#6 has arrived

Hello everyone! Hope you had a great weekend!  Did you miss me...lol.  Well, I figured I better get back on track this week since I was so behind last week.  I hope I am back on schedule now.  This week I tried to go a little lighter.. I have done so many dark cupcakes with chocolate and such in them.  So I did a classic Coconut Cupcake this week.  I am starting to figure out what flavors are going together, so I can take more liberties and tweek the recipes to my liking. 

Yup, thats the actual cupcake right in the middle.. blends with the towel pretty well, huh




The Recipe

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting
recipe by Baked Perfection

makes 15 cupcakes

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cups sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut milk (full fat)
1 cup shredded coconut

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and egg white, one at a time. Add the vanilla and almond extract; mix well. Add the flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with coconut milk (batter will be thick). Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup of batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Coconut Frosting
recipe from Baked Perfection

1 stick butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups powdered sugar
generous pinch of salt
4 tablespoons coconut milk
pinch of salt

Beat butter, vanilla, and almond extract until creamy. Add salt. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, alternating with coconut milk, beating until combined.

(this recipe doesn't tell you how to toast the coconut as far as temp and time.. so here is what i did.  Put your desired amount of coconut spread on a bakin sheet. I set my oven to 275 degrees. Put the coconut in and stir about every 10 minutes. You will see some start to turn golden brown, at that point its just letting it go until its your desired toastiness.  Mine was toasty but not completely brown.)

Reviews and Notes:

Alright... I still haven't figured out what I am not doing quite right when it comes to these types of frostings.  Mine always turn out a little too runny.. Albeit they still take fantastic but not quite the correct consistancy.  Hopefully, I will get it figured out. 

Another thing I did with this recipe was make a white chocolate ganache filling (totally optional).  If you choose to do that then you will need to cut a small well in the cupcake once it has completely cooled.

My Ganache Recipe (and yes... I figured this one out all on my own)

1/2 c. Heavy cream
6 oz. white chocolate chips
2 tbsp butter

Bring cream to a light boil.  Once it begins to boil, take it off and pour it over the white chocolate chips in the bowl.  Let that sit for about 3 minutes (giving it a chance to melt the chocolate).  After 3 minutes add the 2 tbsp of butter and whisk together.  Let sit and wisk periodically until it thickens or you can stick it in the fridge and stir about every 10 minutes until it thickens ups.

After it was ready I just poured it into the wells with a spoon.

Something else I did with the recipe was sprinkly a tiny bit of sea salt on each one of the cupcakes.  And for me this was the perfect finish, that little sprinkle made it a sweet with touch of salty goodness!

Personally,  this recipe is a runner up for my favorite so far!  My husband enjoyed this cupcake so much he said it literally turned him on... lol.  His reaction was hilarious!  I love watching people eating my cupcakes and knowing they enjoy eating them as much as I do making them.