Orange Blossom and Almond cakes with White Chocolate Ganache and Coconut Icing

Adapted from Love, Bake, Nourish

Ingredients:

55g ground almonds

130g unsalted butter, really soft

115g white spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 large free-range eggs

65g honey (or golden caster sugar)

65g maple syrup

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1dst Orange blossom water

 Filling:

50g White chocolate

50g Cream

Icing:

220g Butter

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

3 - 4 tbsp milk

few drops of coconut extract (if you don't have any, just use vanilla)

1/3 cup toasted coconut threads

royal icing flowers

Edible pearls

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180ºC. line a 24 hole mini muffin tray with paper cases.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and beat in all the other ingredients using an electric handmixer. Be careful not to over-mix as it can affect the texture of your cake. Spoon teaspoons of the mixture into your prepared tins. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cakes are golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before letting them cool on a rack. set aside.

For the filling, melt together the chocolate and cream in a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. set aside to firm up in the freezer. Meanwhile make the icing. beat the butter until pale and fluffy before adding in the icing sugar, 1 cup at a time. Add the milk and extract and beat until smooth and fluffy (around 4 minutes).

Fill a piping, with a filling nozzle (long and skinny), with the chocolate ganache filling. INsert the nozzle into the middle of the cupcake and gently pipe some of the filling into the cupcake. Do not overfill else it will all ooze out the top. Place the icing in a piping bag fitted with a star tip nozzle and pipe the icing onto the filled cupcakes. Top with toasted coconut, royal icing flowers and edible pearls.