Chocolate Coconut Cake

I think there's something funny about desiccated coconut in desserts - you don't normally eat it on its own and its not very fun to eat (as opposed to shoving a huge handful of chocolate chips in your mouth), but once you have a bite of a dessert with them in it ... it becomes so more-ish! Why!? 

Anyway, that's what happened to me. I took a bite of a coconut macaroon and for some reason I had this craving to make a coconut chocolate based dessert. It was really odd because I don't even normally like macaroons, I honestly think they're overpriced and ridiculously sweet. But hey, cravings have got to be fulfilled so I took the opportunity to make a coconut cake when my boyfriend had to bring a cake for his team at work.

The recipe is adapted from BBC Good Food's recipe:

Isaac's coconut chocolate squares

I basically doubled the recipe to make a cake instead of squares, and re-adapted the icing. I used fluid ounces to measure because I use a measuring cup.

Ingredients

• 200g butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar / 8 fl oz 
• 3 eggs
• 220g self-raising flour / 8 fl oz , sifted
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder 
• 2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder / 80g sachet
• 5 tbsp milk
• 100g desiccated coconut (optional)

• 150g - 200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 25g butter
• 2 tbsp caster sugar / icing sugar
• 1 tsp coffee powder (optional)
• 2 - 3 tbsp cream / milk 
• 100g desiccated coconut
• Handfuls of chocolate chips (optional)

Method

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (fan) or 180 degrees. Line an 8 inch/20cm cake tin (I prefer a deep cake tin) with baking paper and butter the edges. 
2. Beat together butter and sugar until thick and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, alternating with a few tablespoons of flour at a time until all the flour is used. 
3. Sift in cocoa powder and mix completely. Stir in the milk and desiccated coconut (optional).
4. Bake the cake for 30 - 40 minutes until an inserted toothpick / knife comes out clean. Leave to cool.

Icing

1. Place a pyrex bowl (or any bowl that can sustain heat) on top of a pan of simmering water. Break in the chocolate and mix it with the butter in the bowl. Once melted, stir in the sugar, cream and coffee powder (optional). Leave to cool.
2. Turn the cake over and remove the baking paper. Flip it back again onto a plate and spread the icing on the cake (once the icing has cooled). Sprinkle the desiccated coconut and chocolate chips. 

Alternatively, you can also melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave (I'm always worried about burning it so I do it for 10 seconds at medium power and I keep checking it). It works perfectly fine although it might be more difficult to incorporate the cream which would help soften the icing. Otherwise, the icing would still be tasty but the chocolate might set which creates a hard layer of icing that you may have to struggle piercing through when you try and cut it!

I haven't got a picture yet but when I make it again I'll defo put it up. :) It's a great, non-sweet cake which is really easy to eat. 

Nutella Cuppycakes

So the best thing about not having anything to do, is the time to make cupcakes. I've never been a huge fan of Nutella but I sure was pleased to try out making the cupcakes and boy are they tasty. I still kind of need to work on my icing but I'm sure I'll get round to that eventually!

What you need to realise first is that there isn't any actual Nutella in the cupcake batter. You can scoop into the cupcake and fill it with nutella, and then ice it with nutella icing. However, the chocolate cupcake recipe is beautiful and I adapted it from Ali at Gimmesomeoven. However, I took the icing recipe from Karen at Kitchentreaty and was a little more generous with the nutella.

Nutella Cupcake Recipe

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 cup softened butter (about 125g butter, half of a 250g block)
• 1 1/2 cups fine brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup coffee (any coffee will do, I used the instant powdered type which was quick!)
• 1 jar nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius and line the cupcake tray with cupcake liners
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time
3. In a separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa and baking powder. In another bowl, stir the milk with the coffee.
4. While mixing, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and alternate with the milk mixture until a smooth batter is formed
5. Using two spoons or an icing pipe, fill the cupcake liners with batter until 3/4 full
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
7. Let cupcakes cool. Once cool, cut a circle on the top of the cake to pull out the top (think of it like a hat). Fill it with nutella and replace the top of the cake.

Nutella Frosting

• 1 cup butter, softened (250g)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup nutella
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl, whip butter and 1 cup of sugar. Add nutella, vanilla, salt and cream and whip with remaining 1 cup of sugar. If the icing is too soft, add more sugar. (I decided to have it soft as I didn't want my icing too sweet)

They're really good, seriously.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

There were meteor showers last week! I got majorly excited about it and my maternal instinct kicked in to pack two thermos flasks of earl grey tea, blankets, and gluten-free chocolate cupcakes! It was my first attempt at using gluten-free flour so I didn't know how it would turn out but it turned out great! I also had the luxury of decorating them with lots of pink. Gosh, such a princess!

Recipe for Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 250g of softened butter (1/2 cup)
• 1 cup of caster sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3 eggs

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4. Line cupcake tin with cupcake casings.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder and xantham gum together.
3. In a separate bowl, mix butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and flour alternately. Sift in cocoa powder and finally add the milk to form a smooth batter.
4. To put the batter into the cupcake casings, either use a piping bag OR use a large tablespoon and teaspoon. With a large tablespoon, scoop a generous amount of batter and scrape it off into the casing with the teaspoon in one movement. The batter should fill the each casing to at about 3/4 full.
5. Bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
6. Ice with buttercream icing

For Buttercream icing, simply mix 150g of butter with 280g of sifted icing sugar, 1-2 tsp of milk and 1 tsp vanilla.