Healthy Hummingbird Cake

I am a BIG fan of Hummingbird cake, so as always, I set out to tweak the original recipe to try to make a healthier version. This one def hit the spot! I made this for myself for Mother’s Day & my birthday - anyone else make their own birthday cakes?!?! Haha. 

Ingredients

• 275 grams almond meal – 2 and 3/4 cups
• 90 grams arrowroot flour – 3/4 cup
• 40 grams desiccated coconut – 1/2 cup
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 2 medium bananas soft and overripe
• 440 grams crushed pineapple, canned, in juice
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut oil melted
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup walnuts chopped or roughly crumbled

Frosting

• 250 grams cream cheese
• ½ cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tbsp coconut oil melted
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a cake tin with baking paper on the base and along the sides. 
2. Place bananas, eggs, coconut oil, honey and vanilla in a blender or food processor jug. Blend together to form a smooth liquid.
3. Add in the almond meal, arrowroot flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until combined
4. Add the crushed pineapple with juice, coconut and walnuts to the cake mixture & gently mix until combined.
5. Pour mixture into the cake tin and smooth the top out evenly. Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes or until the top of the cake has turned golden brown, feels firm (but still slightly spongy) in the centre and is starting to crack on the surface. Remove and allow to cool, ideally on a wire rack. 
6. While the cake is cooling, make the frosting. Blend together cream cheese, maple syrup, coconut oil and lemon juice and place in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. Make sure the cake has cooled to room temperature before icing the cake.

Approved diets: gluten-free

Chris & Filipa Bellette are the Founders of multi award-winning health practice Chris & Filly Functional Medicine, which is best known for ending body burnout (for good!) in “busy” people with energy, mood and gut issues. They have worked with over 2,000+ burned-out clients in the past combined 25+ years, with their own passion for ending body burnout coming from their own personal experience of body, mind, family & business breakdown, after a prolonged period of physical and mental stress.

Filipa is an accredited Clinical Nutritionist, Functional Medicine Practitioner, Coach & Trauma Therapist. She is also a Ph.D. Scholar, author & regularly featured the media, such as Forbes, Body+Soul and The Daily Telegraph. Chris is a Burnout Recovery Coach & an accredited Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) Master Practitioner, with a Bachelor of Human Movement Science. He has existed in high-performance realms of the sporting (think national athlete) & business industries and knows what it takes to get out of hustle-and-grind culture to thriving. 

They were recently awarded as the Tasmanian State Winner & National Finalist for the Telstra Best of Business Awards 2022, and Winner of the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards 2022.