coconut and lime drizzle dinosaurs

Admittedly there isn't a huge amount of coconut in this recipe, but there's enough to give a bit of flavour and texture so I felt it was worth including in the title.

But you're not here to question the coconut content are you? You're here because you're excited about dinosaur shaped cakes. DINOSAUR SHAPED CAKES.

Remember the super cool 3D dinosaur biscuit cutters  my friend gave me for Christmas? Well the same friend gave me silicone dinosaur shaped moulds for my birthday last year. She's awesome like that.

Although I have used these a few times, this is the first they've made it on to the blog. Tasty, bite sized dinosaurs sneaking into people's mouths, unphotographed. How dare they!

There was a lonely lime sitting in the fruit bowl this week which presented me with the perfect opportunity for dainty dino drizzle cakes. Drizzle cakes are perfect for little moulds like these as there's no icing to spoil the definition. Ideally I would have preferred two limes as I like my drizzle cakes quite punchy with citrus flavour, but one lime worked fine. 

I added desiccated coconut into the mix as I fancied another flavour and discovered that I *still* had a bag of coconut in the baking cupboard left over from the chocolate and coconut cake I made back in January. I've been working my way through the desiccated coconut stash throughout the year but thought I had finally come to an end last month. Nope. I have no idea what I was thinking buying so much coconut, but I am determined to use it all!

Coconut and lime drizzle dinosaurs

Makes 8 dinosaurs, or a tray of cupcakes, or a loaf. Remember to adjust baking times if you're making a loaf!

 

cake:

125g margarine

125g caster sugar

2 large eggs

zest of 1 lime

100g self-raising flour

25g desiccated coconut

lime syrup/drizzle:

juice of 1 lime

30-50g caster sugar (depends how sweet you want it. I guessed!) 

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Spray your moulds with cake release spray and coat with a light dusting of flour (or grease and line your cake tin.) Beat the sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy. Add the first egg and beat well. Put a spoonful of the flour in with the second egg to stop the mixture from splitting. Mix together. Add the lime zest, desiccated coconut and remaining flour and mix until everything is fully combined.

Spoon the mixture  into the dinosaur moulds until 2/3 full and bake on a tray in the oven for 25-30 minutes until well risen, light golden and springy to touch. Just as your cakes are about to come out the oven, combine the lime juice and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir over a gentle heat, allowing some of the sugar to dissolve. Don't let it boil though. 

Leave the cakes to cool in the moulds for a minute before inverting onto a wire rack then immediately pour the warm lime syrup on top of each dinosaur. I sprinkled on a little extra caster sugar as I thought it looked pretty!