When I was deciding which cupcake recipes to have on the site, Coconut Cupcakes were at the top of my list. I love both the look and flavor of these little buttery cakes topped with tangy cream cheese frosting and flakes of sweetened coconut. It is easy to see how they got their pet name, Snowball Cupcakes.
Coconut Cupcakes start with white cake. This is a sweet and buttery flavored cake that is mixed together using the 'combination' method. This method is almost the same as the 'creaming' method, where the butter and sugar are beaten together, followed by adding the eggs, flour, and liquid. The only difference is that with the combination method, the eggs are separated. The egg yolks are added to the butter and sugar mixture (like with the creaming method), but the egg whites are beaten separately and are folded into the batter at the end. This produces a cake with additional volume and lighter texture than with the 'creaming' method. Once the cake batter is made it is divided among 12 muffin cups and baked. The cupcakes need to be completely cooled before they are frosted. Now, there are many frostings you could use on this buttery white cake, but I decided to use a cream cheese frosting. It has a smooth and tangy flavor which seems the perfect accompaniment to, not only the cake, but the coconut garnish. You can use either sweetened (flaked or shredded) or unsweetened coconut to garnish these cupcakes. If you would like toasted coconut simply bake the coconut in a 350 degree F (177 degree C) oven for a few minutes until nicely browned. Be sure to watch the coconut closely as it burns very easily.
For a little trivia, the name "cupcake" was used differently back in the 1800s. Then the name "cup cake" simply referred to a cake where the ingredients were 'measured' not 'weighed'. It seems that before the 1880s ingredients for cake baking were actually weighed so when recipes started to be given in 'cup' measurements, the cake recipes were named 'cup cakes' to reflect this difference. Greg Patent also tells us in his book 'Baking in America' that a woman named Mrs. Rorer (in 1902) was the first to actually print a recipe for the cupcakes (with frosting) we all enjoy today. Read more:
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น