Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Čupavci Cupcakes - Reinventing Traditional Dessert



When I did some research about the funny-named Serbian cake, Čupavci, which means Messy hair cakes, I was very surprised to realize that almost the same dessert exists in Australia under the name Lamingtons. To be honest I don’t have any clue how it came about, I can only guess they were created separately in completely different parts of the world.
I always had the idea to make Čupavci as cupcakes. It is very difficult to control their cube-shaped form; baking them in a muffin pan makes things much easer. And, I just like to play with different cuisines, in this case European and American. Fortunately, I found a really good recipe for sponge here and the outcome was super delicious. 
Make small cupcakes and try to buy finely shredded coconut as it is in the pictures. It will give an elegant look, almost like snowflakes topping the cakes. I used European shredded coconut that is different and there is not sugar in it.

You need for 24 small cupcakes:

for the sponge:

3 eggs

½ cup (125ml) vegetable oil

2 cups (280g) all-purpose flour

2/3 cup (150g) white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder


½ cup (100ml) milk


for the frosting:

5 tablespoons (70g) unsalted butter

1 oz (30g) white sugar

2.5 oz (75g) semisweet chocolate

1/2 cup heavy whipped cream

1/2 package of unsweetened shredded coconut


Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 355F (180C). Place the cupcake liners on a baking sheet. No need to grease them.

2. With the hand mixer beat the egg whites. Add sugar, spoon by spoon. Then add the oil and half of the flour (sifted and mixed with baking powder), vanilla extract, egg yolks, milk, and finally the remaining flour.

3. When the batter is well mixed, fill the cupcake liners to the very top. Put in the oven to bake about 16 minutes (this works for my oven). If toothpick comes out clean, cakes are done.
4. While the cakes are baking, make the chocolate frosting. In a small sauce pan melt the butter and add the sugar, chocolate and whipped cream. Allow the frosting to cool down and become slightly thick.

5. Dip only tops of the cakes in the frosting (soak up as much as possible), and then roll over the shredded coconut.







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