Coconut And Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes / Muffins? - For SRC

As another hot month whizzes by its already time for another SRC post! This time around Nicole's The Daily Dish Recipes . Meet the super busy mother to five kids, who dabbles in DIY, home-improvement projects and photography part from blogging. Can imagine what a busy life she must lead, kudos! While I can barely manage my kids, barely been able to feed my blog the last couple of months, no prizes for guessing this really short post is being written at the last moment ( I procrastinate to a certain extent, but rarely this much!).

Many yummilicious desserts, food and bakes on Nicole's blog, I chose to make these simple cupcakes (just a couple of days ago, almost last-minute again!)  I have so begun to love brownies, but I had to stop myself from baking  Dorie Greenspan's QuintupleChocolate Brownies and bake something else.. cupcakes? Yes, been seriously long since I baked some. Coconut cupcakes, why not? Now that my baking goodies will arrive with sis-in-law who will be visiting soon, I can afford to spend some of the coconut extract! Reading through the recipe, it sounded faintly familiar. The Pistachio Hot Milk Sponge I had baked earlier!

 Cupcakes or muffins? While I am aware that these are two different things, am no baking geek and I really don't know what to call these! Cupcakes are supposed to be cakes in miniature and muffins are mini quick breads.  These little things have very little fat but in the form of butter yet are light textured, quite soft and spongy ,almost like a cake, sans the richness factor (without the topping).

Recipe from here. The recipe proportions on Nicole's blog will yield a substantial number of cupcakes (at least 32 at a guess) But since we are currently over-loaded with goodies from visiting grand parents and the frequent holiday eat-outs, I have made a tiny batch with a quarter of the recipe. I have also reduced the sugar and skipped the topping. Do double for more.

Ingredients:( To make about 8 small cupcakes)

All Purpose Flour - 1/2 Cup 

Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Caster sugar - 5 tablespoons 

Unsalted Butter - 1 tablespoon

Eggs - 1

Milk - 1/4 cup

Coconut extract - 1/4 teaspoon
Dessicated Coconut / coconut powder - 1 tablespoon
Dark chocolate chunks - 3 tablespoons (optional)
Unsweetened coconut flakes - 2-3 tablespoons for topping

Procedure: Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C / 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tray with paper liners.

Sieve the flour and baking powder twice, stir in the dessicated coconut. Keep aside. Heat the milk in a saucepan, add the butter to it. Cover to keep it hot.

In a medium sized bowl, beat the egg till thick, about 2 minutes on medium high speed with a hand mixer. Add the sugar and beat for 5 minutes on medium high speed. Mix in the coconut extract. Fold in the flour mixture. Gently stir in the hot milk mixture into the batter. (In case, the milk is no longer hot, heat it again) Stir it into the batter gently. Fill the liners about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-18 minutes or till a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not over bake. The cupcakes will brown lightly around the edges and turn a light golden on top. Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack.

Eat them as is or with a topping of flaked coconut, brown sugar, butter and cream as Nicole does. 

Please note : Dessicated coconut here is the very fine almost powdery kind of dried coconut. If you add more of it your batter will be firmer and probably the cakes dry. Use good quality coconut extract and in a small quantity or the smell can be quite over-powering and unpleasant. Try using crushed cardamom and omit the chocolate, then you may wish to add a tablespoon more of sugar. The procedure for preparing the batter is slightly different on Nicole's blog, I have made the cupcakes the same way as I have made pistachio hot milk sponge.