16 tablespoons (8 ounces or 2 sticks) Butter, softened
1½ cup Raw Cane Sugar
Seeds of 1 Vanilla Bean
4 Large Eggs
¾ cup Buttermilk
4 large Bananas, mashed well (or lightly pureed)
1¼ cup Sweet Rice Flour
1¼ cup Oat flour
⅔ cup Millet flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 8oz can Crushed Pineapple, drained
FOR THE FROSTING:
2 cups Fine Raw Cane Sugar
6 Egg Whites, room temperature
3 cups (6 sticks) Salted Butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla
3 drops Lavender Oil (food grade)
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 8" cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Slice the vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds out into the sugar. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully combined. Add the buttermilk and banana puree to the mixture. Beat until completely mixed in. Set aside.
Place the sweet rice flour, oat flour, millet flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and sea salt in a mixing bowl and whisk together.
Add dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix in until fully combined. Fold in the crushed pineapple.
Spoon the batter into prepared pans, dividing equally among the three.
Bake cakes for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown and firm on top. Test cake with a toothpick before removing from oven. Toothpick should come out clean with a few moist crumbs attached.
Let cakes cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a parchment lined cooling rack, removing pans. Let cool completely.
When cake has cooled, use the lavender Swiss Meringue Buttercream to frost it, giving it thick layers of frosting in between each layer of cake, but thinly frosting the sides and top so that the cake layers show through. Top with fresh flowers, if you desire!
FOR THE LAVENDER SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM:
Fill a saucepan with 1 inch of water and bring to a simmer over medium/high heat. Place a metal or glass bowl on top of the pan. Add the egg whites and sugar to the bowl and whisk constantly for several minutes, until the mixture is hot to the touch and sugar has completely dissolved. When you rub the mixture between your fingers it should be smooth, not grainy.
Pour the mixture into the bowl of an electric stand mixer and whisk on medium speed for several minutes. Once the mixture has cooled down completely, whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form.
With the mixer running on medium speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, until all the butter has been added and mixture is thick and creamy. Add the lavender oil and vanilla and mix in until evenly distributed. Use to frost the cake.
Keep cake refrigerated If not serving right away. You may want to pull it out a few hours before serving so that the frosting has time to soften.
Recipe by The Kitchen McCabe at https://www.thekitchenmccabe.com/2017/03/23/hummingbird-cake-lavender-swiss-meringue-buttercream-gf/