Cupcakes Are Mandatory

I love the bossy title of this booklet – Will You Bake Please? For heaven’s sake, get to it. We’re hungry for Coconut Macaroon Cupcakes over here!

Cocoanut Macaroon Cupcakes

3 cups cocoanut
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg white
6 Tb cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg white
candied cherries

Combine cocoanut, 1/3 cup sugar and one egg white in double boiler. Cook over boiling water until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Sift flour and baking powder together. Add to cocoanut mixture almond extract, mix well. Beat egg white (second one) until foamy. Add remaining sugar gradually 2 Tb at a time. Continue beating until mixture will stand in soft peaks. Fold into cocoanut mixture. Place paper liners in muffin tin and fill 3/4 full with batter. Top with cherry. bake in slow oven, 325 degrees, 25 minutes.

This sounds good to me. I like a lot of cocoanut (or coconut, if you prefer) in things.

Would You Bake Please?  was put out by the B’Nai Brith ladies of Hamilton, Ontario in 1968 and it is quite delightful and quirky. I think the title is not supposed to be bossy, it refers to them asking each other to contribute to bake sales. But I like to say it to myself in a commanding (and slightly sarcastic) voice. Don’t just stand there! Bake! Bake right now! No, stop what you’re doing. Step away from the laptop!

And one of the husbands is quoted as giving my favorite cooking advice of all time, possibly. In capital letters, so you don’t miss it:

ALL APPLES ARE BASICALLY FOR EATING AND COOKING.

I like the “basically.” There may be other things we can do with apples, that are more complex, but otherwise eat them or cook them. That is all.

Image of Coconut Pyramids from an early 20th century cigarette card, courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.