Gluten Free Hummingbird Cake Recipe (dairy free)
Gluten free Hummingbird cake recipe, anyone? It's also dairy free too. It's my go-to cake for friends and family and so easy to bake at home...
Ingredients
- 250g pecans
Dry mixture
- 370g gluten free plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp allspice
'Wet' mixture
- 220g tinned pineapple (drained and finely chopped)
- 200g light brown sugar
- 150g caster sugar
- 4 ripe bananas (mashed)
- 3 large eggs room temp
- 160ml vegetable oil
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
For the icing
- 150g dairy free spread room temp
- 340g dairy free cream cheese I use Tofutti (room temp)
- 750g - 850g icing sugar yes this seems a lot but it's a 3 tiered cake, & I prefer to have more than less!
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Firstly bake your pecans in the oven - spread on a baking sheet and place in the oven at 160C (fan) for 8 - 10 minutes. Once done, allow to cool and then break up into smaller pieces by hand.
- Prepare your tins. Grease and line 3 round cake tins with parchment paper.
- Preheat the oven to about 180C (fan).
- Mix together your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. So that's the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and allspice.
- In another separate bowl, whisk together the rest of your 'wet' ingredients (mashed banana, pineapple, eggs, oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla).
- Gradually pour your 'wet' ingredients into your dry mixture and whisk together until completely combined. (This is a lot of mixture so really ensure you get right down to the bottom of the bowl when mixing!)
- Fold in 170g of your pecan nut pieces into the cake mixture and save the rest until later.
- Evenly spoon the cake mixture into your 3 cake tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to completely cool, then remove from their tins.
- In the mean time, make your icing. Beat your dairy free spread until a little smooth and creamy.
- Add your dairy free cream cheese and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth again (you could use an electric hand mixer here).
- Gradually add your sifted icing sugar. I add around 200g at a time and mix it in. The cream cheese mixture will absorb all the icing sugar each time. Continue to add icing sugar until it's the right consistency for you (the icing will firm up once you have iced the cake and refrigerated it so it doesn't have to be really stiff).
- To assemble your gluten free Hummingbird Cake, place the first cake tier on your serving plate and spread with cream cheese icing. Sandwich the second cake tier and repeat with the icing. Finally sandwich your top tier for the triple layer!
- Spread the rest of the icing all over the top and sides of the cake with a palette knife until it's completely covered. (if it looks messy at first, don't worry - mine did!!
- Then, using an icing scraper (or just a palette knife with a long, straight edge) scrape off all the icing from the sides until it looks like it does in the photos. Use your palette knife to evenly spread a thin layer of icing on top.
- Sprinkle your leftover pecan nut pieces on top to decorate.
- I like to chill a little before serving to help the icing set, but then it's ready to serve, enjoy!
Notes
If you can eat dairy, you could use regular cream cheese and butter in the icing instead.