I've had
Coconut & Lime on my blog list for a while, ever since I was looking up Baltimore foodblogs one day in a state of (not exactly home)-sickness. I find the recipes intriguing and often not very difficult, plus I'm very impressed that every single one is original, but I hadn't gotten around to making one yet. Also, lately I've been craving coconut cake - moisty, chewy, delicious Southern-style coconut cake - and so when I saw that C&L's 4th anniversary was coming up, and that readers are being encouraged to try out recipes for a contest, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity! Sure enough, there was a recipe for coconut cake - well,
coconut cupcakes, so I decided to try it out.
I followed the recipe more or less exactly. I did hit a snag with the butter, because I realised I didn't have enough on hand. I decided real butter would probably be more important for the baking part than the frosting, so I used 1-1/4 sticks butter plus a couple tablespoons margarine for the batter and all margarine for the frosting. The cupcakes were easy to make, though I suspect they should have cooked just a few minutes longer. They tested clean, but there are little dots in the centre of some that don't taste
quite done. The texture is great - glossy and spongey, and a lovely yellow colour. It's not quite what I was imagining- much denser, less with the fluffy - but I still like it. The frosting, however, wasn't quite a success. I love cream cheese frosting, but this ended up very goopy and extremely sweet because I had to use twice as much powdered sugar to make it even remotely spreadable. This may have been the fault of the margarine, or the organic cream cheese... anyway, I ended up basically spooning it in the centre, pressing down a bit, and chilling to set. I think I probably should have let the frosting chill and
then spread it to get away with less sugar. Fortunately, the cakes themselves aren't super sweet so it ended up all right. I still ate three yesterday!
I've had Coconut & Lime on my blog list for a while, ever since I was looking up Baltimore foodblogs one day in a state of (not exactly home)-sickness. I find the recipes intriguing and often not very difficult, plus I'm very impressed that every single one is original, but I hadn't gotten around to making one yet. Also, lately I've been craving coconut cake - moisty, chewy, delicious Southern-style coconut cake - and so when I saw that C&L's 4th anniversary was coming up, and that readers are being encouraged to try out recipes for a contest, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity! Sure enough, there was a recipe for coconut cake - well, coconut cupcakes, so I decided to try it out.
I followed the recipe more or less exactly. I did hit a snag with the butter, because I realised I didn't have enough on hand. I decided real butter would probably be more important for the baking part than the frosting, so I used 1-1/4 sticks butter plus a couple tablespoons margarine for the batter and all margarine for the frosting. The cupcakes were easy to make, though I suspect they should have cooked just a few minutes longer. They tested clean, but there are little dots in the centre of some that don't taste quite done. The texture is great - glossy and spongey, and a lovely yellow colour. It's not quite what I was imagining- much denser, less with the fluffy - but I still like it. The frosting, however, wasn't quite a success. I love cream cheese frosting, but this ended up very goopy and extremely sweet because I had to use twice as much powdered sugar to make it even remotely spreadable. This may have been the fault of the margarine, or the organic cream cheese... anyway, I ended up basically spooning it in the centre, pressing down a bit, and chilling to set. I think I probably should have let the frosting chill and then spread it to get away with less sugar. Fortunately, the cakes themselves aren't super sweet so it ended up all right. I still ate three yesterday!
2 comments:
I am not a cakey person, but I like the combination of flavours in these.
By the way, I am looking forward to the roundup :)
Holler - Though I'm not a huge cakey person, it's definitely one of those things I get cravings for from time to time, especially interesting flavours like coconut or red velvet.
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