The last two recipes on this blog were inspired by a friend of mine called Lucy Z.
This is a photo of me and Lucy
For my birthday a couple of years back she baked me some cupcakes.
At first glance this is what they looked like... Delicious.
Then you take a bite and this is what was inside
They were all the colours of the rainbow and just as exciting.
Obviously I am not quite up to rainbow standards yet but will progressively add more colours as my culinary skills grow.
Thanks Lucy (and Donna Hay) for the inspiration.
Ingredients
2 ½ cups plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ¾ cups caster sugar
250g unsalted butter, melted
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pink food colouring
¼ cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 tbsp milk, extra
2 cups shredded coconut
For the icing
Icing sugar
Water
Pink food colouring
Preheat the oven the 160°C.
Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, butter, eggs, milk and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well to combine.
Divide the mixture into three equal portions.
Stir pink food colouring into the first. When using food colouring only use small amounts at a time to create a colour that will suite your taste.
Add the cocoa and extra milk to the second portion.
Leave third portion plain.
Drop alternative spoonfuls of pink, chocolate and plain cake mixture into a lightly greased 22cm round cake tin.
Gently swirl mixture with a butter knife to create a marble effect and bake for 1 ¼ hours or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
Cool in tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.
To make the pink icing place icing sugar in a bowl and add small amounts of water mixing thoroughly. Add tiny drops of food colouring in until you get the desired colour.
Spread icing over cake and coat with coconut.
By Donna Hay
