year and completely overlooked doing a very special cake and post for this occasion. This does make me rather sad, but life has been extremely busy with the move, the business and other huge life events (which I am sure will be told with a story of food in the future).
However, never to let a moment and occasion like this pass Hubby and I have been looking over Gelsomina’s Cucina, reminiscing and feeling a little overwhelmed at just how far it has come. There have been many changes and with that many improvements, but we felt now was the perfect time for a complete make over and have brought the site bang up to date with a huge birthday makeover. It is now fresh, modern and very classy, even if I do say so myself.
I have also joined Foodies100, a directory of brilliant UK food and drink blogs and bloggers. Every month, they rank all the blogs in their community using a unique scoring algorithm that reflects a blog’s popularity, influence and engagement. Its a great place to promote the blog, and discover other great blogs. Its all very exciting and I hope to make it into the best food blog charts, all very exciting times, lots of changes but change is good.
Well thats my news, I had better tell you a little about this cake, its moist, full of texture and has a gorgeous sweet frosting and its delicious, so delicious that Luca ate a bowl just of the frosting! It is extremely simple to make and is a really lovely full of goodness cake, a perfect cake for anytime of the year but great in the autumn when you don’t have the choice of lovely fresh berries but still want a cake packed with fruit but without the heaviness of a fruit cake.
So I hope that you have enjoyed this recipe and I hope that you have enjoyed the last 5 years of the blog and that just leaves me with one thing to say… HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY GELSOMINA’S CUCINA , heres to many more years of baking, cooking, testing and blogging.
Buon appetito
PS : A huge thank you to all my readers, supporters, tasters, Geek support, Friends and Family, I am just so pleased that you have all enjoyed Gelsomina’s Cucina as much as I have.
2 ½ cups self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup oil (I used rapeseed oil, but any low odour/taste oil would do)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups caster sugar (I used golden as I always do)
3 eggs
3 large, ripe bananas, mashed
439 can crushed pineapple, drained (liquid reserved)
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup slivered almonds
Cream Cheese frosting
100g soft cream cheese
25g soft butter
5 cups icing sugar (I know, but trust me, it works)
¼ cup coconut cream
zest of 1 lime
Reserved pineapple juice
1/4 cup toasted shaved coconut.
1 cup passion fruit curd or lemon curd.
Edible flowers to decorate
Line the sides and base of a 26cm, removeable-base baking tin with baking paper and pre-heat the oven to 170˚C (335˚F).
Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl, making a large well in the centre.
In a food processor whiz oil, vanilla, caster sugar, eggs, bananas, pineapple, coconut and almonds until well blended. Pour into dry ingredients and fold together.
Pour into prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin then remove and halve.
Mix all frosting ingredients together just until smooth – if you would like the frosting a little softer add pineapple juice a tablespoon at a time until your desired consistency is a achieved. I added a couple as I found that it was to stiff to spread.
Spread curd onto base layer of the cake. Spoon on 1/3 of the icing and spread out. Top with remaining cake half and cover with remaining icing. Sprinkle with coconut shavings and edible flowers to serve.
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