Friday, September 21, 2007

Coconut Cupcakes

Ok, I think I have made you wait long enough, sorry it has taken me longer than expected.

These recipes are based on Coconut Marshmallow Clouds from The Crabapple Bakery Cookbook, the cupcake batter smells and tastes absolutely scrummy, and the house smells like you are living on a coconut palm covered pacific island.

Coconut Cakes

makes 24, keeps 3 days, freezes 2 months

3/4 cups shredded coconut

2 1/3 cups plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 eggs

3 egg whites, extra

200g softened unsalted butter

1 3/4 castor sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup coconut milk (I used coconut cream)

Preheat oven to 170oC. Line two 12-hole muffin tins with cupcake papers.

Cupcaketastic tip: litely grease the top of your tin, it will make it easier to get cupcakes out if you have overfilled the papers.

Using an electric food processor, process the coconut until very fine - about 3 to 4 minutes. Add coconut to a bowl with sifted flour, salt and baking powder. Mix until evenly combined.

In a separate bowl combine eggs and egg whites. Do not beat.

In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until mixture is light and fluffy and the sugar has almost dissolved.

Add the eggs a quarter at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Add a third of the flour mixture and beat a low speed until combined. Add a third of the coconut milk and beat a low speed until combined. Repeat until all of the flour and coconut is added, do not over beat as this will toughen the mixture.

Spoon mixture into cupcake papers, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 18 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the trays immediately and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before frosting.

Marshmallow Frosting

Makes enough frosting for 24 cupcakes, Does not keep, use immediately

3 egg whites

480g white sugar

3 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

150ml water

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Food colouring

In a metal bowl combine the egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and water. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water) and beat continuously with a hand-held electric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Take the bowl off the heat and add the vanilla and a few drops of desired food colouring. Whisk the mixture until it forms stiff peaks.

This is word for word from the book, I actually find this not enough information for novice bakers experiencing marshmallow frosting for the first time. Having made marshmallow frostings before I was concerned that there is no advised temp to reach, normally beating for 12 minutes is the go or reaching a Temp of 160oF on a candy thermometer. But i made the frosting as instructed above to see the result. It never came to stiff peak, but it was firm enough to pipe and hold its shape. It remained very soft, had a lovely shine, but didn't form a crust (as far as I know). It maybe the addition of the corn syrup that assists in the shine.

I'd like to hear about how you all went with this recipe.

11 comments:

Mindy Moo said...

I need to read the crapabble book again to see if there are other treasures like this.

chocolatechic said...

Thanks so much for your recipe.

It looks sooooo wonderful and I can not wait to try it!

BitterSweet said...

Oh my, that marshmallow frosting looks -so- beautiful... Alas, it's rather difficult to substitute for egg whites. Darn! I'll just sit around and admire yours instead. ;)

Deborah said...

These sound wonderful!

Unknown said...

Those look lovely. I really like marshmallow icing. :)

Steph said...

I love this!!!! I need one!

How To Eat A Cupcake said...

I'm bookmarking this recipe!!

There's just something about the pairing of the words "coconut" and "cloud"

:D

Priscila said...

Hi Cupcaketastic!!

I tried this frosting these weekend and it came out soooooooo delicious and it did has a crust!

In fact, I was waiting for the shining looking... but I loved the way they came out. I let the water touch the bottom of the bowl for a while... I didn't remember your advise to avoid it.. maybe the frosting came out in a crust shape because of it... What do you think?

2 questions for you:

1. What decoration tip did you use? These swirls you made are so adorable!

2. What kind of sugar you used: confectioners sugar or granulated?

Thank you for the recipe!
Please, 'e-mail me'.. ;)

Priscila
priscilacbarbosa@gmail.com
Brazil

steph- whisk/spoon said...

your cupcakes always look so glamorous! if you don't mind my asking, what brand of edible glitter do you use? i have seen wilton stuff in stores, but seems to be flakey looking...was thinking of ordering another brand (disco or magic sparkles) from cake deco, but can't really tell from website pics exactly what i'm getting.

Anonymous said...

These look gorgeous!Can I have one please:)

cupcaketastic said...

Thanks for all the great comments, sorry I have been so slack getting back to you all.

Minko, can't wait to see what you come up with, using this recipe.

chocolatechip - my pleasure, good luck.

Sorry about the egg whites Hannah, I saw somewhere someone made a frosting out of silken tofu, have you tried a recipe like that yet?

Deborah & applejuice, thanks.

Steph & How to Eat, if you lived close by I would make you some, but since you don't get into the kitchen ladies and feed those cravings.

Pri, thanks for letting me know how it went. You should definitely not let the bowl touch the water. I can't remember the number of the tip but it is a really large star plastic one from Loyal. As for the sugar, this recipe used white granulated sugar, not confectioners sugar.

Steph - thanks honey, glamour is what my cuppies are all about. Aside from taste, which is very important, nothing worse than a great looking cupcake that tastes like c@#@%p.

Cake Deco is the place to get them from except the pic on the web is incorrect. They are caked Edible Art/Glitter. I suggest you call them direct and tell them what you want so there is no confusion when ordering. They have the biggest range of colours too. I know what you mean about the flaky sugar look, it can be useful for snow but its definitely not GLITTER.

Thanks Maryanne, I'd send you one if I could.