Chasing Away the Rain with Mango Lime Cupcakes

The Boy had his first baseball game of the season scheduled for last night. Unfortunately it rained and the game was cancelled. This calls for cupcakes.  I know, I know, I just made cupcakes the other day...I was just so excited at how well the pretty pink strawberry rhubarb cupcakes turned out that I wanted to try another flavour combination....hmmm....what to do, what to do.

Last week while shopping for Cinco de Mayo, I grabbed a mango thinking I'd probably use it....I also grabbed a bunch of extra limes....hmmmm....what to do, what to do...

Mango Lime Cupcakes!!!! Oh yes I did! I used my basic vanilla cupcake recipe, you know the same one I used to make the strawberry rhubarb cupcakes and just switched out the fruit!

Mango Lime Cupcakes

3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 cups mango (chopped fine)
zest of 1 lime (I think I will use more next time)
squeeze of lime juice
1 tbsp sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Peel and finely chop the mango.  Zest the lime, making sure to get only the green.  Mix the mango, lime and lime zest with a squeeze of lime juice and 1 tbsp sugar and set aside.

In a bowl mix together 3 cups flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (hand mixer or by hand will work too) cream the 1 cup butter with the 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and thoroughly mixed.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time allowing each one to mix in completely before adding the next one. Mix in the vanilla. (I suppose tequila would also go well here....)

Add the flour mix and the buttermilk, alternating additions starting and ending with the flour.

Mix in the mango/lime zest/lime juice mixture.

Scoop into lined cupcake pans to 2/3 full and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 5 minutes then remove to cooling racks to complete cooling.

I looked around (again by look I mean Internet search) for a coconut icing recipe.  I found and interesting one that was similar to a meringue butter cream but used the egg yolks instead of the egg whites...I just happened to have some egg yolks leftover from the the strawberry meringue butter cream I made the other day...perfect!

To make a long story short, I was 100% skeptical of this recipe but I gave it a go.  You know what, it is silky, rich and sooooo tasty.  I just wished I had the coconut extract it calls for but it still has a nice coco nutty flavour with a hint of lime...I did make the addition of lime zest to the recipe and sprinkled the final cupcakes with toasted coconut...yum!!
 
Find the icing recipe here

To toast coconut:

Pour the coconut in a dry pan and heat over low to medium, watching closely.  Give the pan a stir or a shimmy shake every now and then.  When the coconut starts to brown, it will finish toasting quickly.

You can also toast coconut in the oven on a baking sheet.  Just make sure to not have the oven too hot and to keep a close eye on things.

Until next time, stay dry and eat well!