Vegan Hummingbird Cake Recipe

vegan hummingbird cake

There’s still a huge pile of pictures from our trip to Playa del Carmen to go through. I looked at it earlier and it hurt my brain trying to think about how to divide up the posts so I decided to break things up a bit by posting my vegan hummingbird cake recipe.

Yep, this is the vegan hummingbird cake we had at Dough. It was one of our most popular items. It was not possible to make enough of these. They just flew out of the case.

Personally, I’m more of a chocolate fan, but there’s definitely something alluring about the banana, walnut and pineapple mixture. And it’s a perfect flavor mix for Summer gatherings. Just keep it refrigerated until you serve it. The frosting does not hold up in the heat very well.

Vegan Hummingbird Cake Recipe

3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
3 flax eggs (3 tablespoons of ground flax seed mixed with 6 tablespoons of warm water)
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
3 banana, mashed
¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with oil and line with parchment if you have it. In the bowl of your stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, combine ingredients through the sugar.

Mix together the remaining ingredients except for the nuts in a medium bowl and then combine with the dry.

Mix thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.

Divide the batter between the two cake pans.

Bake approximately 30 minutes at 350F or until the center of each cake is done. Let cool completely before frosting. It’ll frost better if you wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight before you frost it.

Vegan Hummingbird Cake Frosting

1 pound vegan cream cheese (we used Tofutti)
1/3 cup crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy
4 teaspoons arrowroot powder
2 teaspoons instant clearjel (optional, but helps firm up frosting)
1 cup or so of walnuts or pecans, chopped fine

Whisk arrowroot powder and instant clearjel (if using) into powdered sugar.

Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar together until smooth in a stand mixer.

Add remaining ingredients except for nuts and continue mixing until blended.

To finish cake

If cakes domed in the center, level with a serrated knife. Then eat those tasty snax.

Place a cake layer on a cake plate, cut side down if leveled. Spread frosting on top of layer. Sprinkle with nuts if you like.

Put second layer on top of first, again, cut side down. Spread frosting over top of cake then sides. Top should be thicker than sides. On the sides, don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Press chopped nuts all around the sides. Refrigerate until served.

Protip: there’s no reason to suffer crappy bakeware. We used Fat Daddio’s cake pans at the bakery. They don’t really cost more than the crappy ones usually sold to home bakers, they just last longer and work better.

If you have a restaurant supply that sells to the public, that’s where you want to go locally to get bakeware. We have one called Atlanta Fixture here. Seriously, professional quality tools that cost less. Check it out.

Would you have any interest in an ebook of vegan baking recipes? Drop a comment and I’ll contact you if I do one!

Note, I do use affiliate links on the site occasionally. The coinage goes towards B12 and vegan protein powder. Because vegans will go extinct without protein powder.

Pre-birthday Zebra Cake

Oh, look, we’re having another Game of Thrones cookout. Not a damn thing wrong with that. Since it was the day before Kevin’s birthday, I whipped out a cake for dessert. But not just any cake, a zebra cake! You won’t believe how easy it is to do. Just use your favorite vegan vanilla and chocolate cake batters and follow these instructions for pouring them in the pans.

Here are mine ready to bake.

All frosted up in chocolate.

And look at the insides!

Now I want to do them with all kinds of colors. Imagine a rainbow!

We didn’t just have dessert. There was real food too. This time I had a hot dog with home made cheezy sauce, avocado, pickles and who knows what else, tots and mac & cheeze.

We might’ve been lacking a bit of vegetable this time around. But we got over it.

ATL Vegan Drinks at Urban pL8

April’s ATL Vegan Drinks was at Urban pL8 and Kevin made it back in town just in time for us to bust it over there. Since we didn’t make a reservation, I didn’t want to steal slots at the allotted table, so we sat separately with the Gunns.

It’s Friday, let’s start of with a Manhattan.

They had a special menu for ATL Vegan Drinks and they also have a couple of vegan or veganizable items on their regular menu. I had the roasted beet sandwich because I like them and Kevin doesn’t so I don’t cook them much at home.

It was a very nice sandwich, but the real star was the Sunflower Seed Crusted Tofu on a squash purée. It totally needs to be on the regular menu.

We also got a side of kale and shared it. They also have kale chips.

Of course I saved room for dessert. This is what they call a paleo chocolate cake. I didn’t pay attention to what was in it but it seemed like dates, nut flour and coconut were involved. It was almost like a raw dessert. Keep that in mind if you ever see it on the menu. Just so you’re not expecting a regular cake. But don’t discount it. It was really good.

 

Lunch at Cafe Life

If we’re hungry and we’re up by Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe, we sometimes grab a bite at Cafe Life. It can be hit or miss and not entirely consistent, but I don’t think we’ve ever had bad food there. They’ve just updated their menu and are offering a weekend brunch. But we just got some sammiches. I got the “crab” cake. It was good but could’ve used something to up the crabbiness. Maybe Old Bay.

Kevin got the burger. That’s one item that’s been fairly consistent. They use beets in it so keep that in mind if you hate them. We both got sweet potato salad as a side.

Oh, how did this peanut butter chocolate cake get here? Their baked goods tend to use whole grains and I think this cake was even gluten free. You could hardly tell though. It was moist and not gritty at all.

Cakeapalooza potluck

 

The theme for this month’s Atlanta Vegan Lunch Group‘s potluck was Cakeapalooza in honor of Lisa‘s Birthday. It wasn’t all cake though. We made a pretty good well-rounded meal out of it. We brought zucchini frittata. A double recipe fills a half sheet pan like so.

 

And we also brought a lentil potato salad.

Note, if you’re going to mix lentil sizes, start the bigger ones cooking before adding the smaller ones. My small ones got a little mushy. But they ate just fine.

My plate full of tasty bits:

 

How adorable are these cupcakes? They came from a bakery we didn’t know existed.

 

Dessert plate!