Happy Birthday Amelia!

OK, so it was a few weeks ago now… But better late than never, right?

    

I love baking cupcakes for Birthdays, but I have a terrible habit of asking over and over ‘What’s your favourite flavour? What’s your favourite flavour?’, to which most people bashfully reply ‘Ohhh, I don’t know, anything!’

And if they do give me a flavour, ‘Ohh, I really love vanilla!’, I don’t listen anyway…

As I said, terrible habit, but I just get super excited and want to discuss frostings and flavours with anyone and everyone… ask my mother, I’m constantly ambushing her inbox with random emails in the middle of the night – ‘Vanilla cake with white chocolate filling or strawberry?!’

Now I know Amelia likes chocolate, and she did tell me that she wasn’t too keen on fruit things. I knew she would love something rich, sticky and chocolatey, so what did I do? I made raspberry coconut cupcakes with rosewater buttercream…

    

In my defense, I did ask if she liked coconut (loves it!), and it turns out she adores roses – which thankfully translated well to rose-tasting treats, and not just rose-smelling gifts.

    

To sum it up – she loved them! Or, so she tells me anyway 😉

Raspberries & Roses Coconut Cupcakes

Yield: 12 – 14 cupcakes

Ingredients

200g (1 cup) sugar
115g unsalted butter
2 eggs (separated)
1 tsp intense coconut extract
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
170g (1 cup + 3 Tbsp) plain flour
10g (2 tsp) baking powder
3g (1/2 tsp) salt
35g (1/2 cup) dessicated coconut
160ml coconut milk/cream
180g frozen raspberries

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/350° F/Gas Mark 4, and line your cupcake tins with some cute little cupcake cases.

Cream butter and 3/4 cup of the sugar in a large bowl until pale and creamy, then beat in the egg yolks and add the extracts.

Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine.

Scoop the cream off the top of your coconut milk, leaving the water behind – you will need 160ml of the cream.

Add the dry ingredients and the coconut milk to the creamed mixture a little at a time, starting and finishing with the dry.

Beat your egg whites with the remaining sugar until nice firm peaks are formed, then fold your egg whites into the cake mixture until just combined, then gently fold in the frozen raspberries.

Spoon the mixture into your cupcake cases so that they are about 2/3 full and bake your cupcakes for 15 – 20 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean.

    

Rosewater Italian Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients

215g butter, room temperature and chopped into cubes
2 large egg whites
110g (1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp) sugar
40ml water
1 tsp rosewater extract

Method

Separate your eggs, breaking the egg whites into a very clean, dry stainless steel or glass bowl.

Take 1/2 cup of your sugar and gently heat this in a saucepan with the water. Once the syrup begins to bubble around the edges, start beating your egg whites. When your egg whites start to foam add in the remaining sugar and continue to beat.

Once your syrup is bubbling in the centre, take it off the heat and add it to your egg whites in a slow stream, beating continuously. Keep beating until the egg whites and the bowl have cooled to room temperature, your egg whites should be lovely and thick at this stage.

Keep your beaters going and add the cubes of butter a little at a time, your egg whites will collapse a little, but just keep beating – you will eventually end up with a lovely light, smooth buttercream that can be flavoured and coloured as you wish.

    

Enjoy… x