These vanilla, coconut and plum cupcakes are just as delicious as they are pretty. The sweetness of the cake is occasionally punctuated with a sharp tartness of plum, and the two are perfectly harmonised by the creamy decadence of cream cheese icing – a feel good bake, and a bite of happiness.
Ingredients
- Cupcakes
- 220g (1 cup) sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 300g (2 cups) cake flour
- 10ml (2 tsp) baking powder
- 5ml (1 tsp) bicarbonate of soda
- pinch salt
- 80ml (1/3 cup) desiccated coconut
- 10ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract
- 125ml (½ cup) olive oil
- 125ml (½ cup) buttermilk
- flesh of 4 plums, chopped
- Cream cheese and plum icing
- 200g soft butter
- 2 x 250g cream cheese
- 800g icing sugar, sieved
- 1 plum, torn
Instructions
For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 12-well cupcake tin with paper cupcake holders. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs, 1 minute. Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a medium bowl. Mix in the coconut, add the wet ingredients and beat until incorporated. Fold in the 4 chopped plums, pour into the cupcake holder-lined wells and bake, 20 minutes.
For the cream cheese and plum icing, beat the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Using a stick blender, blitz the plum to a smooth purée and pour the plum purée into a medium bowl. Mix through half of the cream cheese icing, reserving the rest.
To ice the cupcakes, allow to cool completely and remove the cupcakes from the tin. Fit a star nozzle into a divided piping bag. Scoop the two toned icing into its respective divisions. Pipe the icing on the cupcakes in a swirl formation.
