Chocolate & Coconut Bounty Cupcakes

I seem to have gone a bit crazy making cupcakes recently, I think it's since I purchased the new Hummingbird Bakery book, Home Sweet Home where you can find lots of different delicious recipes. I was talking to someone the other day who suggested making every single recipe from one cookery book as on average people usually make about 3 or 4 per book. I think the Hummingbird Bakery book could be a good one for carrying out this challenge as all the recipes look great!

I made these cupcakes specifically for a charity bake sale, along with some vanilla cupcakes and the Cherry Bakewell muffins that I made a few weeks ago. To make them, I made a chocolate batter using Green and Blacks Cocoa Powder. Once made the cases were filled to about two-thirds full and then about a third of a small Bounty bar was gently pushed down into each case as you can see above. The mixture covered the Bounty and the cakes were then put in to bake.

To finish the cakes I made a buttercream icing which also contained coconut milk. There is a technique to applying the icing to the cake with a palette knife to give it a professional swirl but I have to say, I have definitely not mastered the technique. However, the icing was lovely and creamy and it doesn't really matter if you don't master the swirl as the final touch was to sprinkle each cake with desiccated coconut, so you can't really see it anyway. Lastly, another third of a mini Bounty bar was added on top.

Not everyone is a fan of Bounty bars but for anyone who does like them or anyone who is a fan of chocolate and coconut, then these cupcakes are a real treat with the Bounty baked inside and the gorgeous creamy icing on top. They were well received at our cake sale and along with the other lovely ladies who baked we managed to raise 357 pounds for a local Women's Aid Shelter.

If you want to give these a go yourself, you can find the recipe in the Home Sweet Home recipe book, or alternatively, just push a piece of Bounty into your favourite chocolate cupcake batter before you bake it and then make a regular buttercream, adding some coconut milk, before finishing with desiccated coconut and a bit of Bounty on top.

Tropical Tumbler Trifle

Something a bit different today...a mini mid-week offering. These Tropical Tumbler Trifles serve two purposes:

1. I'm having a bit of an oven crisis at the moment...since moving into a new house I've been battling with a new oven that doesn't want to play ball...there have been one or two cake wrecks thus far! So this is a no bake option that doesn't require a temperamental oven!
2. It is my entry into new blogging challenge 'Dish of the Month'...find out more below.

This is so simple to make, so if you want something quick and easy or you're having oven problems like me then give this a go. The tropical aspect comes from the hidden surprise in the bottom of the tumbler...banana that has been brought to the boil in coconut milk and then left to cool. You can just see a hint of the banana at the bottom of the glass. On top of this there are sliced peaches, whipped cream with vanilla extract and some crushed ginger nuts.

As mentioned I'm entering my trifles into new challenge, Dish of the Month. All you need to do to enter is make and blog any Nigel Slater recipe, the idea arisng from his Dish of the Day programme. The challenge is being run jointly by Janice from Farmersgirl Kitchen and Sue from A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate.

You can find the recipe for these trifles on the BBC GoodFood website. Although a word of warning, if you're thinking about making them then check the ingredient list as the proportions don't seem quite right for two people....500ml double cream for two? I would say you could probably half all the ingredients except the banana and so not to be wasteful, find another use for the coconut milk once used as a boiling liquid. I also used peach slices as they fitted more neatly into the glass.