Hummingbird Cupcakes w Cream Cheese Frosting

About

What makes a Hummingbird cupcake so appealing? They’re filled with sweet ‘nectar’, just like what a hummingbird would enjoy! You’ll taste flavors like pineapple, banana, vanilla, and a hint of coconut. You may notice there are some non-Keto fruits here. We can make a few baking adjustments to the traditional baking recipe by replacing pineapple with just a little pineapple juice, bananas with extract, and using unsweetened coconut in the dry mix. A crunch from toasty pecans and just a hint of cinnamon round out the sweet and tropical flavors. Atop each cupcake is a simple cream cheese frosting, which just needs a slight Keto adjustment with Swerve sweetener. Enjoy these cupcakes as a special occasion treat with family, or easily double or triple the recipe to make a batch for a group.

What Is A Hummingbird Cupcake?

Hummingbird cake was invented in Jamaica, but the recipe was designed to attract American tourists in the 1970s. Based on the ingredients, you can see how a mishmash of sweet fruits and nuts all dumped into one dessert would be appealing to tourists who grew up in the jello-mold-age of the 1950s! Most Hummingbird cakes consist of mashed bananas, pineapple, vanilla flavor, and either pecans or walnuts. A top layer of cream cheese frosting was literally the icing on the cake that won Americans over! In fact, Hummingbird cake went on to become one of America’s favorite cakes for years and made a huge name for itself in Southern Living magazine. Now, Hummingbird cake is considered Southern comfort food. You’ll likely see it made by someone’s grandma or auntie at the next family reunion.

Keto Frostings

Cream cheese icing is already a favorite in the United States. The recipe carries over well to the Keto diet because you hardly have to change a thing. Simply substitute powdered sugar with Swerve. Plus, the cream cheese allows you to make a decent quantity of frosting per serving without having a strong butter flavor. If your frosting becomes too thick, you can add just a teaspoon of heavy cream to make it easier to work with. If cream cheese icing is not your favorite, try making a whipped cream frosting instead. Simply whip together heavy cream, Swerve, and vanilla extract together for a lighter whipped topping. If you like the best of both worlds, try the Carb Manager Keto Vanilla Cheesecake Fluff as a cupcake frosting.

Ingredients

1 ounce pecans, raw
¼ cup almond flour
¼ cup paleo baking flour by bob's red mill
⅛ cup stevia in the raw, bakers bag
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoon, shredded coconut, dried, shredded or flaked, unsweetened
1 large raw egg
¼ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon pineapple juice
¼ teaspoon mccornicks banana extract
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 tablespoon cream cheese
2 teaspoon the ultimate icing sugar replacement by swerve
⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcakes tins with cupcake liners. Chop and heat the pecans in a pan over medium heat for about 30 seconds. Toast the pecans until they become fragrant, but don’t let them burn. Combine the toasted pecan in a bowl with the almond and paleo flours, stevia, baking soda, cinnamon, coconut flakes, and an added pinch of salt. In a second bowl, whisk together the egg, olive oil, pineapple juice, vanilla, and banana extract. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, folding the batter with a spatula until combined.
Use a spoon or scoop to ladle the batter into each cupcake liner. Fill each one up, leaving about a ½-inch of space from the top. Bake the cupcakes for 18-20 minutes, until the tops of the cupcakes turn golden. Use a toothpick to test for doneness. Let the cupcakes set aside to cool before adding frosting on top.
While the cupcakes are baking, make the cream cheese frosting. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip the butter until it is creamy and fluffy. When the butter is at room temperature and lump-free, mix in the cream cheese. You can pull the cream cheese out to soften by the oven at the beginning of the recipe to speed up this process. Again, mix thoroughly until the cream cheese is room temperature and lump-free. Mix in the Swerve and vanilla extract to finish the frosting. You may set it aside in your refrigerator to chill until it’s ready to spread on your cooled cupcakes.
Use the back of a spoon, a spatula, or a piping bag to top each cupcake with about 1 ½ tablespoons frosting. Simply spread the frosting across or pipe fancy designs at your leisure. At your discretion, you may add toppings to the hummingbird cupcakes. Keto toppings could be a halved pecan, unsweetened coconut flakes, 100% cacao shavings or nibs, or an extra sprinkle of cinnamon. You can store the finished cupcakes in your refrigerator for 1-2 days. However, these are best served when freshly baked.