Lime and Coconut Cupcakes

March was a bit of a busy month.  Being the final month of term 3 kept me occupied as I did my best to wrangle excitable children and actually teach them something. I took on extra work again, and I had a job interview.  There was also a trip to Ikea, a jaunt with my bestie, trips to the cinema, a birthday party, Easter lunch and plenty of baking.  Busy busy busy. 

With regards to my interview, I haven't heard back yet.  I am not feeling particularly positive or hopeful.  I don't think it went well.  Luckily I have very supportive people around me at home and at work who cheer me up by telling me nice things.  It was cool to find out I have impressed people and come across as calm.  I never think I'm calm.  It's been 2 and a half weeks since then at this point.  Hopefully I'll get an answer soon, even if that answer is going to be no...again.

Anyway, the Hubby went a-visitin' to his friends again last month and requested I bake something.  When asked for input on what sort of thing they wanted I was told to do something with fruit (except pineapple).  Hubby initially went to orange, thinking I'd not really done that before until I pointed out all the times I had.  I've also done a lot with berries.  I wanted to try using a different ingredient and it finally occurred to me that I've never really used coconut before.

I am not the keenest on coconut but it is okay.  One of those things I can eat if I have to but not something I would actively choose.  The Hubby is fine with coconut, as he often eats all the Bountys left over in the box of Celebrations.  When I posed the possibility, he said he was willing to give it a go.  Initially, I was going to pair it with chocolate.  Then I switched to pina colada until I was reminded that I wasn't meant to use pineapple.  So I ended up removing that element and going for a coconut and lime cake.  My little recipe book I got free with a magazine years ago had a recipe all ready and waiting for me.

The coconut flavouring comes from a mix of desiccated coconut and coconut cream.  I found the latter in the World Foods section of the supermarket as it is often used in Asian cooking.  I used it as stated in the recipe, but I also heated some of it into milk to use in the recipe too, rather than use regular milk.  If I could cram in more coconut, then I would.  The lime is gained through zest in the batter and juice in the frosting.  It's a cream cheese frosting by the way.  I did try and find some cream cheese that wasn't Philadelphia but couldn't.   The cream cheese section of the supermarket isn't that great.  But it sufficed.  And I convinced the Hubby to eat it.  He's rather against cheese (which, coupled with being vegetarian makes him rather picky) and so has always been weary of cream cheese frosting.  However, I pointed out that carrot cake often gets served with a cream cheese frosting and so he'd probably eaten it before without realising.  Since he likes my baking, he decided to trust me.

They were well received.  Admittedly, that's not hard with that lot.  They love when I send baking but I always hope it's going to be enjoyed.  You get a nice mix of the two flavours coming through and it's a good blend of sweet and citrus.  Turned out there was even someone who doesn't like one of the flavours (the Hubby cannot remember which) and they also enjoyed them.  Hurrah!

Recipe - adapted from Delicious Cupcakes Made Easy
Makes 12


Cakes:

• 100g/3.5oz butter
• 25g/1oz creamed coconut
• 125g/4.5oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 125g/4.5oz self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 25g/1oz desiccated coconut
• Zest of 1 unwaxed lime
• 2 tbsp milk (you could melt down some of the creamed coconut to get coconut milk)

Topping:

• 150g/5oz cream cheese
• 50g/2oz icing sugar
• 2 tsp lime juice
• Desiccated coconut and lime zest for decorating 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and fill a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Put the butter, creamed coconut and caster sugar into a bowl and beat together until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and fold until just combined. 
5. Stir in desiccated coconut and lime zest, followed by the milk.
6. Distribute the mixture evenly between the cases and then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cakes are risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
8. Beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and lime juice together in a bowl.
9. Swirl the frosting onto each cake and then sprinkle with desiccated coconut and lime zest.

Citrus Summer Fruit Drizzle Cake

Okay, well, long time no post, huh?  Last post was in December last year and now it's July!  This was a bit of an unexpected hiatus but a necessary one.  I became swamped with work after the Christmas holidays as I did not do so well in my first term at school and needed to make it up.  This got made worse by everyone getting sick or other things coming up which meant things were not getting done at reasonable times and ended up having to be done in a very short space of time.  Very stressful.  So much so that I ended up at the doctor's and have been given medication for anxiety, which I've always had but got worse these last couple of years.  Fun fun fun.  Anyway, the good news is that I did pass my probation year and I am a fully qualified teacher!  Bad news is that currently I don't have a job after the summer.  I didn't do so good in the interview as what I thought I was saying was not coming across.  Ah well.  I've just got to keep trying and see what comes up.

But we're not here to listen to me moan; we're here about cake!  Hectic work life meant there was little time for baking in the last few months but when I was doing reports it was something I just had to make time for.  Writing reports is so so dull and takes forever!  I had to break it into smaller blocks per day and then even smaller ones after that.  Baking was then fitted in between the blocks to keep me sane. 

 

This looked like a nice, summery bake.  I like baking with fruit, even if I am not keen to eat it.  I also think it looks aesthetically pleasing too without being too complicated.  I ended up making two of these; one for home and one for school.  I bought a mixed box of fruit from Sainsbury's which had strawberries, raspberries and blackberries in.  I then bulked it out a little with an extra tub of blueberries.  I also decided I would zest up the cake with some lime in the batter rather than just using the juice in the drizzle.  It worked really well.  It is a really moist cake with a nice tang to offset the sweetness of the fruit.  Both cakes were gobbled up very quickly.

And just before I let you have the recipe, I want to give a shout-out to my Hubby.  One of the biggest tragedies of not baking much has been the lack of food photography I have gotten to do!  Doubly so because that wonderful, sweet husband of mine gave me a DSLR camera for Christmas!  I was so surprised and felt so spoilt.  It has been so fun to use and takes such lovely pictures.  I am still getting to grips with it but I think I did a pretty good job with these snaps!

Recipe -  Adapted from BBC GoodFood
Makes a 2lb loaf cake


Cake:

• 175g/6oz butter
• 175g/6oz golden caster sugar
• 250g/9oz self-raising flour
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest of 2 limes
• 100g/3.5oz mixed summer fruits 

Drizzle:

• 75g/2.5oz mixed summer fruits
• 1-2tbsp lime juice
• 140g/5oz granulated sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin with butter.  Line the base with a long strip of greaseproof paper so that the ends hang out over the sides of the tin (it will help you remove the cake from the tin later).
2. In a large bowl mix together the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, lime zest and vanilla extract  until the batter is smooth, pale and creamy.  It will be very thick.
3. Put a third of the mix into the cake tin then scatter half of the fruit over the top.
4. Spread another third of the cake mix over the top and then scatter on the rest of the fruit.  
5. Finally top with the last of the cake mix and smooth over with a spoon.
6. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Put the fruit and sugar for the drizzle in a bowl with the lime juice and stir together, mashing the fruit a little as you do.
8. When you have removed the cake from the oven poke it all over with a skewer.
9. Spoon the drizzle over the cake then leave inside the tin until the cake is cool and the topping is set.  
10. Use the strip of paper to help remove the cake from the tin.

Citrus Cupcakes

So the birthday related posts continue.  I have one more to catch up on after this and then it happens to be my birthday this Sunday so there'll be another post following that featuring my birthday cake.  It's going to be fairly simple but hopefully delicious!

Anyway, I should be focussing on cupcakes!  As anyone who saw my posts last August might recall, the fiancé and his sister have birthdays which are three days apart.  Hence their Mum wanted to have a meal together where we could also do birthday presents.  And as has become traditional, I get to bake something for dessert!  I didn't think I should make big cakes as I was worried they wouldn't get eaten.  Instead, I opted to bake 12 cupcakes.  I made two different kinds based on flavours each birthday boy/girl liked.  This first set is for the fiancé and they are citrus cupcakes.  Originally, when I asked him, he wanted some more of the orange ones I had made a few weeks ago but then I floated the idea of a cake that had lemon, lime and orange all in one and he jumped on it.  So these cakes have a layer of lime and a layer of lemon and then are topped with a swirl of orange buttercream.  Very zesty and rather festive looking too!

Seeing as I can't get a hold of lime extract (does such a thing exist?) I chose to make the cakes using zest and juice.  I was determined to have juice as well as zest because I thought it would make the flavour more pronounced.  Oddly though, I found it a bit tricky locating a recipe that did that.  Thankfully, Lily Vanilli came to my rescue.  Her book had a recipe for lime cupcakes that used both parts of the fruit and I obviously adapted it to make a cake that was half lemon and half lime.

The overall result did look rather splendid.  My only concern was that I over baked them just ever so slightly.  I got distracted just around the time they needed to come out so their tops weren't quite as soft and springy as I would like.  I really need to get a new timer (the fiancé broke mine by accidentally knocking it onto the floor).  However, it did not seem to have a negative effect on the taste and they were all gobbled up.  You can taste all the different flavours and it is a lovely, refreshing cake.

 

Recipe - makes 8 cupcakes

Cakes - adapted from A Zombie Ate My Cupcake

• 60g/2oz butter
• 100g/3.5oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp lime zest (about one small lime's worth)
• 25ml/1fl.oz lime juice (about one small lime's worth)
• 1 tsp lemon zest (about one small lemon's worth)
• 25ml/1fl.oz lemon juice (about one small lemon's worth)
• 190g/6.7oz plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 4 tbsp whole milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Yellow and green food colouring

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12 hole tin with cupcake cases.
2. Set out two mixing bowls and place half the butter in one and the rest in the other.
3. Beat the butter until creamy.
4. Add the lime zest and lime juice to one bowl, along with half the sugar.  Add the lemon zest and juice and the rest of the sugar to the other.  Beat each of the two mixtures until they are light and fluffy.
5. Beat the egg in a measuring jug and then divide evenly between the two bowls.  Beat until just combined.
6. In a separate bowl combine half the flour with 1/4 tsp baking powder and a little bit of salt.
7. In a cup or jug, mix together 2 tbsp milk and 1/4 tsp vanilla.
8. Add the flour mixture and milk mixture alternately to one of the bowls of batter, beginning and ending with the flour.  Beat well after each addition.
9. Repeat steps 6-8 with the remaining flour, baking powder, salt, milk and vanilla extract, adding them to the other bowl of batter.
10. Add a few drops of yellow colouring to the lemon batter and mix in.  Do the same to the lime batter with the green.
11. Divide the green batter evenly amongst the cases and smooth over so the top is flat.
12. Top the green mixture with the yellow mixture and smooth out as well, making sure the batter reaches the edges of the case.
13. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cakes are risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
14. Cool in the tin for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack to finish.  Cakes need to have cooled completely before they can be frosted.

Orange Buttercream:

• 85g/3oz butter
• 170g/6oz icing sugar
• 1 tsp milk
• 1.5 tsp orange extract
• Orange food colouring

1. Beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Sift in the icing sugar, orange extract and add the milk.  Mix until combined and smooth.
3. Add a couple of drops of food colouring and mix until you get a colour you are happy with.
4. Place buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe a swirl on top of each cake.