Classic Hummingbird Cake with Pineapple Flowers and Hummingbird Cookies

For the pineapple flowers cut off the bottom and top of the pineapple so that it can stand on the cutting board. Then slice off the skin, also removing the "eyes". Cut half of the pineapple into thin slices without removing the center and pat dry. Reserve 220 grams of the remaining pineapple for later and cut into cubes.

Heat the oven to 90 degrees and place the thinnly sliced pineapple slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Dry in the oven for three hours, flipping at least once half way in. If your flowers appear to be still wet, dry longer. Once done, press into a muffin tin once you take them out of the oven to bend the leaves a bit and get a more typical flower shape. If you don't have a muffin tin, you may also use glasses or similar. You can dry them further at room temperature. If making long in advance, keep in an airtight container.

For the hummingbirds mix the flour and sugar in a large bowl and add the butter cut into cubes. Rub into crumbs quickly. Then add two tablespoons of water and work into a ball. Add further water if need be. Cover and chill at least for thirty minutes or overnight.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out hummingbirds. I looked for a symbol on the Internet, cut out the paper and used that to cut out the birds in the dough. Mine were pretty large (8cm) and I only made five. In the end I only needed three.

Bake for about 10min at 180 degrees Celsius, depending on size.

For the royal icing mix about 150 grams of icing sugar with egg white and beat a few minutes with a mixer until it is glossy and the consistency is similar to toothpaste. You may need a little more egg white or icing sugar, depending on the weather. Color parts in different colors and fill into separate piping bags or bags with a cut-off corner. Decorate the humming birds the way you like. If you need further help with decorating, you may wish to check out this post. Let dry for a few hours or overnight.

For the cake layers line the bottom of two 20cm/8inch springforms with parchment paper. Roughly chop the pecans and roast for about 8-10min at 150 degrees Celsius in the oven. Increase oven temperature to 180 degrees.

Mash the bananas with a fork in a large bowl. If they happen not to be ripe enough, add them to the pecan nuts until brown on the outside. Add all wet ingredients from the pineapple until the vanilla extract. Whisk until combined. Then add all remaining ingredients until combined.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 35min or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. If you are only using one springform, the baking time may differ, I assume something like 50min. Let cool completely.

For the cream cheese frosting whip the heavy cream with the sugar and vanilla extract until stiff. Only add the cream cheese briefly until combined. Cut the cake layers in half and frost each layer with cream cheese. You should have enough frosting to also frost the outside of the cake. However, this is a semi-naked cake, which means that you will still see the cake layers. Chill the cake.

Shortly before serving decorate with pineapple flowers and glue the hummingbirds with a tiny bit of the frosting onto the cake.