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Coconut and Pomegranate cupcakes

Published 28 November 2012 by Veronica Stillwater

Coconut and Pomegranate cupcakes! A flavour combination and topping so pretty with real fruit jewels! Yum!

Pomegranate is making itself known at this time of year and can be found on most grocer and supermarket shelves with Christmas approaching. I have always thought of it as such an underrated fruit. It is becoming more popular and for that, I am pleased. It is such a beautiful fruit bursting with a ruby red juice when you cut into it with beautiful ruby red seeds that are juicy, sweet and sour all at the same time. Each of the seeds glisten with beauty and are a real treat! Pomegranate is not just for juice and can be enjoyed on it's own, with mains or salads and of course! Cupcakes too! Coconut seems to have an affinity with this fruit and this equals a love affair of flavours, each complimenting the other. The sponge texture is light and fluffy with a vanilla flavoured ricotta frosting with drop flower piping, a light dusting of coconut and the crowning glory is most definitely the pomegranate seeds on top. These are mouth wateringly good and don't be shy on the topping of the pomegranate seeds, they really add to the eating experience for this cupcake. I hope you enjoy this week's recipe.

 

For the cupcakes:

You will need:

Food processor

12 cup muffin baking tray
12 muffin paper cases
Teaspoon　Tablespoon　

Sharp knife

Small chopping board

Ingredients:
115g butter or margarine
115g sugar
225g self raising flour

2 large eggs
1 level teaspoon baking powder
125ml milk

100g ground almonds

150g desiccated coconut

50g creamed coconut (Roughly chopped into small centimetre sized cubes)

Turn on the oven, set to 180° and fill the muffin baking tray with the paper muffin cases.

Place the butter, chopped creamed coconut and sugar in the food processor bowl, place the lid on and switch the machine on. Blitz on a high speed setting until light, pale and fluffy and all of the creamed coconut has blended in well with the butter and sugar with no visible lumps. Turn the machine off, remove the lid and add the remaining ingredients, replace the lid, switch on and blitz on a high speed setting until a smooth spoon dropping consistency is achieved.

Using the tablespoon, spoon an equal amount into each of the muffin cases. (You can use an ice-cream scoop to get exacting amounts of cake mixture in each of the muffin cases, but a tablespoon will do just fine if you don't have one). Once all are filled, place the baking tray in the oven near or just above the middle shelf and bake for 30-40 minutes, checking at 30 minutes cooking time on their progress. The cakes will appear golden, will have risen and be firm to the touch.

You can always test by inserting a clean skewer into one of the cakes, if it comes out clean they are ready, if not return to the oven checking with the skewer again at 5 minute intervals. (Always really important never to open the oven door and allow any air in before 30 minutes of cooking as this will allow for the mixture to 'drop' and sink, look through the oven door if you have one that's made of glass to visually check on their progress rather than open the door). Once baked, using oven gloves remove the baking tray from the oven and rest on a trivet until completely cooled.

 

 

For the frosting and pomegranate decoration:

You will need:

Food processor

Spatula

Drop flower nozzle

Piping bag

Sharp knife

Chopping board

Teaspoon

 

Ingredients:

100g Ricotta cheese

700g icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

35g butter

1-2 tablespoons desiccated coconut (for decoration/topping)

Seeds from ½ a large pomegranate

 

With the exception of the pomegranate seeds and the desiccated coconut, place the other ingredients into the food processor bowl, place on the lid, switch on and pulse blitz on a low speed setting to begin with until the ingredients are roughly incorporated. Switch the machine off, remove the lid and scrape any dry ingredients from the side of the bowl towards the centre. Replace the lid, switch the machine back on and blitz on a high speed setting until thick, smooth and of a piping consistency.

Fill your piping bag ready with your drop flower nozzle with the frosting and pipe drop flowers of varying different sizes onto each of the cupcakes until covered.

The drop flower nozzle is very easy to use and to create a drop flower with further detailed instructions you can refer to issue 25, page 12. If you don't have issue 25, below is a detailed description also of how to pipe drop flowers. I also noticed that Francine Appleby included the drop flower nozzle in one of her posts too, so you can always check that out too for more help with drop flowers;　

http://www.mycakedecorating.co.uk/blog/2012/10/the-drop-flower-tipnozzle-can-easily-turn-a-cake-into-a-spectacular-visual-delight/

To pipe a drop flower, you need to start with the piping bag positioned with the nozzle pointing straight and downwards. Start to pipe, applying moderate pressure until the frosting where you piping on the cake starts to take shape. Once you have the drop flower shape, stop applying pressure and moving the bag and nozzle away gently but quickly, finish off with a small formed peak. You can create different sized drop flowers by piping in the same way as described above, but applying varying pressure when piping. Try it and see how many variations you can make using the one piping nozzle. You can also pipe frills and swirls using this same nozzle, it does require a bit of practice and moving in the one direction only to get a neat finish. Repeat the drop flowers across the top of each of the cupcakes until each of the cupcake tops are covered.

 

 

For the pomegranate and coconut topping:

Using the chopping board and knife, cut the pomegranate in half. You can cover the half you are not going to use with cling film and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days and use it for breakfast with yoghurt, for topping salads, or another batch of cupcakes and so on. Using the teaspoon, remove the seeds gently from the inner membrane that holds them in place. Leave the pomegranate seeds on the chopping board. Sprinkle a small pinch of desiccated coconut over each of the frosted cupcakes and then place some of the pomegranate seeds on each. You can use your hands and could also use clean kitchen use tweezers to position them neatly on top. Once all 12 are decorated they are ready to serve and enjoy! Until next week, happy baking! Look our for next week's post with more on decorating cupcakes!