Southern Humming Bird Bundt Cake

I've been meaning to try this recipe out for ages. I found it in a book of American recipes I got as a birthday gift a while back. It's been a traditional Southern cake since the 70s, and is basically a mash-up between banana bread and a carrot cake. But with pineapple instead of carrot... and some coconut. Oh, and cream cheese frosting. NOM. Easy to make, as over-beating or under-beating won't affect the crumb, and sifting isn't necessary. I will definitely make this again, I love it. However, it could use more coconut (but I'm obsessed with coconut). Recipe to follow.

 I used my Bundt tin because it doesn't get enough love. It's a huge big aluminium thing, cost a fortune but totally worth it. Cakes always come out completely evenly risen.

Hummingbird cake:


450g can of crushed pineapple
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup brown sugar (I used light Muscovado)
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup mashed banana (if they're really old and mushy, you might not want to use as much, the flavour can be over-powering)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 vegetable oil

• Preheat oven to 180C, grease a deep cake tin - 9-11 inch diameter
• Drain pineapple and save 1/4 cup of the syrup
• Sift dry ingredients together. Mix in pineapple, syrup, coconut, banana, egg and oil
• Mix until combined, then pour into pan
• Bake for around 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean

Cream cheese frosting:


30g softened butter
60g cream cheese 
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

• Beat together the butter and the cream cheese
• Add vanilla and slowly beat in the icing sugar, 1/2 cup at a time
• Do not over-beat the frosting - this will cause the frosting to go runny
• Frost fully-cooled cake