Caribbean Coconut and Mango Cupcakes

One of my colleagues is a vegan and I don't like the idea of leaving anyone out when I bring cakes into the office. With this in mind, I wanted to try my hand at baking without any animal products and I was very happy with the results - I think you will be too.

Since another colleague had helped me with some design work and I thought cupcakes would be a great way to say thanks. I asked him if he wanted anything special to which he replied, 'something with mango in it'. So I went on the hunt for a recipe that was vegan and would pair well with mango 'buttercream'. I immediately thought about coconut since the two go exceptionally well together.

Keen to really pack a mango punch I needed the butercream to be impressively fruity and my biggest concern was how to make the buttercream taste like real buttercream - the mouth-feel is so important. Creamy but not greasy on the lips. I think I've managed to get close, but it's something I want to work on so expect there will be other non-dairy buttercreams on the blog in the coming months.

I've adapted Chloe Coscarelli's coconut layer cake that you can find here.

Ingredients:

For the cake

460g plain flour

450g sugar

1tsp salt

1tsp baking powder

500g unflavoured soy milk

60g white vinegar

200g Trex (vegetable shortening)

2tbs rum

185g desiccated coconut (unsweetened)

For the frosting

250g Trex

750g icing sugar

100g - 150g mango pulp

Yields 36 small cupcakes or 18 large cupcakes.

For the cakes

1. Preheat the oven to 175C/350F.
2. Line a cupcake tin with liners.
3. Mix the soy milk, rum and the vinegar together in a bowl and set aside for 10 minutes to curdle.
4. Stir together the coconut, flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
5. In a mixer with the paddle attachment cream together the sugar and the Trex until light and fluffy.
6. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and then half of the soy milk mixture. Continue until both the wet and dry ingredients are mixed together. Do not over mix.
7. Fill the cupcake tin using an ice cream scoop and place inside a preheated oven.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden turning halfway through.
9. Let cool completely before frosting each with the mango buttercream.

For the frosting

1. In a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the Trex until light and fluffy. 
2. Add icing sugar in 250g portions and mix until you have incorporated all of the sugar.
3. Add in the mango pulp and mix until combined and a consistency that is easy for you to work with.

Unlike other vegan cake recipes the mixture can sit whilst you bake the cupcakes without causing the finished cupcake to fall. It seems to be a rather forgiving recipe and it has the seal of approval from both vegans and non-vegans. Next time I make a vegan cake I'm going to try coconut butter alongside the Trex to improve the buttercream.

Not So Scary Macarons

Macarons are definitely a luxurious treat and buying them could set you back £20 for 12 which seems quite extravagant for such a quick eat. Making them yourself is much easier than you think; much of the difficult hype is poppycock, plus you can make them for a fraction of the cost. If you're able to gently fold dry ingredients into wet and have some basic piping skills you should have little trouble making them yourself. It just takes practice.

I first made them a few months ago when I took a macaron making course on a rainy Saturday afternoon in London. The instructor was a very jolly woman who was mad about them and showed us how easy they were to make. I think there were around 12 people on the course with a full range of baking experience and we all managed to turn out great to decent macarons. Best of all, she made sure we came home with at least a dozen macarons each.

To prove how easy they are to make, I made a batch last night to bring in for work. I halved the recipe and managed to make two-dozen and they’ve been well received in the office. 

Ingredients:

250g ground almonds

400g icing sugar

225ml egg whites

100g sugar

Flavouring of choice

Food colouring

Flavoured buttercream, ganache, or jam

 Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/320F.
2. Line two baking sheets with non-stick liners and set aside.
3. Sift the icing sugar and ground almonds together in a bowl and set aside.
4. Whip the eggs to soft peaks and then add the sugar 1tbs at a time.  Add your food colouring and flavor and whip until fully incorporated until the egg whites are glossy.
   
5. Holding the mixing bowl pour a third of the almond mixture into the egg whites and fold in gently. I use a big scoop around technique that works well for me, but use whichever way works for you.
   
6. Pour the second third of the almond mixture and mix together thoroughly. Continue with the third as above.
7. If you want to add in pieces of freeze-dried fruit you can gently fold them in as well.
   
8. Gently pour half of the dough into a piping bag and tie off at the top and snip the bottom in a straight line – you could use a round tip for this as well.
9. Spread a small amount of dough onto the underside of the four corners of the liners to ensure they don’t pull up and ruin the piped macarons.
10. Begin piping small rounds in even rows on the liners taking care not to pipe them too close. As you can see I've piped these too close but I was able to separate them once they were cooked.
    
11. Once finished lightly smack the cooking sheet on the counter to get rid of any excess air bubbles.
12. Let the macarons dry for up to 30 minutes, or more if it’s a particularly humid day.
13. Place the macarons into the preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes turning the sheet halfway through.
14. Take out of the oven and completely cool before matching up pairs and filling with buttercream or ganache.

You can present them in a simple white box tied with a ribbon and really impress your friends or you can keep them all to yourself.

I’ve found using a non-stick mat/liner works better than greaseproof paper. I’ve made several batches using greaseproof with disastrous results and from now on it will only ever be the non-stick liner.