Easy Carrot Coconut + Apple Cupcake

A friend has requested me to bake cupcakes for her daughter who is celebrating her 5th birthday today, Saturday.

As I was telling to my page friends at
https://www.facebook.com/mercy.gabayangallardo#!/Challenging.ArtsandCrafts, I  really really had fun baking these cupcakes... fresh coconut is not always available in the supermarkets here, so when I saw some I bought 1, shredding it a bit coarse...Baking these, I used my silicon forms for the 2nd time and the forms really did a wonderful job to the shape of the cupcakes.

If you want to bake this recipe sugar free, you may do so by substituting the given sugar amount with 8 tbsp or lesser of Stevia powder or Saccharin( Natreen ). You would have to taste the batter first and adjust your sugar substitute according to your taste bud. In this posting, I used the Stevia in powder form instead of sugar.

Here is my own recipe :

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose Flour
2 cups sugar or 8 tbsp Stevia/or Sacharrin powder as substitute for a sugar-free cake.
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs
1 cup salad or vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence for aroma or 1 pack Vanilla sugar
2 cups freshly shredded carrots
1 cup freshly shredded coconut or 1 cup coconut flakes (dried)
1 cup apple chunks
1/2 cup light strawberry jam ( heated, as toppings later)
1/2 cup whipping cream to decorate the cupcake top

Here´s what I did:

1. Preheat oven to 200 °C. In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking
soda and salt with a wooden spoon.

2. In another bowl, beat eggs slightly with a fork, stir in vegetable oil and the vanilla
extract..

3. Stir the egg mixture and all rest ingredients (shredded carrots, apple chunks, etc)
to the flour mixture , mix slightly until flour is all moistened.

4. Scoop about 2 tablespoons batter into each lined muffin form, add shredded
coconuts on top ( see Photo) and bake about 20-30
minutes under reduced oven heat of 180°C ..

5. Remove muffin tray and let cake cool completely. Spread 1 tbsp heated strawberry
jam on top of each cake followed by 1 tsp whipped cream & lastly 1 tsp
more of strawberry jam on top.... finish!

I´m wishing you Happy Baking!

Mercy