Summer is here at last. My favourite fruit, the strawberry, shines out in so many recipes this season. And of course Wimbledon celebrates this beautiful berry too! What better way to combine my two favourites than with this strawberry coconut cupcake recipe?
But of course, we aren’t limited to just the two weeks of Wimbledon here – no no! Such delicious treats can be enjoyed throughout the season; for afternoon tea; as a dessert; a way to show off for the school bake sale perhaps – even for Christmas as the colour is right!
This is a ridiculously easy cupcake recipe which can be styled as simply or as glamorously as you choose, any time of the year – enjoy…
Ingredients
Cupcakes
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
35g desiccated coconut
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs (always room temperature when baking!)
1.5 tsp good quality vanilla extract
125ml coconut milk
125ml semi-skimmed milk
Icing
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese, cold
Decoration
Strawberry jam
Decadent crushed freeze-dried strawberries
White chocolate sprinkles/curls
Edible glitter…
Method
Prepare yourself
This is a very straightforward cupcake recipe and is pretty much the same way I make all cupcakes!
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and make sure your muffin tin has some cute and colourful cases in ready to go.
Sieve the plain flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl and then stir through the desiccated coconut. Set to one side.
Break your two eggs into a mixing jug, add the vanilla extract and lightly whisk with a fork. Set to one side.
Measure out the coconut milk and semi-skimmed milk (you can use all coconut milk if you prefer) and again set to one side. You are now ready to go.
Make the cupcakes
In a large mixing bowl, or in your mixer, cream the butter for a minute or two until just getting soft. Now add the caster sugar and continuing creaming together until the mixture is light and fluffy. It should fall off your wooden spoon easily when you bang the spoon onto the side of your bowl. If it clings a bit then it is not fluffy enough – keep on beating!
Now add about half of your egg/vanilla mixture and a tablespoon of the dry flour/coconut mix. Stir well and then repeat.
Next you need to gently incorporate the flour and the milks. Add half of the remaining flour mix into your bowl and fold it through until just mixed. [Add half of the milks and stir to incorporate. Repeat these two steps and be careful not to beat the mixture too much – you don’t want to lose the air you have already incorporated. If a little flour is still visible, so be it. Better that than overmixed cupcake – they will be quite dense if this is the case.
Nearly there!
I like to use an ice cream scoop to transfer my cupcake mixture into the muffin tray – it more or less guarantees that they are the same size – much easier than doing it by eye! You should get 12 (large) – 15 (slightly dainty) cupcakes.
Place the tray in the middle of your oven and bake for 20 minutes. I generally start looking through the oven door (like a Bake Off contestant!) from about 18 minutes. The toothpick test lets you know when they are ready – there should be no goo on the stick when you pull it out of the cupcake. A few crumbs is what you are looking for here. Don’t forget they continue cooking in the tin once out of the oven, so be careful not to bake too long. I would say an absolute maximum of 24 minutes.
Leave the cupcakes in the muffin tray for about 5-10 minutes (depends how messy you have been in the kitchen and how long it takes to tidy up!) and then transfer them onto a wire rack to cool. I also cover them with a clean tea towel which stops the moisture escaping so much.
Make the icing
While the cupcakes cool, you can make the icing. It’s incredibly easy! Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl or your mixer’s bowl. Beat in the butter (hand whisk or paddle attachment) and then add the cream cheese. Voila! Perfect cream cheese “frosting” every time.
Decorate
Now that your cakes are cool, cut out a 2cm hole in the top, centre of each cake. Fill this with strawberry jam and then cover it all up with decadent swirls of the icing. Sprinkle your chosen toppings liberally on top.
This Strawberry Coconut Cupcake recipe is easily the most decadent offering I have for summer – why not enjoy it with the sound of tennis balls in the background and perhaps a prosecco cocktail on a balmy summer’s evening?
