If you're looking for a treat with the delicious tropical flavours of coconut and lime you've certainly come to the right place. These cupcakes are deliciously yummy, and when you've made them the once I'm sure it won't be long before you decide to make them again.
Coconut and Lime Cupcake Recipe.
These cupcakes are super easy to make using the classic Victoria Sponge recipe as the base for the batter. Added to the batter is the finely grated zest of a lime and a nice amount of desiccated coconut, sufficient to support the coconut flavour but not too much to result in a dry cake.
Once baked and cooled the cakes are filled with a fabulously zesty homemade lime curd and
topped with a coconut buttercream frosting and lightly toasted coconut
flakes. Although you might usually pipe your cake frostings to get a lovely swirl, our chosen method of decoration in this instance simply calls for it to be dolloped on (a technical word for you ?) and smoothed out a little with the back of a spoon before finishing with a scattering of toasted coconut flakes.
Coconut Buttercream Frosting.
By far the easiest way to make a coconut flavoured buttercream frosting is by using a pre-flavoured icing sugar, and then making the buttercream frosting in the usual way with butter and lots of beating. There certainly seems to be quite a few flavoured icing sugars available to buy from local high street shops and supermarkets these days, making the task of getting the right frosting consistency an awful lot easier. The product we used for our coconut buttercream frosting is by Cake Decor, and is called flavour-ice naturally flavoured icing sugar, ( I've mentioned it simply because I really loved the product) which we picked up from our local supermarket. As you might expect, though, it is a little more expensive then ordinary icing sugar, but the great twist is that as the flavour is quite robust it's likely that you will be happy to 'dilute' the flavoured icing sugar with regular icing sugar helping to make it go a little further whilst still getting a really delicious clean coconut taste to your frosting. We were happy with using roughly 2 parts coconut icing to 1 part regular icing sugar.
If you decide to make these Coconut & Lime Cupcakes (and why wouldn't you because they're seriously yummy!), you'll surely need to have Harry Nilsson's 'Coconut' playing in the background! And if you're not familiar with it (like me until an Instagram friend enlightened me) go and have a listen, though I make no apology for it getting in your head and having you singing all day long ? .
How to make Coconut & Lime Cupcakes.
Coconut and Lime Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 120 g butter softened
- 60 g caster sugar
- 60 g golden caster sugar
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 lime finely grated zest
- 60 g desiccated coconut
- 2 tablespoon milk
- 120 g self-raising flour
for the cupcake filling
- 8 teaspoon lime curd
for the coconut buttercream & decoration
- 180 g butter softened
- 230 g coconut icing sugar we used Cake Decor’s flavour-ice naturally flavoured icing sugar
- 130 g icing sugar
- 1 – 2 teaspoon milk
- 60 g coconut flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190℃ (170℃ fan)/375°F/gas mark 5. Place the muffin sized cases into the muffin tray.
- Make the sponge. Place the soft butter and sugars into a good sized bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon or electric beaters until very pale and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the lime zest, desiccated coconut and milk, and beat to combine. Sieve the flour into the mixture. Use a spatula or large metal spoon to fold this in gently. You’re aiming for a nice dropping consistency. Add a little more milk if necessary.
- Fill the muffin cases. Using a teaspoon, fill the cases with the batter mixture. You’re aiming for them to be half to two-thirds full. You may decide to weigh each muffin to ensure equal sizes. Each will weigh about 60g – 63g.
- Bake. Place the muffin tray in the centre of the oven and bake for about 20 – 23 minutes. You may need to rotate the tray after 15 minutes of baking. Once baked, remove from the oven and place on a cooling tray.
- Make the buttercream. Place the softened butter into a good sized bowl. Beat to ensure it is soft and creamy. Sieve half of the coconut icing sugar into the butter. Use a wooden spoon to combine the two ingredients. Sieve in the remaining coconut icing sugar and mix to combine. Sieve the unflavoured icing sugar into the buttercream and beat again. Beat well to create a creamy frosting. Add a little milk if necessary, and beat in well.
- Toast the coconut flakes. Place the coconut flakes into a dry frying pan / skillet. Set on the hob over a low to medium heat. Allow the coconut flakes to gently pick up a soft brown colour whilst frequently moving them around the pan to avoid them catching and spoiling. Be aware that the coconut flakes can toast quite quickly. Tip the coconut into a bowl and set aside to cool.
- Hollow out the cupcakes. Use a paring knife or the wide end of a large piping nozzle to create a hollow in the top of the cupcake. Use the tines of a fork to gently remove a little more of the cupcake sponge if required. Add a teaspoon of the lime curd. Avoid over filling. Cut off a little of the sponge that was removed and place the ‘crust’ piece back onto the cupcake to act as a ‘plug’.
- Decorate. Place 2 – 3 teaspoon of coconut icing onto the cupcake. Use the back of the spoon to smooth it out. (If you prefer you could pipe it on). Finish with a generous scattering of toasted coconut flakes.
Notes
- 8 muffin sized cupcake cases
- muffin tin
Julia
These are so good! I also made a mango puree to fill them with and topped them off with a swiss meringue buttercream. The results are on my insta page. @the.travel.kitchen
Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Pleased you liked them and coconut does indeed go very well with mango too. I shall check out your insta feed
Eb Gargano
WOW! Just WOW - these look incredible....and I bet they taste AMAZING!! Thanks for linking up to #CookBlogShare. Eb 🙂