Cupcakes! The boys’ eyes lit up as they entered the science lab on Monday afternoon and spied the muffin tins and cupcake liners on the bench with the ingredients all laid out. As they know well (and as I am sure you will be aware if you have been following the Petits Chefs for the past four years), we don’t often make desserts – for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, and most practically, desserts tend to require more time than many savoury dishes and certainly baked goods are challenging to make in just under an hour. Secondly, well, whilst I believe that a healthy diet is all about moderation, I don’t just want the boys to be learning to make desserts. But every now and then there comes an occasion where I feel it’s time to teach them a dessert and certainly, if they are going to eat sweet treats, I’d rather they be “from scratch” items than store-bought processed foods.
That occasion just happened to be one of my monthly Food Revolution Ambassador challenges for September. The Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Ambassadors (I’ve been one since the very beginning back in 2012) are celebrating their second year together as a global volunteer group, working across the world to spread the good word about food education. Each month we work our way through a few different food-related challenges which help keep us focused on our mission and, in turn, spread the word across the globe.
This month, we were told to Celebrate our Anniversary and do some celebratory cooking. This month, Jamie launched his latest cookbook – Jamie’s Comfort Food whose recipes are inspired by everything from childhood memories to the changing of the seasons, AND, it takes into account some guilty pleasures and sweet indulgences that everyone enjoys, including a Hummingbird Cake – the ultimate celebratory cake. It most definitely is an indulgent recipe but as I said to the boys on Monday – it’s a special occasion cake and who doesn’t need a couple of those recipes up their sleeve? I figured in an hour, if we worked fast, we could make the cake and icing and try our hand at the homemade toffee….
The hummingbird cake is thought to have originated in Jamaica, and was originally called the “Doctor bird cake” (a nickname for a Jamaican variety of hummingbird – the name comes from the way the bird’s long beak probes flowers, like a doctor inspecting a patient!). Some say the cake was named after the bird because it was sweet enough to attract hummingbirds (it’s sweetened with sugar, pineapple and coconut), while others say the yellow streaks of banana was reminiscent of the bird’s feathers. Read about the history of the Hummingbird Cake here.
We practised weighing our ingredients this week (who knew that watching the number on the scale increase would be so fascinating to the boys?)…
Then we found some big lumps of sugar that needed all our muscle to break up!
Meanwhile, some of the boys enjoyed mashing bananas…
And incorporating olive oil, pineapple and eggs into the banana to create what they boys thought looked like baby food!
Obviously in an hour, we’re not making a whole cake since it would never bake. But cupcakes are always a good idea!
While the cakes baked, we got to the other tasks – zesting limes for decoration….
And some for the cream cheese frosting. The boys were impressed to see powdery icing sugar and lumpy butter and cream cheese turn magically into creamy delicious frosting!
Meanwhile, Miss Carter and some of the older boys tried their hand at the toffee brittle. Considering we used the wrong type of sugar (icing not granulated and totally my mistake!) I think they did pretty well. So well, in fact that one of the boys went straight home to make some more!
The cakes baked up beautifully – they took about 25 minutes at 350˚F.
And look how gorgeous they are!
Most definitely an indulgent recipe but considering how many it serves (the entire cake recipe “serves 14″and we made 28 cupcakes – with a lot of leftover icing since the cake has a layer on the inside that we obviously didn’t do), the boys didn’t think it was “TOO bad for you” 😉 In any case, learning how to bake a cake from scratch is most definitely a useful skill and the boys did so well! I don’t know how many of the cupcakes made it home though…
Get the recipe for Jamie Oliver’s Hummingbird Cakes here.
Get Jamie’s healthy living tips for eating a balanced diet here.
Purchase Jamie’s Comfort Food for yourselves on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository.
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Please note: The product links from Amazon, Amazon.ca and The Book Depository are affiliate links. If you click on these links and purchase the product I have linked to or any other product, I will receive a small percentage of the sale price.
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Canadians – win a KitchenAid Produce Preserver and a $50 to stock up on fresh produce. Closes Wednesday October 1st 6pm EST. Details here.
Canadians – win a copy of Charmian Christie’s “The Messy Baker”! Closes Wednesday October 8th at 6pm EST. Details here.
I’ve never baked a hummingbird cake and I’m intrigued not only by the history but also by the taste. It does sound lovely and the boys did a great job creating this anniversary celebration dessert. Some very creative finishing touches to the icing decoration, who knew that you could make toffee brittle with icing sugar 🙂
Who knew indeed – not all the toffee worked out but we discussed ways to make it work (be patient!) when you accidentally use the wrong type of sugar!
These li’l guys look like they’re loving every minute.
Well when CAKE is involved!
Love this! Thanks for the inspiration!
It’s a beautiful cake!