Planning an Easter dessert that's new, scrumptious and fun for all ages is pretty simple what with all of you to turn to. So many great ideas!  Have you ever seen so much coconut? Coconut Easter eggs, Easter coconut macaroons, coconut-laden Bunny cakes, coconut pound cakes, regular old fashioned coconut cake and chocolate eggs sitting in coconut nests. Carrots make perfect sense. But coconut? Is it supposed to be bunny fur? Or perhaps it's supposed to be grass, albeit the color is a little off. Maybe both.

Luckily, a slice of coconut cake makes my mouth water any time of year. So I thought for Easter dinner I'd make these little coconut cupcakes and plop my happy bunnies right on top. (Who wouldn't be happy sitting in a pile of frosting?) These little cupcake gems have rum in them and orange juice, which frankly sounds like a good drink to me. And yes, there actually is one: it's called a Cuban Screw or Coconut Cuban Screw. :D Anyway, the rum in these cupcakes really isn't that strong and I suppose you could leave it out if you wanted to. But the little bunny hopes you won't.

Coconut Orange Cupcakes
From The Perfect Finish by Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark



Ingredients for the cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
finely grated zest of one orange
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sour cream

Ingredients for the soaking syrup:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 1/2 tablespoons Malibu rum ( a rum made in Barbados with natural coconut extract, which I didn't have so substituted dark rum)

Ingredients for the coconut buttercream:
3 large egg yolks, room temperature
6 tablespoons cream of coconut
6 tablespoons unsweetened coconut milk
pinch of fine sea salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
6 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated unsweetened coconut, toasted (To toast, I used a dry frying pan on the stove, stirring constantly)

Method for the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 325º. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In an electric mixer bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, orange zest and vanilla until light and fluffy. (about 5 minutes) Beat the eggs in one at a time. Then alternate the flour and sour cream three times on low speed until just combined. Divide the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on rack.

Method for the soaking syrup:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the granulated sugar and water. Cook, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the orange juice and rum.

Method for the buttercream:
Place the egg yolks in a bowl. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of a small saucepan. In the pan, heat the coconut milk and coconut cream until it reaches a simmer. (one bubble is enough) Drizzle the mixture slowly over the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Return the coconut/yolk mixture to the pan and stir over low heat until slightly thickened. The mixture should be 160º but not go over 180º or it will curdle.
Using a fine mesh sieve, strain into a clean bowl to stop the cooking, stir in the salt and refrigerate covered until thoroughly chilled.
In an electric mixer, beat the butter with the confectioners sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the rum and vanilla extract. On low speed, gradually beat in the cold coconut/yolk mixture until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in the coconut.

To assemble:
Halve the cupcakes horizontally and brush both side with the soaking syrup. Spread the buttercream on the bottom halves, replace the top halves and spread about 2 tablespoons of buttercream on top. Sprinkle with leftover toasted coconut.



And now for the Mother's Day Giveaway!
I've got 4 cookbooks to give away!
Two of Heidi's Super Natural Cooking:



And two of Kim's Good to the Grain:

My Valentine's Day gift to you is this adorable cupcake. Not a cupcake at all, but a meringue confection masquerading as a cupcake. Delishishly decadent and sweet. Totally impractical, hideously fattening and difficult to resist.

Pink Meringue Cupcakes with Raspberry Curd
Martha Stewart Living Magazine, February 2010

Spray your muffin cups now.
Tranfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a plain coupler (no tip) and pipe into the prepared muffin liners, filling to about 2 inches above the rims, ending with a peak in the center.
Bake, rotating half way through, for 3 to 3 hours and 20 minutes. Cupcakes should be dry on the outside and when you stick a toothpick in horizontally at the base of the top, it should come out with moist but cooked crumbs on it.
Transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool completely. Beat the creme fraiche and the remaining 1/4 cup sugar on high speed until soft peaks form. Carefully slice the tops of the cupcake off using a serrated knife. Top each cupcake with 2 tablespoons of raspberry curd (recipe follows), a few raspberries and 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche. Replace tops and serve.
Makes 1 dozen.


Raspberry Curd

Ingredients:
1 container (6 ounces) fresh raspberries
1-1/4 cups sugar
4 large egg yolks
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Method:
Stir all ingredients together well in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until slightly thick, about 8-10 minutes. Strain, refrigerate until cold and thick.

Hope all the moms out there had a wonderful Mother's day. I had a terrific one, thanks to my family. They are the best!  They brought me breakfast in bed, took me out hiking, barbecued and made daiquiri in my honor.  Hm…may every day be Mother’s day!  





Such is life! And in the mean time, I had promised my little one that I will make him cupcakes during Easter.  He had spotted the Sprinkle cupcakes.  I finally made good of that promise and here is the recipe for you too.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour- 1 1/4 cup
Baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Sugar- 3/4 cup
Butter,at room temp- 6 Tbsp
Egg- 1 large and 1 egg white
Pure vanilla extract- 1 1/2 tsp
Milk- 1/2 cup
Rainbow Sprinkles- 2 Tbsp

Method:

1.Preheat oven at 350 degree F. Grease or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2.Sift together the flour,salt and baking powder.
3.Beat the butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.
4.Add the egg and egg white one after the other and mix until everything is combined.
5.Add the vanilla extract and mix again.
6.Mix in the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with milk, staring andhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif ending with flour mixture.
7.Fold in the sprinkles and spoon out into the prepared pan.
8.Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
9.Cool on a wire rack and do the frosting of your preferred choice.

Notes:

1.You could use any white cake/vanilla cake recipe for making this.
2.I used whipped cream frosting. You can find the recipe here.
3.This makes 12 cupcakes.



Recipe adapted from: Here
Contributor: Namitha

  Hope you doing good! We had a beautiful, busy and entertaining weekend.  My daughter is big on festivities. Every holiday she likes to do something special be it either game or food.  I guess it's her age where she wants to share all the fun stuff with her friends.  She is always challenging me in her cutest way to bake or make a goody or two and now I secretly look forward to these challenges.  The egg hunt was our first fun factor for Easter and we declared it a huge success.  So Easter Sunday came and I surprised her with these cute cupcakes.  Her expression on seeing them was priceless and made all the effort worthwhile.  I knew I had won another challenge.  My toddler enjoys everything that his sister does.  Its like you hear an echo.  She makes an expression or says something and shortly my son will echo it.   


See those chocolate eggs on the top? Well, my son has a fetish for those cute fellows.  He ate all the chocolate eggs from the cakes and the rest of us had to do with just the nests :-)
Ingredients:

For cupcakes:

Unsalted Butter(at room temp)- 3/4 cup
Brown Sugar- 1/4 cup
Granulated white sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs- 2
Yogurt- 1 Tbsp
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Flour- 1 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1 tsp
Baking soda- 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1/8 tsp
Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder- 1/4 tsp
Walnuts chopped (optional)- 1/2 cup
Grated carrot- 1 1/2 cup


For Creamcheese frosting:

Cream cheese- 8oz, at room temp
Butter- 1/4 cup
Confectioner's sugar- 1 cup
Pure vanilla extract- 1tsp

For the nest and eggs:

Sweetened coconut flakes
Green food coloring
M&M peanut butter flavor/any egg shaped candies




Method:

1.Preheat oven to 375 degree F.
2.Grease or line the muffin tray with paper liners.
3.Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a mixing bowl.
4.Beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
5.Add the eggs one at a time and beat to mix in.
Add the vanilla extract and the yogurt and mix well.
6.Now fold in the wet mixture into the dry mixture alternately with the grated carrots and walnut.
7.Spoon into the muffin tray until the cups are 3/4th full.
8.Bake till the toothpick inserted comes out clean.This takes about 18-20 minutes.
9.Cool completely on a wire rack before you do the frosting.
10.Beat the cream cheese and butter well, till it gets soft.
11.Add the powdered sugar and beat well to mix in.
12.Add the vanilla extract and beat in.
13.Spoon onto the top of each cupcakes.
14.Take about 1/2 cup coconut flakes in a bowl and mix the green color.
15.Spoon this colored coconut flakes onto the top of frosting and place the egg candies.
16.Serve the nest and eggs to your loved ones :-)




Notes:

1.This recipe gives you 16-18 standard size cup cakes.
2.This tastes good even without frosting

Contributor: Namitha

You know how the media is on it when it comes to a festival, holiday etc.  Well, the other day when I was watching the soap ‘Desperate Housewives’ on television and the character Susan kept saying Leprechauns it din’t strike as significant.  However, reading about St Patrick’s Day I understand now.  Leprechauns are dwarfs according to Irish folklore and if you catch him he is supposed to give you a crock pot of gold.



  Forgetting folklore and soaps St Patrick Day is a Irish holiday in honor of St Patrick.  Green is the color of the day.  We are not far behind we have cupcakes with green icing for you.  .  I know this is not something Irish, but green enough to make my kids happy on St.Pat's day My daughter has been behind me to get some of the icing and at my weakest moment I gave in and bought some.  I say, it was worth it.  Holidays and festivals are always welcome so all you Irish and everyone else out there Happy St Patrick’s day!




Ingredients:

Butter-unsalted/Shortening- 1/2 cup
Sugar- A little less than 1 cup
Eggs- 3
Pure Vanilla Extract- 2 Tsp
Flour- 1 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Salt- a pinch
Milk- 1/4 cup




Method:

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.
2.Line the muffin trays with paper liners or grease them.
3.Whisk the flour together with baking powder and salt.
4.Beat the butter and sugar well, until smooth and fluffy.
5.Add the eggs one by one and beat well to mix properly
6.Add the flour mix and mil alternately and beat at low speed to mix.
7.While doing this ,start with flour and end with flour.I added the flour in 3 parts and milk in 2 parts.
8.Spoon into the tray and bake for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the sides start turning into a nice brown color.
9.Decorate with your favorite frosting and enjoy !

Recipe adapted from : Joy of baking

Notes:

1. The butter and egg should be at room temperature, for best results.
2.You could reduce the sugar if you wish, but come on, it's a cupcake :D
3.The recipe says,this is for 12 cupcakes. But I ended up with 16 standard size cakes.
4.The cakes were perfect, light and fluffy, just the way I wanted.

Sending this off to Bake off event at Stories from an Indian Kitchen



The white flowers you see are Shamrock flowers and also some Shamrock leaves which are significant of St.Pat's day, for you !!

St Patrick’s Day is new to even my Christian friends from India. Then again, I have not checked with any Catholic friends of mine to see if they celebrated it while growing up. Sunitha says - she had no clue until she landed in the U.S.


When you have children, everything colorful and vibrant catches your eyes. It could be the grocery store, department store, out in nature, everywhere. And if you have young ones going to school, they will definitely regale about every colorful experience they have in school! Well, at least until they are teenagers, I hope. Therefore, it must have either been the bakery which first made me curious about the colorful cupcakes, or my daughter’s animated description of some fantastic cupcake her friend shared with her. Whichever way, my interest was piqued and I participated in St Patrick ’s Day in my own way.



Historically, this is a festival in honor of the patron Saint of Ireland and celebrated on March 17th. The festivities started with the Catholics in Ireland, but have now taken a secular swing, spreading far and wide. I can confirm this is secular and gone beyond the boundaries of Ireland because even a mother from a small town in Kerala now fully participates by baking rainbow cupcakes on this special day.


For some people, St Patrick’s day is about coloring lakes green, wearing green attires or getting pinched for not wearing green, drinking a lot of green drinks, and even spotting funky hats. Others may call this an eyesore and decide not to participate. But as for me, it is another reason to celebrate in the middle of March! The beautiful color green signifies the arrival of spring. You know I will take spring for anything. In short, ‘have a great time’ is written all over this festival and I have decided not to shy away.

Baking fancy cupcakes is one of the ways I celebrate. For this one, the process was painstaking, with half a tablespoon different color batter being poured alternatively into each cupcake mold. But when baked, and my little boy exclaimed ‘rainbow’ with his hands clutching his wide-open-mouth it was priceless. Color your day green!


I have to tell you this - the first time I got excited about rainbow cupcakes is when Sangeetha shared it on her blog Kothiyavunu. Thank you Sangee for inspiring.


Ingredients:

Flour: 1 cup
Baking powder- 1 to 1 1/2 tsp
Vegetable oil- 1/2 cup
Sugar- 1/2 cup (plus 2 Tbsp if you are not using a frosting)
Eggs- 2
Pure Vanilla Extract- 1 1/2 tsp
Milk/Buttermilk- 1/2 cup
Food colors-Yellow,Red,Blue,Green

To Make more Colors:

Violet - 9 red + 6 blue drops
Orange - 12 yellow + 4 red drops.


Method:

1.Line a muffin pan to make 10 cupcakes. Beat together sugar and oil, follow up by add eggs one at a time.
2.Now mix in the vanilla extract.
3.Whisk together flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.
4.Gradually add flour into the wet mixture alternating with milk or buttermilk to make the batter.
5. Take 6 bowls and pour equal quantity of the batter into each of them. (It will be about 1/3 cup in each bowl) Preheat oven at 350 degree F.
6. Color the batter in each bowl with the food colors mentioned above. Stir well without any streaks making a uniform color. It will take about 10-12 drops of color. I know it's a lot of color but you will need to make vibrant cupcakes.
7. Now is the time consuming part. Carefully pour about 1/2 Tbsp of each color into all the prepared cups.(Be accurate, if you add more than 1/2 Tbsp, you will run out of batter !)
11.Starting with either blue or red finish all the rainbow colors. Each time make sure that you cover the bottom layer color with the one you are pouring on top. Do not spread the batter. Keep pouring each spoon of batter in the center every time and batter will spread itself.
12.Bake for about 15 minutes or until the tester comes out clean.
16.Cool on a wire rack and then the cakes are ready for frosting.

Notes:

1.This recipe yields the most moist and delicious Vanilla cupcakes I've ever tasted!
2.Using the same recipe you may choose to use just 4 or 5 colors. This will make each colored portion broader.
3.You don't have to worry about taking time to pour in each color, the cupcakes will come out perfect.
4.If you add only 1/2 cup sugar, the cake is not too sweet. This will give you enough incentive to frost without feeling guilty. I used whipped cream to frost some of the cup cakes.

Adapted from: Baking bites and Kothiyavunu

Today we would like to share a great news with you all,well not all, since we had this updated in Facebook on Friday. Sunitha won this month's DMBLGIT under the category 'Originality.'

If you are not familiar, DMBGLIT expanded is "does my blog looks good in this" and is considered as the one of the most prestigious awards among food bloggers. Sunitha is creative and I think this picture is a perfect example.

If you haven't had a chance to visit her personal blog ,here is a link, where she shares her crochet and art work. I consider myself lucky to have a friend like you, Sunitha.Hugs !

Friends, please join me in congratulating Sunitha on her wonderful achievement !


This virtual treat is for you buddy :-)


Do you notice the silly bands in this pic ? My daughter's latest craze !


Ingredients:

Flour- 1 1/3 cup
Baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Cocoa Powder(preferably dutch processed)- 1/2 cup
Boiling water- 1 cup
Salted Butter- 1/2 cup
Eggs- 2
Pure Vanilla Extract- 2 tsp

Method:

1.Whisk the flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl.
2.Preheat the oven at 375 degree F.Grease muffin pans with butter or line with paper liners.
3.Mix the boiling water and cocoa, mix well till there is no lumps.Let it cool
4.Beat the butter and sugar until smooth.Add the eggs ,one at a time and beat well to mix in.
5.Add the vanilla extract and mix.
6.Now beat in cooled cocoa mix into this and mix everything.
7.Fold in the flour mixture into this and spoon out into the muffin pan.
8.Bake for about 15-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
9.Frost with your favorite icing. I did buttercream frosting since my daughter wanted to have her favorite colors.

For Buttercream Frosting:

Confectioner's sugar- 1 1/2 cup
Butter- 4 Tbsp
Milk- 2-3 Tbsp
Pure Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
Food color

Mix the butter and sugar by beating well.Add milk and vanilla and mix again.Add the food color if you are adding any, mix and frost the cupcakes


Notes:

1.If you are using unsalted butter add about 1/3 tsp salt.
2.This yields about 18 cupcakes.

Recipe Adapted from : Joy of baking
Contributor: Namitha