Mini Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

This weekend, my parents hosted afternoon tea for the rest of our family. There was SO much food; from sandwiches and quiches, to scones with cream, jam and fresh strawberries. I made these mini cupcakes as my contribution to the spread, and they went down a treat! This recipe made about 30 mini cupcakes, which would probably equate to a dozen regular cupcakes.



Ingredients:
4oz unsalted butter, softened
4oz golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
0.5oz cocoa powder
3.5oz self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1oz dessicated coconut
1/4 tsp coconut flavouring
60ml milk

Icing sugar and glacier cherries to decorate

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and line a mini cupcake pan with cases. 

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and beat into the mixture, then sift in the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder and carefully fold this into the batter.
Tip in the dessicated coconut, coconut flavouring and milk and give it one last mix until it all comes together.

Place teaspoonfuls of the mix into the mini cases, so they are about 2/3 full. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 12-13 minutes until they're springy to the touch, and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Leave them to cool on a wire rack while you make up the icing. 

In a small bowl, mix about 120g icing sugar with a teaspoon of water. Add more icing sugar if it's too runny, or add a little more water if it's too thick - you need it to be able to spoon it onto the cakes without it running too much. Use this to ice the cakes and then top with half a glacier cherry to decorate.