Caribbean Cupcakes

I had some fruit to use up (banana and pineapple) so I decided to adapt a simple banana bread recipe and add chopped pineapple and desiccated coconut. The mixture of the three tropical flavours worked really well together especially with the texture of the coconut and fruit pieces within the batter. To decorate I mixed plain yoghurt with some more coconut as I didn’t want to use sugar frosting or butter cream.

To make the cupcakes:

Mash 2 ripe bananas in a large bowl

Melt 1/3 cup of butter and add to the banana

Chop ¼ fresh pineapple or use about ½ a tin

Add the pineapple, ¾ cup of sugar and 1 cup of self-raising flour.

Combine the mixture and add about ¼ cup of desiccated coconut.

Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 30 minutes

For the topping

Mix about ¼ cup of plain yoghurt and ¼ cup of desiccated coconut

Spread a spoonful of mixture on to each cake when they have cooled.

I have also used this idea to create an alternative Christmas cake by substituting the normal fruit like raisons, sultanas and cherries for dried guava, pineapple and coconut. additionally I substituted sherry for rum to give the cake real Caribbean flavour.  For this version I did a butter icing with coconut milk and desiccated coconut to contrast the rich, dark fruit cake.