Hummingbird Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Dried Pineapple Flower
I made these Hummingbird cupcakes and Chocolate cupcakes (will be posted next) to give to a special friend. Her birthday is days different to her husband, so I thought that it would be nice to give them “His & Her” cupcakes.
I used Martha Steward recipe. Martha never fails me, at least until now. I trust hers because the cupcakes always turned soft, fluffy, and light. They are quick and easy to bake and always please the crowd.
The trickiest part is the pineapple flower. To slice the pineapple very thinly was the hardest part. I was struggling to get a full thin round cut. Using a very sharp knife would be a great help in this task. I think I got around 18 good slices out of a pineapple. Then to bake them at around 100 C, it took me more than 2 hours to get a tray of pineapple flower done in the oven, and there were 2 of them. It took me half day to get them done. I will try different approach next time I made them. Patting them with paper towel to drain the juices may speed up the baking process. I will update the post with my new attempt to conquer these pineapple flowers.
Ingredients for the cupcake
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart, for details click here
- 384 gr all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon (I didn’t use this)
- 1/2 tsp salt (I didn’t use this)
- 226 gr unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups sugar (I used 300 gr)
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 large)
- 1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained (I used 226 gr fresh pineapple, crushed)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used pecans)
- 1 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut (I used fresh grated coconut)
- Cream cheese frosting
- Dried pineapple flower
Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting
- 120 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 250 gr cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup of icing sugar
- 1 tbsp of vanilla essence
Instructions for the cupcake
- Preheat oven to 175 C. Line cupcake pan with paper liners; set aside.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, vanilla, and sugar until combined, about 2 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each before adding the next. Beat at medium speed until mixture is pale yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, stir together banana, pineapple, walnuts, and coconut. Add to egg mixture, mixing until combined.
- Stir in flour mixture.
- Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 28 minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cupcakes have cooled, frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with dried pineapple flowers, if desired.
- Serve at room temperature.
Instructions for the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Using a handheld mixer, softened cream cheese.
- Then add unsalted butter and vanilla essence.
- Add icing sugar a little at the time. You can stop when you achieve your consistency or the level of sweetness.
Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!
Hi Linda,
I’m sorry that I cannot comment on your cake since I’ve already bake my cake and I’m looking for the flower touch and I’ve found your lovely pineapple flower! They are very beautiful…and very practical! I googled “flower frost on cupcake” to find some idea for my Carrot Cake, thinking of yellow sunflower should be easy since I’ve never tried piping on the cake before, and your hummingbird cupcake picture has popped out of all those in google-images, perfect for the Carrot Cake since it has pineapple in the mix, … a lot better than the cream flower and a lot tastier! However, maybe you’ve found a way by now, but I think I’m going to try these: Slice, sandwich with kitchen towels and squeeze the juice out, lightly brush caramel or butter scotch, and leave to dry a bit in room-temp. and bake it later according to your recipe. I think another shortcut is finding young or the breed that has dense meat might help…. what do you think? I’ll let you know when it is done. Thanks again for your idea.
Charunya/Bangkok/Thailand
Ps. I have just gone through your blog quickly and I like it’s clean stylish pages and very nice photographing. And congratulates on your business…wonderful! I’ll visit again.
Hi Charunya,
Wow thank you for visiting and your suggestions. I think it is a great idea to sandwich them with the kitchen towel paper to dry them a little bit. I am afraid the pineapple flower will burned slightly or have a darker appearance because of the sugar contained in the caramel or butter scotch. But I am not sure. Please let me know the outcome, if you are going ahead with the idea.
Oh yeah another thing, I tasted the pineapple flower once they were ready, and they tasted sour, but they tasted so much better after refrigerated overnight in an airtight container.