Thai these!

Having watched Masterchef last night and reaffirmed my love of Thai food, I wanted to make something Thai inspired.

Thai cuisine is fantastic as it strives for balance in flavour in every dish. It is best known for it's composition of four fundamental taste senses: sour, sweet, salty and even bitter. No easy task!

When I first experienced Thai food, I knew instantly it was 'love at at first bite', as some of it's key ingredients include lemongrass, ginger, coconut, chilli, kaffir lime and of course my beloved coriander. 

However, although I really fancy eating a massive plate of Pad Thai, I've been having some mad cupcake cravings for days, so thought I might combine the two ideas. Introducing my Thai inspired cupcakes…

Coconut, Lime and chocolate chilli cupcakes.

As I mentioned before, I really hate to measure stuff out, but when it comes to baking, I do like to be precise. So I weighed the classic 4/4/4/2- i.e 4oz flour, butter and sugar and beaten two eggs. This is a standard sponge mix, and I then divide into three parts. One section is then mixed with the zest and juice of half a lime, the second is folded with desiccated coconut and the third is mixed with a bit of chilli flakes and chocolate chips (you can also add some flakes to the chocolate icing).

Now these aren't exactly revolutionary, as we essentially have lime, coconut and chocolate chilli cupcakes- I'm certainly not the first to make these, but bake and serve them together, and they make for a beautiful medley of flavours and colours, not to mention a great conversation starter!