In 1972 (Wow, I was only
14 years old!), a song was featured regularly on the radio, Coconut by singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson. I remember being in high school and the
question was, “What is this song about!?!”.
Oh there were many answers bandied about, from the simplest answer – a
stomach ache, to the worst – back alley abortion technique. It was the 70s and what was not strange in
those days?
The story behind the song
is basically a narrator (the singer) telling the story of a girl with a stomach
ache, she calls a doctor that tells her to drink a concoction made of coconut
and lime.
It does not work, she
calls the doctor again and wakes him up; angry, he tells her to put a whole
lime inside a coconut, shake it up and drink it all down. He tells her to call him back in the morning
with the results. Sort of like having a
hangover and drinking the “hair of the dog that bit ya”.
When I first created the
recipe for “Lime in the Coconut Cupcakes”, I had finished watching a rerun of
the television series “Bones”. One of
the main character’s assistants had been murdered. As his casket was being loaded into a truck,
for shipment back to his homeland of England, the FBI psychiatrist, Dr. Sweets,
begins to sing the man’s favorite song.
Yes, you guessed it, Coconut;
a turned down version of a New Orleans funeral procession of sorts. For those who do not know the song, where the
heck have you been? It is available on YouTube and even the Muppets did their
version of the song on “The Muppet Show”.
It got me to thinking, why
not put the lime in the coconut? How would it taste anyway; a weird Pina
Colada? I did not go down the drink route to avoid that belly ache; instead I
decided to make cupcakes. A dumb downed version of a vanilla cupcake with lime
curd mixed in, topped with a ginger frosting and either sweetened or toasted
coconut. Num Yummy!!! is all I can say.
So, put the lime in the
coconut, try my cupcake recipe, and the only doctor you will be calling is the
dietitian.
Lime in the Coconut Cupcakes (with Ginger Frosting)
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
3 eggs
¾ cup lime curd
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
¾ cup milk
1 cup shredded, sweetened
coconut
1 cup shredded, toasted
coconut
¼ cup additional lime curd
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F; line
muffin tins with cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, cream
together sugar and butter until fluffy; beat in one egg at a time, then the
lime curd and the vanilla extract.
In another bowl, sift
together the flour and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture. Add the
milk and stir until batter is smooth. Use an ice cream scoop to fill the
cupcake liners up halfway.
Bake for 20-25 minutes;
until toothpick comes out of center cleanly. Remove to wire racks to cool
before lightly frosting; put coconut into separate bowls and dip frosted cupcake
into one or the other. Spoon a dollop of lime curd into center of each cupcake.
Makes 24-26 cupcakes.
Ginger Frosting
Ingredients:
1/3 cup unsalted butter,
softened
3 ½ cups confectioners’
sugar
1 ½ tsp. fresh ground
ginger or 3 tsp dried ground ginger
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. cold milk
Preparation:
In a large bowl, beat the
butter and sugar together until fluffy; add in ginger, vanilla extract and
milk; continue to beat until smooth and spreadable. Makes 2 cups.
Mary Cokenour