58. Coconut Choc Chunk Cupcakes

These were made to fill a complete and utter craving I had for chocolatey goodness without just eating the whole bar in one go. They’re so quick and easy to make, I made them on my work from home lunch break! They went down pretty well and didn’t exactly last long!

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

• (6oz) butter, room temperature

• (6oz) golden caster sugar

• (6oz) self-raising flour

• 3 eggs

• (2oz) desiccated coconut

• (4oz) dark chocolate chunks

• pinch of salt

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a cupcake tray.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add in the flour and then the eggs until well combined.

4. Mix in the coconut, chocolate, pinch of salt and vanilla and mix until well distributed.

5. Divide evenly into the cupcake cases (I found a heaped tablespoon was about right).

6. Bake for 22-25 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean.

7. Leave to cool and enjoy!

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44. Coconut Choc Chip Cake with Best Chocolate Buttercream

It was a colleague’s birthday at work this week, so I offered to make him a birthday cake. When asked what he would like, he ummed and ahhed, until I elicited the words chocolate and coconut fro him. That was as good a place to start as any.

But then he said white chocolate.

I don’t really like white chocolate in large quantities, as its REALLY sweet, and its not all that easy to bake with. So I made a white chocolate and coconut cake. This is not the cake pictured here. I was so embarrassed by not only the fact that the cake was ridiculously sweet (my boyfriend said he just pretended he was eating a white chocolate bar), but it was also hideous. I really messed up my ratios on the white chocolate ganache, and had been impatient when turning the cakes out and frosting so it was all crumbling and not smooth. It was not good.

So I made another cake. This one. Learning from my previous errors to make a cake that went down EXTREMELY well at work. Why not give it, or similar, a go this weekend?

Makes 1 cake and buttercream for 1 cake/12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cake

• 170g (6 oz) butter

• 130g (4.5 oz) caster sugar

• 85g (3 oz) desiccated coconut (+ some for sprinkling)

• 140g (5 oz) self raising flour

• 3 eggs

• 100g (3.5 oz) chocolate chips (I used white choc chips)

For the buttercream

• 100g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate, melted (+ some for grating to sprinkle)

• 200g (7 oz) butter, room temp

• 300g (10.5 oz) icing sugar

• 2 tbsp milk

• a pinch of salt.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Line two sandwich tins with greaseproof paper and grease the sides.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined.

3. Add in the eggs, desiccated coconut and self raising flour, and beat until smooth.

4. Mix in the chocolate chips until distributed throughout the cake mix, then divide into your sandwich tins. (roughly 13oz in each tine if you want to be precise)

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly golden, and a knife comes out clean.

6. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins until the tins are cool enough to hold. Tip out your cakes and allow to cool further on a cooling rack. Place in the fridge to cool down further if you intend to spread rather than pipe your icing as this will make it less likely to crumble.

7. Beat the butter for your buttercream until light and fluffy.

8. Add in your icing sugar in two gos (or else it tends to go everywhere), and beat until light and smooth.

9. Beat in your melted chocolate and a pinch of salt.

10. Fill a piping bag and pipe a border around the edge of your bottom cake, then fill the middle with icing and spread to your border. This will keep it neat.

11. Place your top cake on top and decorate (piping or spreading) however you like! Sprinkle on a little grated chocolate and desiccated coconut and enjoy!

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28. Coconut Orange Genoise Cupcakes

Who’s ready for an upper arm workout?!

Oh, no one? That’s a shame. Better hope you have an electric whisk then.

This week I decided to put it to an Instagram poll as to what to make. The categories were light/fruity vs spiced/chocolate, something big to share vs bitesized treats and vegan vs dairy. I slightly jumped the gun on the first poll which eventually had a close win with spiced/chocolate, but let’s be honest, I’ll likely do that soon anyway! So I though with light/fruity that I would veer away from my usual lemon based things and go a bit more exotic and combine coconut and orange as my flavours. Ooh it worked well. Would recommend.

I was also out of self raising flour this week, and rather slog to the shops to get some, I decided to make a genoise sponge mix instead, which made my arm very very sore from the whisking. Why I didn’t decide to use an electric whisk I do not know. I should hit the gym more. Genoise sponges only get their raise and lightness from the air trapped inside from whisking, which is why it is so important to whisk A LOT. Worth it though. They’re gooooood.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the genoise sponge

• 4 eggs

• 125g (4.5 oz) caster sugar

• 110g (4oz) plain flour

• 50g (1.75oz) butter, melted

• 20g (0.75oz) dessicated coconut

For the orange sugar syrup

• 50g (1.75oz) caster sugar

• 30ml water

• juice of one orange

For the chantilly cream

• 300ml double cream

• 15g (0.5oz) icing sugar

• zest of one orange

• dessicated coconut to sprinkle

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C

2. On a simmering bain marie, whisk your eggs and sugar together until pale and thick, almost mousse like. Once thickened, take off the bain marie and whisk until the ribbon stage is reached and the mixture has cooled. (The ribbon stage is where if you take the whisk out and dribble a figure of 8 onto the mix, the 8 stays there for a couple of seconds before sinking back in).

3. Sieve and fold in the flour a bit at a time. Be careful not to knock out too much air when folding! Fold in the dessicated coconut too.

4. Pour in the melted butter around the edges of the bowl and fold that in gently.

5. Line a cupcake tin and fill with your mixture.

6. Bake at 180C for 18-20 minutes until golden and they spring back.

7. Leave to cool.

8. Put all the ingredients for the sugar syrup in a pan and bring to a boil, then remove from the heat, providing that the sugar has all dissolved.

9. Brush the sugar syrup onto the cupcakes while still in the tin and liners so they can really soak in the syrup.

10. Whisk the cream and sugar together until it forms soft peaks, then add in the orange zest.

11. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and liners, if so desired.

12. Pipe the cream onto the cupcakes and sprinkle over the dessicated coconut.

13. Enjoy!

22. Banana Coconut Muffins

Now I’m studying at Le Cordon Bleu, I don’t get an awful lot of time to bake just for fun, rather than practicing for exams. So I wanted to make something new for you guys, but something pretty easy. Muffins are definitely easy! I put a question out on my instagram story a few days ago and got some great ideas of what to make over the next few weeks, but I decided to start with my friend Beth’s suggestion “something with bananas”. Easy enough!

I have done banana and chocolate chip muffins on the blog before, so I decided to change it us and use coconut for something different. I’ve not used coconut much before to be honest, but I’m kinda enjoying coconut milk these days (Lactose intolerance life, wooooo), so thought I’d give it a go in my baking. These turned out pretty small as I made them in cupcake size rather than muffin, mostly because I wasn’t thinking, and partially because that’s what I had to hand. Either way, no matter the size, these turned out very tasty!

Makes 12 cupcake sized muffins

Ingredients

• 200g (7oz) flour

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 70g (2.5oz) butter, melted

• 80g (2.8oz) demerara sugar (plus extra to sprinkle on top)

• 125ml coconut milk or normal milk

• 75g desiccated coconut

• 1 egg, beaten

• 2 medium bananas, mashed

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, desiccated coconut and cinnamon.

3. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk, melted butter and egg. Fold these in to the dry ingredients until well combined.

4. Add in the mashed banana (you want it mashed as well as possible!) until well mixed in.

5. Divide the mix into a lined cupcake or muffin tray and sprinkle some demerara sugar on top of each one.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes until risen and golden.

7. Allow to cool a little before eating!