I’ve probably confessed this before, but I have a bit of a thing for Coconut Ice. So last night when I got the baking hankers, it wasn’t a big surprise to me that the idea of a pink and white layered coconut cupcake sprung to mind.
Layered up with a buttercream take on traditional coconut ice, they are just a riot of colour and would be the quirkiest bake sale cupcakes ever! Shame I never do bake sales.
The best thing about them other than their looks, is that they have that coconut ice feel in the mouth – the cupcake is dense, warm tasting and coconutty, the buttercream is heavy, creamy and coconutty, and all together you feel like you are eating Coconut Ice dreaming of Cupcakes!
Which is how it should be.
Coconut Ice Cupcakes
makes about 10 (I used oval friand tins, which are a little larger than standard muffin tins, so the recipe made 9)
Layered Coconut Cupcakes
ingredients
135g unsalted butter, softened
135g sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp coconut essence
135g self raising flour
1/2 cup fine dessicated coconut
2 tbsp milk
a little pink gel colouring
mixing
Line 10 holes of a muffin pan (or a 9 hole friand pan) with paper cases and grease with non-stick spray. If you want to leave the cases on (I peeled mine off) then choose plain white cases so you can see the colours through the paper.
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in coconut essence. Add the flour and coconut and blend. Blend in milk. Divide the mixture into two and tint one half pink. Spoon the white mixture evenly into the bottoms of the cupcake cases and smooth the surface. Top with the pink mixture.
Bake the cupcakes at 175 degrees Celsius for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool. If desired, carefully peel off the cases.
Coconut Ice Buttercream
ingredients
150g unsalted butter, softened
120g icing sugar
100g fine dessicated coconut
2 tsp coconut essence
a little pink gel colouring
mixing
Beat the butter until light and creamy. Beat in the icing sugar, coconut and coconut essence. Divide the mixture in two, tint one half pink.
Using a piping bag fitted with a wide star nozzle, load the white mixture into one half of the bag. Using a small spatula, carefully load the pink mixture into the other half of the bag. Give the bag a squeeze until both mixtures come out of the nozzle evenly. Discard this part of the buttercream (or you might want to eat it!).
Pipe big peaks of the frosting onto the cold cupcakes (about 35g per cupcake). Decorate with silver cachous or mini marshmallows if desired (as you can see, I couldn’t choose).
Enjoy!xxx
