Bad Cook, Better Baker

Hummingbird cake is truly the most underrated cake flavor and I will die on that hill.

To be fair, I guess my standards aren’t really that high–any vehicle to shovel in cream cheese frosting is all good in my book and this is one of the best. For anyone not familiar with hummingbird cake, think of it as the love-child of a banana bread and a carrot cake, but elevated. Little specks of pineapple sprinkled throughout provide a slightly sweet balance to the nuttiness of the banana bread and the pecans, all inlaid within a warm spice cake.

I love this recipe as is but I do want to test a few other elements just for fun to see if they add anything to the cake:

• crushing the toasted pecans into a coarse nut meal that goes into the batter as opposed to full pecan chunks which can be somewhat texturally unappealing (a note from Claire Saffitz’s Carrot Cake recipe)
• blending real pineapple chunks instead of using canned pineapple
• adding ground mahleb (a Greek/Armenian spice reminiscent of almond and cherry)

Seriously though, this recipe is perfect and Sally from Sally’s Baking is my queen. It’s an oil-based cake, so it stays moist for daaaays and honestly maybe even improves? Personally, I think this cake is better at room temperature versus chilled in the fridge, which is usually how my preference.

This cake always is a hit, especially the novelty of it. It’s perfect for every occasion! Birthdays, showers, holidays–it’s a perfect canvas for any decorating style, although I personally always love adding a touch of florals.

I’m a big fan of how the piping on this one turned out. I was actually trying to pipe rings of dollops around the whole cake but ran out of piping, so I had to improve and smooth out the middle. The pecan spiral just felt right, and voila–a new personal favorite cake design.

Okay, enough of that–the purpose of this post is really to share my whipped cream cheese frosting recipe, which I personally think is superior to others due to the following:

• Incorporating whipped cream lightens up the texture and makes it much lighter than a butter-based frosting, which pairs well with denser cakes (like carrot or hummingbird)
• Stabilized with a bit of pudding mix to make it a little more stable for piping designs
• Not too sweet! This recipe contains slightly less powdered sugar than most recipes and allows the tang to shine through

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING RECIPE

Makes enough to frost a 3-layer cake. Can be halved for a single layer cake.

INGREDIENTS

• 16 oz cream cheese (2 blocks), softened at room temperature
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream (150 g)
• 3 & 1/4 cup powdered sugar (405g), divided
• 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (can reduce to 1/8 tsp)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 TB instant pudding mix, vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Set out cream cheese at room temperature to soften (30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how warm your kitchen is).
2. Beat softened cream cheese in a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer until creamy, well-combined, and lump-free.
3. Add extracts and salt and mix until combined.
4. Gradually add 3 cups of powdered sugar (reserving a 1/4 C) into the cream cheese mixture, pulsing on low until combined.
5. Sprinkle 1 TB of instant pudding mix and mix on low until just combined.
6. In a separate bowl, whip heavy whipping cream with the remaining 1/4 cup of powdered sugar until medium peaks form.
7. Fold in whipping cream into cream cheese mixture with a spatula until mixtures are combined.

NOTES

• Use brick cream cheese, full-fat preferred. That being said, I have made this with 1/3 less fat and there’s not a hugely noticeable difference, except maybe in texture. No spreadable versions allowed, though.
• Make sure there are no lumps in the cream cheese before moving on to the next steps. If your cream cheese still has lumps, it usually means it wasn’t softened enough. You can wrap a dampened warm towel around the bowl while beating the cream cheese to help. I usually leave the cream cheese out at room temperature for around 1.5 – 2 hours to be safe.
• If your powdered sugar has lumps, I’d recommend sifting it just to ensure there are no lumps in the cream cheese frosting. Trust me, it’s incredibly annoying once there are lumps in the final product and frankly irreversible at that point. With the price of cream cheese these days, we can’t afford mishaps!
• I like using vanilla bean paste (Trader Joe’s has a great one) so that the vanilla specks are sprinkled throughout, which I think provides a nice aesthetic as well as flavor.