Procrastination Cakes

You guys are sooo lucky I'm a helluva procrastinator, that's all I can say! I got home from work this afternoon, bubbling with the news that my heel-dragging mortgage company are finally arranging the survey on the house I'm trying to buy. I'm supposed to be out of my current house in less than 3 weeks, so packing is a priority. I wandered around, wondering where to start ~ all the rarely-used stuff is already packed and stashed in a friend's garage, which leaves me with the horrible-messy-drawers-that-need-a-good-sort-out, and the stuff I use regularly.

So I made cakes instead.

I've wanted to do something with pineapple for ages, so I did a bit of tweaking and experimenting, and came up with these li'l beauties:

225g self-raising flour
pinch salt
100g margarine
100g sugar
50g desiccated coconut
1 egg
2tbsp milk
125g tinned pineapple chunks in juice, drained
100ml pineapple juice (from tin)

for the topping:
150g icing sugar
3-4 tbsp. pineapple juice
15g desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas 4. Grease an 18cm cake tin, or line a cupcake tray with 12 paper cases.
Drain the tinned pineapple, saving the juice.
Sieve flour and salt together and rub in margarine. Mix in sugar and coconut. In a jug, beat together the egg, milk and 100ml of the juice. Mix the liquids into the dry mixture, then stir in the pineapple chunks.
Fill cupcake cases about 2/3 full, or pour batter into the tin if you are making one big cake.
Bake for about 25 mins for cupcakes, or an hour for a big cake, until golden brown.
While cakes are cooling, gently toast the 15g dessicated coconut in a dry pan until golden brown.

** ending**

When the cakes are completely cold, make the icing. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl, warm about 3 or 4 tablespoons of pineapple juice and add a little at a time, mixing until smooth. Top each cake with the icing, then sprinkle the toasted coconut on top.

**alternate ending**

Mix about 70-80ml of warmed pineapple juice with about 80g of sugar and spoon over warm cakes.

There you are ~ Procrastination Cakes. So the next time you have something important to do, forget it all and make these instead!