Fun cake ideas: sunflower hummingbird cake

Every day is a good day for cake, but this one's especially nice on less sunny days. Bring the sunshine into your kitchen with this sunflower hummingbird cake with cream cheese icing. Yum!

Things to gather for your fun cake:

• dark chocolate (for the flowers and little faces)
• white chocolate 
• turmeric powder (you’ll use white chocolate and turmeric to make your petals)

Hummingbird Cake Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup (250ml / 8.5 fl oz) neutral oil (canola, coconut or ricebran work well)
• 3/4 cup (150g / 5oz) caster sugar
• 1 227g / 8oz tin crushed pineapple
• 2 1/2 cups (375g / 13oz) flour
• 1/2 cup (50g / 1.8oz) coconut thread
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp salt

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C / 375°F / Gas Mark 4.
2. Mix all wet ingredients and sugar into one large bowl, and all dry ingredients together in another separate bowl.
3. Mix wet and dry ingredients together with a whisk until combined.
4. Pour into an 8" / 20cm cake tin with high sides and bake for around 75 minutes (or until skewer comes out clean and top of cake bounces back when touched).
5. Remove from oven once cooked. After 15 minutes, turn cake out of pan and leave to cool on a cooling rack. Trim the top of cake before icing, if you wish.

Cream Cheese Icing Ingredients:

• 1 stick (100g / 3.5oz) butter, softened
• 200g / 7oz cream cheese
• 2 cups (300g / 10.6oz) icing sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 75g / 2.6oz dark chocolate
• 100g / 3.5oz white chocolate
• 1/2–1 tsp turmeric powder (add gradually and more, as you need)

What to do:

1. In an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Cut cream cheese into small cubes and (with mixer running) add to butter one piece at a time. Once smooth and all cream cheese is incorporated, add icing sugar and, finally, lemon juice.
2. Set aside about 1/2 cup of icing. Spread remaining icing over cake and place in fridge to let icing firm up.
3. Melt white chocolate and mix with turmeric powder until you get a fun, sunshiney yellow. On a lined tray, place a small dot (about the size of a blueberry) and spread it out with a knife (to make a petal). Add more dots and spread them until you’ve filled the tray. We needed about 10–12 petals per flower. It’s a good idea not to make them too thin, as you don’t want them brittle when you’re ready to put them on the cake. Leave to harden.
4. Melt dark chocolate and add about 1 tsp to the reserved 1/2 cup of icing. Stir until smooth. Spoon teaspoonfuls onto the cake and spread out with the back of spoon or a knife to make 4–5 round faces. Place remaining dark chocolate into a small piping bag and pipe little faces onto the chocolate rounds.
5. Finally, poke your turmeric petals around each circle face to make a sweet sunflower.

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For more fun cake ideas, try our lemon cloud cake or yeah yeah marbled cake.

Our fun cake ideas was photographed and written by Rachel Savage for Lunch Lady Magazine Issue 26.