Last week I was posessed with the idea of making summery pineapple curd to put inside coconut cupcakes. However there was a major flaw in my tropical plan: I'm a lazy low faff baker.
All the pineapple curd recipes I came across online only used egg yolks and I cannot be arsed with recipes which only use half the egg. (Now you know why I rarely make meringues!) The number of times I've set aside the other half of the egg with the best of intentions to bake something with it, only to eventually throw it away as I inevitably forget about it is annoying. And wasteful.
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All the pineapple curd recipes I came across online only used egg yolks and I cannot be arsed with recipes which only use half the egg. (Now you know why I rarely make meringues!) The number of times I've set aside the other half of the egg with the best of intentions to bake something with it, only to eventually throw it away as I inevitably forget about it is annoying. And wasteful.
So I set about inventing a pineapple curd recipe loosely based on a few whole egg curd recipes. The resulting curd tastes lovely and is a glorious sunshine yellow but is sadly more like a grainy, runny sauce than a curd. I decided against putting it inside the cupcakes but mixed a few teaspoonfuls into the icing and have eaten some drizzled on top of a cupcake. It definitely adds to the overall flavour of the cupcake, but I'm kicking myself for not following an actual pineapple curd recipe.
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Without the curd I find the cupcake a bit "meh". Coconut is a funny flavour for me. I think it's a subtle, secondary element or an additional texture. It needs to be paired with a strong flavour such as pineapple, raspberry, lime or chocolate to bring it to life.
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Following the disappointment of my pineapple not-quite-a curd I split my coconut cupcake batch to produce a raspberry and coconut combination too. For these I put raspberry jam in the centre and whipped a few teaspoonfuls into the butter icing. I've seen a few people mix jam into icing but have never tried it myself. It is so tasty, why haven't I done this before?! Move over malt chocolate icing, this is my new obsession.
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The girly girl in me is filled with glee by eating something which looks so pink and fluffy. The bright jammy centre just adds to the girly excitement. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed raspberry and coconut as a pairing.
Unsurprisingly the raspberry batch are the winners for me. However had the curd worked I think these would have been pretty special too as pineapple and coconut is such a fresh and summery flavour combination. I'll just have to suck it up one day and make a pineapple curd using only egg yolks!
Coconut cupcakes - half with raspberry jam, half with pineapple curd
filling:
butter icing (covers both batches):
Coconut cupcakes - half with raspberry jam, half with pineapple curd
6oz/ 170g margarine/ butter
6oz/ 170g caster sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5oz/ 140g self raising flour
1oz/ 30g desiccated coconut (plus extra to top the cupcakes at the end)
2 tablespoons of milk
filling:
1 jar raspberry jam
1 jar pineapple curd - I won't write what I did as it didn't particularly work but you can find a few different pineapple curd recipes here, here or here.
butter icing (covers both batches):
150g softened butter
300g icing sugar
2-3 teaspoons of raspberry jam/pineapple curd (add to taste)Preheat the oven to 180C/160 Fan/Gas 4 and line a couple of cupcake trays with cases. In a small bowl, soak the desiccated coconut in the milk. Whilst that's soaking, beat together the margarine and sugar in a large bowl for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last egg to stop the cake mixture from curdling. Tip in the milky coconut, vanilla extract and remaining flour and mix until everything is fully combined.
Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases (I think I got 16 from the mixture) and bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes until the cupcakes are light golden in colour, well risen, and spring back when touched. Leave to cool in the tins for a couple of minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
For the icing, beat together the butter and icing sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Split the icing in half, adding a few teaspoons of raspberry jam to one batch and curd to the other. Mix both icings thoroughly.
Using a sharp knife, cut a circular disc from the top of each cupcake and pop a teaspoonful of jam or curd inside and replace the top. Spread or pipe the icing on top and liberally cover with (toasted) desiccated coconut.