So I’ve been taking a little break from baking lately because I’ve been very busy trying to finish up my final few months of my Masters program. The end is near!  But, I got some really cute cupcake liners for Easter so I knew I needed to make some cupcakes ASAP.  Cupcakes and cakes, for that matter, seem like such a celebration type treat, so I don’t make them on a regular basis. Recently, I’ve seen Paula Deen make hummingbird cake a couple times, and I’ve seen it in various other places, but since I’ve never baked or eaten it, I thought I would give it a try.

Hummingbird cake seems to be a southern thing.  Based on the ingredients and the final product, I would say it’s in the same family as carrot cake and banana bread. It’s almost like an easier version of carrot cake because you don’t have to grate the carrots.  The other great thing about it is that they typical frosting choice is cream cheese.  Yum.

So I looked around at various recipes, and based on mainly ingredient choices I settled on a recipe from Bake or Break.  This blog has an endless amount of delicious baked goods. They always seem decadent, but refined. They’re not wrapping cookie dough around Oreos.  These people are real deal.

Anywho, the cupcakes turned out great!  They’re definitely a great way to mix up your cake repertoire!

Hummingbird Cupcakes

Yields supposedly 36, I got closer to 30, from Bake or Break

Ingredients

Cake

• 3 cups  flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 cups chopped bananas
• chopped pecans or sanding sugar, for garnish

Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 16 oz. powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350, and get the cupcake pans ready with the liners.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. Add the eggs, oil and stir until mixture is uniform. Then add the vanilla, pineapple, banana, and pecans and mix until everything is relatively well distributed.
4. Use an ice cream scoop or spoon to distribute batter into cupcake trays.  Each cupcake should be about 2/3’s full of batter.
5. Bake about 25 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before you put the frosting on top!
6. To make frosting cream together the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer.  Once this mixture is light and fluffy, add the vanilla and the powdered sugar (add the sugar gradually).  Mix until frosting is uniform and fluffy.  Refrigerate for a few minutes before you put it on the cooled cupcakes.