Monday, February 22, 2010

Coconut Strawberry Cupcakes

Small Strawberry and Coconut Cakes

A  very BIG  HELLO to all of you after almost  a million years. Yes that's what it feels like to me today. Last post I put up was in October last year and after that I have kind of gone into a winter sleep where blogging is concerned. But that's only where blogging is concerned. A lots happened since then. The first break happened because my parents were here to visit us and ofcourse with them here obviously blogging was the last thing I could find time to do. They had a great stay and we did the touristy trips with them all over UK.


After they left I got a job. YES A JOB!!!! Isn't that great?  I now work in a Primary School as a Learning Support Assistant and I am happy with  my job. That's the second reason why I am not actively blogging. I am ofcourse cooking and entertaining but I now cook mostly in the evenings and my food pics taken in the evening are horrible. I have to also admit that many a times the food is eaten and polished off before I can photograph it. So no blog posts!


Then in Dec I went on my annual trip to India for 5 weeks. I spent the most fabulous 5 weeks there eating everything that I had missed in the last one and half year. It was  simply great being back in Pune and riding my Honda Activa and driving the Santro.  We had a blast and my son loved it. In his words "Aai INDIA ROCKS". What else did I need to hear.


But now I have been back since one month and things have fallen back into a routine with school and office and other activities and I am definitely back on the blogosphere.


A week back I baked these little cakes from a recipe from one of my most used books and that is The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking by Tarla Dalal.  Now in the book these cakes are called Madeleines, but I prefer to call them just "little cakes" as traditionally a Madeleine is a  shell shaped cake eaten at tea time and which is baked in special shell shaped moulds, so for me these are just small cakes or cup cakes which have a delicious coating of strawberry jam and dessicated coconut. These cakes come out beautifully each and every time and no matter how many I make they are never enough.


Note: These cakes need to be ideally baked in individual cup cake moulds, but I do not have those and baked them in a muffin tray which worked just fine


I have followed the recipe from the book word to word, and here it is for you.


Ingredients:
  • 115 gms sugar
  • 115 gms butter
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 115 gms self-raising flour
  • 1/2 tspn lemon or vanilla essence (I used vanilla)
  • 1/2 tea cup milk approx
  • red jam (I used strawberry jam)
  • dessicated coconut
Method:
  • Sieve the flour
  • Cream the butter and sugar very well  until light and creamy
  • Beat the eggs well
  • Add a little of the egg mixture to the butter and sugar and beat well. Gradually go on adding eggs beating well  all the time. If the mixture curdles, add a little flour ,mix well and then continue adding the eggs.
  • Add the sieved flour and enough milk till the batter has a dropping consistency.
  • Add the essence.
  • Grease and dust your muffin tray or the cake moulds and fill upto 3/4 with the cake mixture.
  • Bake at 400 deg F for around 20 mins.
  • Cool the cakes
  • Warm the jam and brush the cakes  with the melted jam.
  • Roll the cakes in dessicated  coconut.


The cakes are now ready to eat. Try these they are simple to make and taste awesome

13 comments:

Finla said...

Welcome back; those cupcakes look so adorable and love the coconut all around the cupcake.

Suparna said...

hi,
Thanks for stopping by :)
I love Tarla Dala's recipes too :) the cup cakes look fab!! c u around!
TC

jayasree said...

Welcome back A. Liked those snow pecked beauties.

Rekha shoban said...

cute cupcakes!!

Angie's Recipes said...

Beautiful! They look like lamington! I love coconut ANYTHING!

Padhu Sankar said...

They look so adorable!
http://padhuskitchen.blogspot.com/

lisa is cooking said...

They're so pretty, and the strawberry and coconut coating sounds delicious!

Aparna said...

Good to see you back, can you please post more lunch box recipes.

Namitha said...

Guess you had a wonderful break :-)
The cupcakes look so beautiful.Loved the coconut sprinkles a lot

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

Hey welcome back Anupama, this is a blast to break your silence!!! Looks very cute and the coconut coating sounds really perfect!!!

http://memoryarchieved.blogspot.com

Fathima said...

love these cup cakes! Yummy Yum...

Girish said...

yummy strawberry cupcakes..... really awesome. I love strawberry very much and will surely try your recipe today itself and will revert back with the feedback. One more thing i would like to add is the way you have presented it, is really beautiful. It waters my mouth.

Thanks for Sharing,
Cake Shop Mumbai

bagelsandbrownies said...

This cup cake is really looks yummy. Cake is always my favourite. So search many time cake shops Delhi.