I haven’t baked anything in a very, very, long time. In general, I prefer cooking dinner and savory meals to baking cakes and sweet treats because I’m just better at cooking and I’ve had a few disasters whilst baking in the past. I am certainly no natural Mary Berry in the kitchen, let me tell you that. But I’ve really fancied baking something for a while and as soon as I popped “bake something” on my February goals list, it obviously had to be done. The over-achiever in me wouldn’t have it any other way. So after looking through a variety of cook books and trying to find something that my mum, dad, boyfriend and myself all liked, I finally settled on these cute little cakes which are the perfect flavours to get into the swing of Spring!

Cherry and Coconut Cupcakes

What you’ll need: 

• 12 cupcake cases
• 5 oz glacé cherries (or 1 pot)
• 10 oz butter
• 4 oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 oz self raising flour
• 2/3 oz desiccated coconut
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pink food colouring
• 12 oz icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees or Gas Mark 4 and place your cupcake cases on a baking tray.
2. Wash, dry and cut 4 oz of the cherries into quarters.
3. Put 4 oz butter, the caster sugar, eggs, flour, 2 oz coconut and baking powder into a bowl and mix until smooth.
4. Add the cut up cherries and mix again.
5. Finally, add in a few drops of pink food coloring (if you’re using it) and mix again.
6. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 15 – 18 minutes or until golden brown on top.
7. To make the icing, add 6 oz butter into a bowl and beat until smooth.
8. Add the 12 oz icing sugar in gradually, stirring as you go. The end result should be soft and fluffy.
9. Add some more pink food coloring, if you’re using it!
10. Pipe or spoon the icing onto the cakes and top with 1 glacé cherry each and a dusting of coconut.
11. Make a cup of tea and enjoy!

Hope you liked this recipe post! If you try these cakes for yourself please do send me a photo of your finished product! Do you like the sound of these?