Coconut & Lime Mini Cakes with a Lime Cream Cheese Topping

These are definitely a Little & Fridays inspired cake, we visited a few weeks ago and although I didn’t buy their lemon and coconut cake because I can never get past the raspberry ganache one, I thought I could make my own version. I haven’t yet bought their book but it is definitely on my wish list, there are so many yummy delights I would like to make from their cafes. If you live in Auckland and haven’t yet been to Little & Fridays you have no idea what you are missing out on, the best cakes and tarts in town. But feel free to share other top cake eateries with me as I love to try new places.

I am also submitting this recipe for our monthly Sweet New Zealand event that is being hosted by Jemma over at Time For A Little Something

Ingredients
125g butter
125g sugar
125g SR flour
50g coconut thread or desiccated
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
zest & juice of 1 lime
For the filling and topping
200g cream cheese
zest & juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp icing sugar

Method
Grease and flour 6-8 standard cup cake tins and preheat an oven to 180C
Place butter & sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk or good old fashioned wooded spoon until light and fluffy.
Add one egg at a time and whisk in between both additions.
Add the coconut and zest and juice of one lime.
Sift flour into mixture and fold gently through with a metal spoon so not to loose all the air that has been beaten in.
Spoon mixture into cupcake tins, generally it is advise to fill them three quarters full. I was offered a great tip from someone who read my blog and suggested using an ice cream scoop to get a consistent size, brilliant.
Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out of the sponge clean.
Allow to cool before removing from tins or frosting them.
Beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar and zest & juice of 1 lime.
Once the cupcakes are cool, slice them in half across the centre and fill them with a generous teaspoon of cream cheese mix. Stick the top and bottom together and spread another generous teaspoon on top of cupcake.
You can sprinkle more coconut or lime zest on top to decorate them if you wish.

Little Fig and Fennel Cakes

Here’s another recipe for all those who don’t know what to make with there figs and are sick of fig preserves!

I really can’t get enough of these new season fig, although I confess to buying them at a dollar a piece which is rather a luxury. But the neighbours tree, which by the way they don’t eat the figs from, keeps being ravaged by birds before I can get to them, lucky birds. I’m wondering whether next year I will be brave enough to ask the neighbour if I can net their tree and collect the figs, maybe with promises of fig offering from my kitchen

I have used these figs to make a kind of ‘up side down’ cake by lining the sides of muffin tins with slices of figs. The sponge has ground fennel seeds in it to give an aniseed taste. The camps were divided on the texture of the fennel through the sponge but the majority seemed to like it, maybe it was just P who wasn’t keen but then I did force feed him a taste and he doesn’t really like figs! Ooops.

Ingredients – makes 8-10

• 225g butter
• 225 sugar
• 225 SR flour
• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 8-10 figs
• 2 tsp fennel seeds, ground (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees centigrade.
2. Line muffin tin with greaseproof paper, I did this by laying two strips crossing each other in the centre  and then up the sides.
3. Slice the figs from top to bottom, 4-5 slices per fig.
4. Place 4 slices of fig in each muffing tin, narrow top of the fig down to the bottom centre of each tin and the fatter base of the fig up the sides.
5. Place butter & sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk or good old fashioned wooded spoon until light and fluffy.
6. Add one egg at a time and whisk in between both additions.
7. Sift in flour and fennel into butter mixture and fold in with a spatular.
8. Add milk and fold together ingredients.
9. Fill each muffin tin with sponge just to the top of the figs.
10. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out of the sponge clean.
11. Serve warm with cream of ice cream.