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