1/2 cup dessicated coconut (we're gonna toast this)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
Coconut topping
plain icing sugar
dessicated coconut
3 drops food colouring
Icing glaze
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp warm milk
1/2 drop red food colouring
Instructions
This was a special order from a friend who wanted "Ooh, ooh, light pink, VERY VERY light pink, please!" frosting on her special birthday cupcakes. I started out toasting the coconut to sprinkle over them, but changed my mind and chucked them in the mix. Bloody glad I did. It worked that warm toasty flavour right through and added depth. Cupcake batter
Preheat oven to 180 deg celsius. Butter mini cupcake pans or line with paper cups.
Toss 1/2 cup desiccated coconut in a frying pan on medium-high heat, constantly stirring (it burns easily!). Remove from heat when golden and set aside to cool.
Beat butter in a bowl on high till pale and creamy.
Add sugar and beat till it's fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla essence. Beat to combine.
Add mashed ripe bananas and milk. Beat briefly to combine.
Sift flour, toasted coconut and baking powder in with the wet mixture in batches and fold it all in with a scraper till just combined, scraping the sides down as you go.
Heap the cupcake batter into the cupcake pans, about 1 tbsp each (depends on whether you like your cupcakes just-so or joyfully overflowing).
Chuck in the oven for 15-20 min.
When cooked through (skewer through the middle should come out clean), remove from oven. Take cupcakes out of pan and let cool on a rack.
Icing glaze
In the meantime, mix warm milk with food colouring, then add to the 1 cup icing sugar. Stir gently to mix. Consistency should be thick. Set aside.
Coconut topping
Combine icing sugar and coconut in a small bowl. Add food colouring and rub it all between your fingers till the colour spreads around as evenly as possible. Hope you like getting caught red-handed, hrr hrr.
Decorating the darlings
I got lazy. I dipped the tops of the cooled cupcakes in the icing glaze and set them back on the rack.
While they're still drying, sprinkle coconut topping over them by hand or sift them over all your glazed cupcakes.