Cupcake Confessional 005

Hummingbird Cakes

I recently got a cupcake cook book to toy with from time to time.
It's called 500 Cupcakes: The Only Cupcake Compendium You'll Ever Need by Fergal Connolly.

It's loaded with recipes for simple flavors, gourmet creations, and even muffin recipes for breakfast and dinner. It seemed like a fun book to put in the kitchen and it had a few cool ideas I wanted to try. Like fun flavored cupcakes with pop rocks candy mixed in the icing! I thought that was awesome to put in icing~Selling point on the book for me...sad but true. Everyone remembers pop rocks from childhood. That hard rock candy that's crushed in that little flavor pouch. They come in strawberry, grape and watermelon. When you put them in your mouth they pop and fizz. Coolest candy ever, except for Fun Dip and pixie stix of course.


I was browsing around Martha Stewart.com a few weeks ago because I'm a big loser and this is sometimes what I do with my spare time. I noticed a video with Martha and my favorite Food Network cook Paula Deen. "And listen to this Ya'll!..." (that was meant to read in a Paula Deen accent), The video was about Hummingbird Cake mainly an instructional video on how to stack cake layers using wooden dowels. After watching this video the recipe sounded so good to me I wanted to try making it myself. I went out and bought all the ingredients but then I got sick last weekend and I ended up spending a day or two trying not to think of food all together!



I made the hummingbird cupcakes and after they were done I took that big happy bite. After cooking for like 45 minutes you tend to put all of this faith in what you're making, I mean you know its going to taste great...you just know it. Unfortunately for me and my sad messy kitchen the Hummingbird Cake did not turn out to be one of my favorites. It was my first time ever tasting this flavor of cake so I can't really judge it but on my score card they ranked 4 out of 10. Ten being the highest and best ranking. They reminded me of carrot cake but with a little bit more texture. With adding banana, orange zest, shredded carrot, shredded coconut, and crushed pineapple to the batter the cake is filled with fruity goodness. All of that does give the cake huge flavor and it is really yummy. I guess it is not your traditional light and fluffy cupcake. Its chunky and hearty and a bit stringy with the coconut. I kept thinking it would be great with tea or some Starbucks like a coffee cake. The icing was the part I loved the most. It was an orange marmalade butter cream. So great. It made the flavor pop. I will definitely pair up the marmalade icing recipe with a different cake flavor. Maybe use it as a filling actually with vanilla cake and vanilla icing. Bam! The Creamcicle Cupcake has been born! Think about it! eh.

I'll post the hummingbird cake recipe on here soon so you might try it! Beware it is just like carrot cake, so you better damned well love carrot cake or you're gonna hate this recipe. Just making sure you know that so we don't have any unnecessary upsets.

Recipe from 500 Cupcakes Book:

Hummingbird Cupcakes with Marmalade Frosting

The hummingbird cake is a classic recipe from the American South.

For the Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup safflower oil (I used Vegetable Oil)
2 eggs
1/2 cup (2 medium) mashed bananas
1 1/2 tbsp. grated orange zest
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup (1 oz.) flaked coconut

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp. orange marmalade

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 12 baking cups in a muffin pan. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. In a large bowl cream the sugar and oil with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs slowly, then stir in the dry ingredients in 3 batches. Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir until combined. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool on a rack. To make the frosting, beat the butter in a medium bowl. Add the remaining ingredients. Smear the frosting onto the cupcakes. Store unfrosted in an air tight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Enjoy.


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