Coconut Macaroon Cupcakes

My husband loves coconut cookies and cakes and macaroons... anything to do with coconut. The other day I mentioned to him that I wanted to make some of those fashionable French style macaroons that you see everywhere here in NZ now. But when I said the word 'macaroons' he immediately thought of coconut macaroon type cookies, and he was quite excited. The I showed him a picture and he bacame skeptical about the pretty pink and pastel green things I wanted to make.

"Have they got coconut?" "Ehm... no.... almonds...."

In his opinion this made no sense at all: he wanted to bite into something coconutty!!!

So I made some chocolate and coconut cookies instead, (I will post about them later on), and these cupcakes, and called them coconut macaroons cupcakes.

Roses from my garden to decorate and... could not decide which background was better for the photo: Blue or white? So I put both photos in. What do you think?

Coconut Macaroon Cupcakes

For the cupcakes

3 eggs

120 g sugar

75 ml vegetable oil

80 g coconut

100 g self-rising flour

Half tsp vanilla paste

For the frosting

1 egg white

2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar (depending on the size of the egg)

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsp coconut shreds

Makes 12 cupcakes

Whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale yellow in colour. Slowly add the oil and keep beating, then add all the other ingredients, one at the time.

Divide the mixture into 12 cupcake cases and bake at 180ºC for approximately 20 minute.

Let the cupcakes cool down for 30 minutes. In the meantime whisk the egg white with the icing sugar and lemon juice, like for making a meringue. Fold in the coconut shreds and then spoon over the cupcakes.

Place back into the oven at 100º for about 10 minutes, or until the topping start to colour.

Allow to cool down before eating them, if you can :-)

How to make Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum), and Sweet New Zealand

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book Sweet As... where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal

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Silver beet Paneer, a variation of Palak Paneer

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