You would imagine after making three wedding cakes and 250 cupcakes for my sister-in-law's wedding at the weekend, I would be running a mile from making anything remotely cake related!
Well, after the cake specialist, Sugar And Crumbs, sent me some all natural flavourings to make a batch of cupcakes I was itching to try them. I was quite intrigued, as the new flavour was chocolate and coconut, perfect combo!
I made up this sample pack with a usual recipe for cupcakes:
3 eggs
6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
6oz flour
teaspoon of vanilla paste
After mixing the ingredients together I added the chocolate and coconut mixture. When I opened the packet, the smell that hit me was amazing. I wish this was smell-a-vision!
The chocolate mixture wasn't too chocolaty, is was a really good balance of the two ingredients. I also thought the packaging had been thought of really well as it came in a re-sealable pouch. Which is great when you purchase the larger quantities and don't want to use the whole thing.
The sample pouch I received said it made 12 cupcakes, but my recipe made 18. Which I thought may effect the taste and intensity of the flavours, but it didn't.
The cupcakes took about 15 mins to bake. The smell was tremendous. Filled the whole house.
I let the cupcakes cool and decorated the tops, with the help of my children, with some vanilla buttercream icing and chocolate hundreds and thousands.
The taste test:
They were delicious. I'm especially happy that the flavouring is all natural, so I had no qualms about letting the children have one...or two! The chocolate didn't overpower the coconut and the coconut didn't overpower the chocolate.
I really liked this flavour, it is like eating a cake version of a bounty (as it's chocolate and coconut). I loved it and to be honest, my favourite part of the cake process is tasting the mixture. I ate one of these straight from the oven as I was so eager to try it!
I highly recommend this. Stay tuned for more recipes as I have a few other samples to try:
Pink Lemonade icing
Coconut and Lime icing
I don't think I will be able to get out of the front door soon!! But who cares!
:)
Disclaimer: I was the sent the above product to review. All opinions and views are my own.