Chocolate and coconut squares

As soon as I saw these chocolate and coconut squares appear on Lynn's blog, Traditional Home Baking, (back in March) I immediately scribbled down the recipe to try.

Usually I'm not overly drawn to coconut, but every so often it really appeals to me. I liked the idea of it combined in a chunky, oaty traybake. I was also keen to try the chocolate topping which I've seen Lynn use before in other recipes on her blog. It sets firm but doesn't crack when you cut into it. I can confirm that it's a lovely topping, almost fudgey, and so quick to make as it is just melted chocolate mixed with some butter. One to use again!

For my topping I used dark chocolate as I like the contrast of a darker, rich chocolate against the sweeter base, but milk would be delicious too. I'm just really into dark chocolate at the moment.

The texture of the base was quite crumbly but full of buttery, oaty, coconut goodness. I'd describe it as a cross between a chunky, oaty biscuit and a flapjack. It's a comforting, easy bake to enjoy with a big mug of tea.

I can't believe I made these over two months ago, time is absolutely flying this year. I've come to the end of birthday season within my family so I can go back to baking whatever I fancy, although I have no idea what that might be. I think I need to have a rummage in the baking cupboard to see what's going out of date. That usually sparks some creativity!

courgette, coconut and lime cake

My first ever courgette cake. I've been wanting to make one of these for years and am kicking myself I didn't do it sooner. This is such a lovely cake.

A few weeks ago I came across a Nigella Lawson courgette cake recipe, and variations of it, at least three times within the space of a few days. I took it as a sign that I finally needed to try a courgette cake.

My cake is yet another (slight) variation. I mostly followed Jean's variation though of adding desiccated coconut and lime zest to the cake batter.

I think all versions I came across had used lemon curd as a filling, but I made a lime curd using a lovely recipe I recently found at Only Crumbs Remain. I wanted to enhance the lime flavour in the cake and just generally fancied making that curd! I also added lime zest to the cream cheese icing (no juice though) to fully ramp up the zingy flavour and general green appearance of the cake. I also added a little bit extra icing sugar to the icing to make it slightly firmer and topped the cake with toasted desiccated coconut.

Speaking of the green appearance, I loved all the green flecks from the courgette and lime in this cake. I'm aware green isn't generally considered an attractive colour for a cake, but I thought it looked really pretty.

The courgettes gave the cake a really lovely, soft texture and the lime curd tasted insanely good. Man I love a homemade curd! I only made half a batch but had plenty for this cake filling and enough extra to add to my plain yoghurt and fruit at breakfast for a few days. Yet again, ridiculously tasty alongside blueberries and chopped banana in yoghurt.

So if you're in any ways on the fence about courgette cake I say DO IT. If you already like carrot cake and citrus flavours then you won't regret making it.

carrot, coconut and lime cake

I was flicking through my baking books one sleepless night last month when I came across this recipe and thought it would be a nice cake to bake for Father's Day. My Dad loves carrot cake, coconut and lime flavours, and I'm a fan of trying new carrot cake recipes. Everyone's a winner!

This is the most summery carrot cake I've ever baked or eaten. The coconut and lime make it so light, fresh and zingy; totally different to the more traditional spiced carrot cake with darker sugar and nuts. Although I'm probably still more of a fan of the latter this was a lovely, refreshing change. I particularly enjoyed the lime in the cream cheese icing. I always forget how much I like lime.

It's worth noting that the icing tasted very butter-heavy. Although I didn't mind it I'd feel tempted to change the icing ingredient ratios if making again.

I made a couple of ingredient substitutions due to what I had in the cupboard and what I could get from the local shop. The original recipe uses shredded coconut, which I imagine would add great texture to the cake but I could only get desiccated coconut. As you can see this worked fine too. I toasted some of the desiccated coconut for decoration on top and made way too much so expect to see more coconut on the blog!

Carrot, coconut and lime cake

Recipe very mildly adapted from National Trust "Traditional Teatime Recipes" book by Jane Pettigrew.

cake:
2 large eggs
100g (4oz) soft light brown sugar (I used a mixture of muscovado and caster sugar as that's what I had in the cupboard)
75ml (3fl oz) sunflower oil
175g (6oz) grated carrot
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g (2oz) desiccated coconut

icing:
75g (3oz) full fat cream cheese
75g (3oz) slightly salted butter
50g (2oz) icing sugar
grated rind of one lime

topping:
grated rind of one lime and some toasted desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/375F/Gas mark 5. Grease and line a 18cm/7 inch round tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl with an electric whisk beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the oil and mix again well. Fold in the remaining ingredients until everything is combined then pour into the prepared cake tin and level the top. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden, risen and a cake skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. My cake was ready at 33 minutes, so I suggest keeping an eye on it after 30 minutes has passed. Leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.

For the icing, beat together the icing sugar and butter for a few minutes until light and creamy, then add in the cream cheese and lime rind. Mix again until well combined then spread over the fully cooled cake. Decorate the cake with more grated lime and some toasted desiccated coconut.

carrot and coconut battenberg cake

I've had this recipe bookmarked for ages as I've been itching to make a battenberg cake for a while and I was really intrigued by the flavours of this version.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out; it's a classic with a twist. In hindsight I could have decorated the cake with one of those fancy crimped edges that Paul and Mary would have done on the Great British Bake Off, but ultimately I just want to tidy up the kitchen and eat the cake. It's a wonder I can restrain myself long enough to take a few photographs for the blog.

I'm not sure how to describe the flavour of this cake. The dominant flavour is almond, obviously due to the marzipan (mmmm, marzipan) followed by apricot as it is in both the sponge and the jam, then the warming spices of cinnamon and ginger. Despite carrot and coconut being in the title of the recipe I'd say they provide texture and  moisture rather than big flavour. They're there, but more subtle.

The carrot cake half didn't rise as well as the coconut half so I had a bit of levelling to do once the cakes were cool. I'm assuming that's due to extra moisture from the carrots, apricot chunks and orange food colouring. Other than that the cake came together very smoothly. Although I'm generally not keen to add food colouring to cakes, I love the extra punch the orange colouring adds to the carrot cake half. It really enhances the classic battenberg chequerboard pattern.

If you love battenberg cake and fancy something a little bit different then I'd definitely recommend giving this recipe a go :)

Carrot and coconut battenberg cake

Recipe (marginally adapted) from "Peek-a-boo cakes" by Joanna Farrow. Pub. 2014

carrot sponge:

100g margarine

100g light soft brown sugar

2 eggs, large

100g self-raising flour

1/2tsp baking powder

1/2tsp ground ginger

1/2tsp ground cinnamon

75g carrot, finely grated

40g dried apricots, finely chopped

25g ground almonds

orange food colouring

coconut sponge:

100g margarine

100g caster sugar

2 eggs, large

100g self-raising flour

25g dessicated coconut

1/2 tsp baking powder

decoration:

200g apricot jam

375g marzipan

icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C/160 Fan/Gas 4. Cut a strip of cardboard the same length and depth as a 8" / 20cm square cake tin (I used a cereal box). Cover the strip with baking foil and fit it down the centre of the tin. Grease and line the bases and sides of the two sections with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl, beat together all the carrot cake ingredients, excluding the food colouring, for about a minute until smooth. Add some food colouring to enhance the "carrot" colour, mix well, then pour the mixture into one side of the tin. Level the surface.

In another large bowl, beat together all the coconut cake ingredients for a minute until smooth. Pour the mixture into the other side of the tin and level the top so it rises evenly. Bake the cakes in the centre of the oven for about 40 minutes until well risen and just firm to touch. Cool on a wire rack before peeling off the greaseproof paper.

Once the cakes are completely cool, set them side by side on a work surface and level their height using a sharp knife. It's important they're the same height for stacking. Trim the sides of the cakes if necessary as well. Cut each sponge in half lengthwise so you have 4 strips of sponge. Warm the jam in a saucepan on the hob to slacken it and remove any lumps with a sieve if necessary. Use half the jam to stick the sponges together, stacking them in a chequered pattern.

Sprinkle a layer of icing sugar on a work surface and roll out 375g of the marzipan in a rectangular shape until it is big enough to wrap around the cake. Brush the marzipan with the remaining warm jam, put the cake in the centre and wrap the marzipan up over the sides. Trim until neat and turn the cake over so the overlap is at the bottom. Brush the ends of the cake with any remaining jelly and any left over/spare marzipan can be used be roll out into squares to cover the ends.

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! 

tropical banana bread

This has been declared my best banana loaf to date by my parents. High praise indeed, especially since I was merely trying to find a way to use up the rest of my pineapple not-quite-a-curd from the previous week. 

I've been favouring Mary Berry's plain banana loaf recipe for most of my banana bread variations this year. It's like the victoria sponge recipe of banana breads - ridiculously versatile. It also only leaves one bowl to wash at the end which gets a massive thumbs up from me. Hurray for laziness.

This cake has such a lovely soft, juicy crumb with a hint of added texture from the desiccated coconut as it's in the cake batter as well as the icing.

The icing is oh so luscious and smooth. Pineapple curd tastes so much better in cream cheese icing than ordinary butter icing. I loved the subtle, fruity flavour against the tangy cream cheese. It paired beautifully with the soft, spiced banana bread. Banana, coconut and pineapple most certainly create a summery dream team flavour combination.

It's a pity the weather isn't feeling more tropical or summery though. It's the end of June, why is it still cold?!

Tropical banana bread

Recipe adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I had 3 bananas to use up so I increased the ingredient amounts by half. It produced a huge loaf and a couple of muffins!

150g softened butter/margarine

260g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1tsp ground cinnamon

3 bananas

325g self raising flour

25g desiccated coconut (plus extra to decorate)

1 level tsp baking powder

2 tbsp pineapple curd

1 tbsp milk

pineapple curd cream cheese icing

I wish I wrote down what I did at the time. I think it was this:

50g softened butter

75g cream cheese icing

125-150g icing sugar

1 tbsp pineapple curd

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Put all the ingredients in a large bowls and mix together for about 2 minutes until smooth and well combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Pour any excess mixture into muffin cases and bake them for half the time.

Bake the loaf in the middle of the oven for roughly 1 hour until well risen, firm to touch and skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, mix everything together until smooth. This makes quite a slack mixture (the curd was pretty runny) so feel free to add more icing sugar if you want it firmer. Spread the icing on top of the cooled cake and decorate with some toasted desiccated coconut.

coconut cupcakes - half with raspberry jam, half with (questionable) pineapple curd

Last week I was posessed with the idea of making summery pineapple curd to put inside coconut cupcakes. However there was a major flaw in my tropical plan: I'm a lazy low faff baker.

All the pineapple curd recipes I came across online only used egg yolks and I cannot be arsed with recipes which only use half the egg. (Now you know why I rarely make meringues!) The number of times I've set aside the other half of the egg with the best of intentions to bake something with it, only to eventually throw it away as I inevitably forget about it is annoying. And wasteful.

So I set about inventing a pineapple curd recipe loosely based on a few whole egg curd recipes. The resulting curd tastes lovely and is a glorious sunshine yellow but is sadly more like a grainy, runny sauce than a curd. I decided against putting it inside the cupcakes but mixed a few teaspoonfuls into the icing and have eaten some drizzled on top of a cupcake. It definitely adds to the overall flavour of the cupcake, but I'm kicking myself for not following an actual pineapple curd recipe.

Without the curd I find the cupcake a bit "meh". Coconut is a funny flavour for me. I think it's a subtle, secondary element or an additional texture. It needs to be paired with a strong flavour such as pineapple, raspberry, lime or chocolate to bring it to life.

Following the disappointment of my pineapple not-quite-a curd I split my coconut cupcake batch to produce a raspberry and coconut combination too. For these I put raspberry jam in the centre and whipped a few teaspoonfuls into the butter icing. I've seen a few people mix jam into icing but have never tried it myself. It is so tasty, why haven't I done this before?! Move over malt chocolate icing, this is my new obsession.

The girly girl in me is filled with glee by eating something which looks so pink and fluffy. The bright jammy centre just adds to the girly excitement. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed raspberry and coconut as a pairing.

Unsurprisingly the raspberry batch are the winners for me. However had the curd worked I think these would have been pretty special too as pineapple and coconut is such a fresh and summery flavour combination. I'll just have to suck it up one day and make a pineapple curd using only egg yolks!

Coconut cupcakes - half with raspberry jam, half with pineapple curd

6oz/ 170g margarine/ butter

6oz/ 170g caster sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

5oz/ 140g self raising flour

1oz/ 30g desiccated coconut (plus extra to top the cupcakes at the end)

2 tablespoons of milk 

filling:

1 jar raspberry jam

1 jar pineapple curd - I won't write what I did as it didn't particularly work but you can find a few different pineapple curd recipes here, here or here.

  
butter icing (covers both batches):

150g softened butter

300g icing sugar

2-3 teaspoons of raspberry jam/pineapple curd (add to taste)

Preheat the oven to 180C/160 Fan/Gas 4 and line a couple of cupcake trays with cases. In a small bowl, soak the desiccated coconut in the milk. Whilst that's soaking, beat together the margarine and sugar in a large bowl for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last egg to stop the cake mixture from curdling. Tip in the milky coconut, vanilla extract and remaining flour and mix until everything is fully combined. 
 

Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases (I think I got 16 from the mixture) and bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes until the cupcakes are light golden in colour, well risen, and spring back when touched. Leave to cool in the tins for a couple of minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. 

For the icing, beat together the butter and icing sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Split the icing in half, adding a few teaspoons of raspberry jam to one batch and curd to the other. Mix both icings thoroughly.

Using a sharp knife, cut a circular disc from the top of each cupcake and pop a teaspoonful of jam or curd inside and replace the top. Spread or pipe the icing on top and liberally cover with (toasted) desiccated coconut.

chocolate and coconut cake

It was my cousin's birthday last Friday so naturally I baked her a cake. She's a big fan of Bounty chocolate bars so I knew a chocolate and coconut cake would go down a treat.

Although I was initially miffed that I couldn't get my hands on some shredded coconut, toasted desiccated coconut made a pretty cake covering along with some chopped up chunks of Bounty bars. My favourite thing about using desiccated coconut to finish a cake is that you can be as messy as you like with the butter icing underneath. Nobody will know!

Word of warning though, watch your desiccated coconut like a hawk when it's toasting in the oven as it really doesn't take long to colour. Yup, you guessed it, I incinerated burnt the first batch.

This is definitely a grown up chocolate cake - dark, rich and almost fudgy in texture. It balanced nicely with the creamy, sweet, coconut icing. I think my cousin was delighted that a dark, chocolatey cake was hiding beaneath the light, fluffy exterior.

The cake recipe is from the Primrose Bakery, the same cake I baked for my sister in law a couple of years ago. The only change I made was swapping the milk for coconut milk. I also only used the two sponges as I didn't need to make a huge, triple layer cake (and it meant I got to keep a layer at home for myself, yay!) The recipe is a bit labour intensive and you end up with a lot of bowls to wash up, but it's definitely worth the effort for a fancier occasion.

For the icing I used 500g icing sugar, 115g butter (half salted, half unsalted as that's what I had to hand), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extact and 60ml coconut milk - beat it together for a good 5 minutes until very light and fluffy and it easily fills and covers the cake. I used a couple of boxes of desiccated coconut to toast but probably only needed one as I had loads left over. The coconut was patted on by hand after icing the cake.

A fancy cake requires fancy china! I think my Aunty said that this gold china set belonged to my Uncle's Granny and dates around the 1880s. I've already forgotten the brand, I think it was Royal Albert, but it's a very stylish set. I love the square shaped side plates. I'm also a sucker for thin, shaped rimmed teacups.

Two birthday cakes baked and devoured in the first week and a half of 2015. Not bad!

banana, coconut and pineapple bundt

Ah, Monsieur Swirly Bundt-Tin. We meet again....

Except this time I'm armed with cake release spray. In your face previous failed bundt attempts!

Admittedly this bundt is still a bit on the rustic side, but it did come out all in one piece which made me do a little happy dance.

After making banana and coconut muffins a few weeks ago I've had the flavour combination stuck in my mind. I knew I wanted to revisit it and add pineapple to the party. After some online searches I stumbled across this bundt recipe which appealed to me as the dessicated coconut is soaked in milk before adding to the mixture. Other than swapping the milk for coconut milk and adding pineapple chunks I more or less stuck to the recipe.

The recipe made a lot of batter, so much batter that I nearly filled a 2lb loaf tin in addition to the bundt tin. I was worried about the mixture overflowing so I stopped filling an inch or so from the top. The cake didn't rise as much as I expected though, if anything it seemed to sink slightly after coming out the oven, so I probably could have added more mixture to make the finished bundt more impressive in size.

I'm guessing the extra moisture from the pineapple chunks may have contributed to the lack of rise and somewhat soggy/dense/undercooked-looking texture. That or perhaps more bicarbonate of soda/baking powder is needed to give more rise for this size of banana cake. And maybe there's just too much milk in general. I don't know, I'm not good with the science-y aspect of baking so any thoughts are welcome.

Back to the texture, it reminded me of this cake I baked a couple of summers ago which was also packed with liquid/fruit and sank despite being fully cooked. Although this bundt used coconut milk instead of yoghurt, it has a similarly creamy flavour and texture. The cake might look a bit sorry for itself but the flavours are all good.  It would certainly work well as a pudding served with custard. Yes, I still think about comforting, hot custard in July.

Banana, coconut and pineapple bundt

An adapted recipe. It needs more tweaking but this is what I used:

1 1/2 cups of dessicated coconut

300ml coconut milk (for soaking)

185g butter, softened

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

3 large eggs

150g fresh pineapple chunks, cut small

3 ripe/brown bananas, mashed

160ml milk (as I still had 100ml left from the can of coconut milk I used that with 60ml semi-skimmed milk)

1/2 tsp (at least) of vanilla extract

3 cups of self-raising flour

Preheat the oven to 180C/170C Fan/Gas 4. Soak the dessicated coconut in 300ml of coconut milk in a bowl for about an hour. Coat the bundt tin in cake release spray and a dusting of flour. Tap out any excess flour into the sink.

Beat together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until pale and fluffy (in a large bowl, as this is a big mixture.) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mash the 3 bananas and add to the coconut milk mixture along with the pineapple chunks. Mix together then add to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix everything together. Add the flour and milk alternately, mixing well between each addition. Once everything is combined spoon it into the bundt tin. Fill until you're about an inch from the top so you don't run the risk of overflowing. Use the remaining mixture to fill some cupcake/muffin cases or a loaf tin. Bake for about an hour until deep golden, firm to touch and the edges are coming away from the tin.

banana and coconut muffins

I was tempted to call this post "experimental banana baking and cupboard clearing night" but that seemed rather long winded.

Earlier this week I discovered an interesting array of almost out of date ingredients in the baking cupboard and some black bananas on the worktop so an evening of baking was in order. I ended up producing an almond and dried cranberry banana loaf (more or less the same as this recipe) and these banana and coconut muffins.

It got me thinking that I rarely use coconut in my bakes. It's not that I don't like coconut, it's just not a flavour I tend to go (coco)nuts over.

HAHA, see what I did there? *everybody groans*

Although my cobbled together recipe isn't perfect (neither are my half-assed foggy evening photographs) I really enjoyed the banana and coconut flavour combination. It's subtly sweet and feels a little bit tropical. Like most muffins these were best fresh from the oven although I also enjoyed one reheated the following day for breakfast with the remaining coconut yoghurt. However I found they lacked something when cold so I added a simple glaze (icing sugar mixed with a splash of fruit juice) which perked them up a bit.

I imagine they'd also be lovely eaten with a fruity curd. If I were to make these again I'd feel tempted to add something else into the batter; perhaps some chopped pecans or small pineapple chunks for extra texture or juicy-ness.

My muffins didn't rise as much as I had hoped either. Muffin making confuses me as I'm sure I read somewhere that the less you mix everything the better as you're not going for the airiness of a sponge cake. That said, surely it needs a bit more rise? If you don't mix enough you'll just be left with a stodgy lump.

Perhaps they needed a higher temperature in the oven too. I'm still trying to get used to my new oven temperatures. I've always used gas ovens so changing to electric has been a bit confusing. The cave woman in me is saying "but there's no flame.... where is the heat coming from?!"

I know you're laughing. I'm an idiot.

Banana and coconut muffins

125g self raising flour

90g golden caster sugar

40g (roughly) dessicated coconut

a good pinch of cinnamon

a few drops of vanilla extract

50g butter, melted

1 large egg

1 banana, mashed

60ml coconut yoghurt

for a simple icing glaze:

a couple of tablespoonfuls of icing sugar

a splash of fresh fruit juice. I used a tropical flavoured one.

Preheat the oven to 180C/170 fan/Gas 4 and line a muffin tin with about 8 muffin cases. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together all the wet ingredients in a jug then pour into the dry ingredients. Mix everything together until combined. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases, filling each one about 2/3 full, then place on the middle shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes or until risen, golden and firm to touch. Leave to cool in the tray for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack. 

Enjoy warm from the oven or cool with yoghurt, a fruity curd or a simple fruit flavoured icing glaze. 

Coconut and raspberry cupcakes

If there's one thing people slowly (or maybe quickly) discover about me, it's that I don't particularly enjoy "going out". I'm just not a "let's party, it's Friday night!" sort of person. I'm happier pottering around at home playing the piano or baking with a good film/ sitcom on in the background. Saddo?

I knew I wanted to bake last night, but couldn't decide what to bake. I eventually decided (by 1am) on the coconut jam sandwich bars from the new Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book, but then discovered I didn't have enough dessicated coconut. I scoured the internet for alternative ideas but realised it was pretty late to be baking. Half an hour later...... I still wanted to bake. In my pyjamas of course.

I decided to compromise and have raspberry and coconut cupcakes. Funnily enough, when I typed "coconut and raspberry cupcakes" into google, the lovely Caked Crusader popped up, so I used her sponge recipe but decided to only use one raspberry in the middle of each cupcake. I then made some raspberry buttercream and had a bash at the Hummingbird Bakery icing technique. I finished at a very silly middle-of-the-night time...... it was getting lighter outside, oops! I may not go out that much but I'm still a night owl.

It was worth it though, they are very tasty and so pink and girly! I had one for my elevenses this morning with my brother. Nowhere near as impressive as the Caked Crusader's cupcakes, but pretty nonetheless.

I love the raspberry in the centre. Delicious!

Coconut and raspberry cupcakes.

Original recipe from the Caked Crusader (Check hers out, they are amazing!!)

125g softened butter

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

125g self-raising flour

3 tbsp dessicated coconut

2 tbsp milk

packet of raspberries

Preheat oven to 190C/gas mark 5 and line your bun tin with 12 large cases. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs (I tend to do them one at a time) followed by the flour, coconut and milk. Mix until everything is smooth and combined. Put a dollop of the mixture in the bottom of each cupcake case, place a raspberry in the centre, and then cover with the remaining mixture until each case is roughly 3/4 full. Bake in the centre of the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until pale golden on top and firm to touch. Place onto a wire rack to cool.

I didn't really weigh things out for my icing (by 3am I was just chucking stuff in!) Roughly, I think it was around 50g(ish) softened butter, 1/2tsp vanilla extract, 200g(ish) icing sugar and 10-15 raspberries (which were washed, dried and strained through a sieve to remove seeds). I then added enough milk to make the icing a smooth, spreadable consistency.

I may not be up late partying, but I'm certainly up late baking!

Carrot cake

Oh how I love carrot cake. Proper, chunky carrot cake. I wanted to make it last night but discovered that the philly cheese in the fridge was mouldy. I wasn't going to ice a cake with mouldy icing and I certainly wasn't going to bake a cake without any icing to put on it. 

So today I made the carrot cake, or perhaps I should say yesterday. I started late in the evening and the cake only came out the oven after midnight. Who cares, it's amazing! I always use the same recipe and haven't been able to try others as I love this one so damn much.

Frosted carrot cake

Recipe from Children's Quick and Easy Cook Book - I got this for Christmas when I was about 10. It was first cookbook and I still occasionally use it!

225g (8oz) carrots

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

140g (5oz) soft brown muscovado sugar

grated zest of 1 orange

2 tsp ground cinnamon

115g (4oz) chopped roasted hazelnuts or chopped walnuts (I use walnuts)

55g (2oz) desiccated coconut

2 large eggs

150ml (1/4 pint) sunflower oil

juice of 1 orange

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm (8 inch) round, loose bottomed cake tin. Scrub or peel the carrots, trim off their tops, then grate. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl then mix in the grated carrots, salt, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, nuts and coconut. Beat the eggs. Add the the eggs, sunflower oil and orange juice to the cake mixture and mix everything together well. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 60-75 minutes until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean. (I usually put a layer of greaseproof paper over the cake for the last 15 minutes to stop the top from burning.) Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

I usually make up my own icing to taste. Maybe roughly 115g (4oz) cream cheese, 30g (1oz) butter, 55g (2oz) icing sugar and a squeeze of honey and lemon juice to taste. Basically I just add enough of each to achieve a good spreadable consistency and nice flavour.