Banana pineapple and ginger cake
Banana, pineapple and ginger cake
In my working life I was a cook for a catering company. The kitchen staff cooked breakfast and lunch for our little shop front cafe, but the majority of our work was for high end corporate clients. It was demanding work that required an eye for detail, high energy and long hours.
One of my favourite jobs was baking the cakes for the cafe’s coffee crowd. As well as being delicious and gorgeous to look at, it was important that on a slow week the cakes kept well, because sales equal profit, waste equals loss. Because cakes with fruit or vegetables on their ingredient list are inherently moist they featured prominently in our cake display, but it was never just plain old banana cake, but Hummingbird Cake with both banana and pineapple.
I’ve converted the original recipe so it’s gluten free, swapped the canned pineapple for fresh and reduced the sugar content. I also added chopped crystallised ginger to reinforce the fruity tropical flavours.
I would have baked a large round cake for the cafe, topped it with a thick layer of whipped and sweetened cream cheese and artistically decorated it with dried pineapple slices and crushed banana chips, but with no-one to impress but myself, I chose a simple scatter of sliced almonds as the cake’s crowning glory. Making cup cakes is my way of controlling portion size and minimising weight gain
This is a wonderful stay fresh recipe that just gets better as the days pass.
Banana, Pineapple and Ginger Cake
1 cup almond meal
1 cup GF Plain flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
1 cup neutral oil ( I used liquid coconut oil )
3 bananas, roughly mashed
225g fresh ripe pineapple, finely chopped in the food processor
1/2 cup crystallised ginger, roughly chopped
1/2 cup flaked almonds
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 25cm cake pan with baking paper. Alternatively line 18 deep cup cake moulds with paper cases.
Put the dry ingredients into a large bowl and use a wire whisk to incorporate them thoroughly.
In a second bowl whisk together the wet ingredients until thoroughly emulsified.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet mixture and add the chopped ginger.
Lightly fold the mixtures together.
Fill the paper cases almost to the top, scatter over some pieces of flaked almond then bake until puffed, golden and firm to the touch, 20 – 25 minutes. A large cake will take about 1 hour.
Remove the cakes from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight container.
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21 comments on “Banana pineapple and ginger cake”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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Such pretties 😍😍😍 ginger would incorporate such a warm and fuzzy feel 💛
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Thanks it’s a scrumptious flavour combo
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Just lovely. A recipe for when I return.
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Well, Sandra, I do hope you take as a compliment that you are the only one posting in the ether where I read a recipe and say ‘ooh, must try this’ not being a baker a’tall, a’tall 🙂 ! SO interesting!!
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Thanks Eha, it is a compliment indeed. I think it’s gone a bit quiet in WP land
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Methinks everyone is having ‘instant connections’ on Facebook . . . and Instagram and . . . a little difficult time wise if one works fulltime !!
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Very yummy and tasty recipe
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Thanks, glad you think so
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This sounds yummy!
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Great with a nice hot cuppa
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Yum, I can’t wait to give it a go.
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I’d love to hear how it goes 😀
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I’ll let you know. I’m going to try it at the weekend.
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Hummingbird cake is something I discovered last year or so. This looks delicious. I love the addition of ginger. It was one of my kids’ first favorite flavors.
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Crazy name, beautiful cake. The ginger works beautifully with the fruit, enjoy the variatiob
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Hummingbird Cake is one of my favourites, and I used to make mine with a passionfruit curd and cream cheese topping. This one, with less sugar and a bit of bite from the ginger, sounds much more my current cup of tea!
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It’s amazing how our tastes change as we age don’t you think. I used to loathe ginger, now I look for ways to include it.
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I did, and do have a sweet tooth, but since removing most of the added sugar from my diet over the past 6 months, my taste preferences have changed a lot. I find so many things too sweet these days, and find myself craving hot/spicy and tangy things far more.
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That explains why you are such a good cook and why things are styled so nicely in your photos! I love hummingbird cake and if I was eating grains I would try yours… but a girl can dream! x
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Haha, I thought everyone knew. Sweet dreams Ardys….
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