Coconut Cupcakes

I love coconut and cupcakes are a favourite too, so the two together seemed like a natural combination.  I had some coconut milk left over from a previous recipe, that I needed to use.  So that formed the basis for the recipe.

A nice light sponge is what sets a cupcake apart, so I needed that too, but I wanted to ensure a coconut flavour and couldn’t find any coconut extract, so I used a combination of home made cake flour and coconut flour.  

I also had some square cases, so rather than use my muffin tin with paper liners I decided to use the square card ones.  They hold more batter, I think, than a muffin case so I got 9 cakes from the recipe, but with a muffin tin I would expect to get 12.

This is a fairly simple recipe and the batter, as it cooks, gives off a lovely coconut aroma.  They don’t take long to bake, about 25 minutes, and the result is a lovely light cake.

To finish them off, after they have fully cooled they need to be topped with a coconut milk and cream cheese buttercream, and then sprinkled with some sweetened coconut.

In the UK buying shredded coconut and sweetened coconut is very difficult, so I used dessicated, and sweetened it myself.  Basically 60g of dessicated coconut mixed with a teaspoon of icing sugar, a teaspoon of water and three quarters of a teaspoon of flavourless oil, and then left so that the moisture is absorbed into the coconut gives the ideal sweet topping.

So all in all I am very pleased with how these cupcakes have turned out.  The cupcake has a wonderfully light texture, with the lovely coconut flavour.  Then the moist creaminess of the buttercream topping and the sweet crunch of the sprinkled coconut. They are very easy to eat and I could easily consume several in a day.

Ingredients:
For the batter:

• 113g softened unsalted butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs(large in USA)
• 170g cake flour(plain flour is ok)
• 20g coconut flour(this is finely ground coconut flesh, if you dont’ have any you can put dessicated coconut in process to grind it down.
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping:

• 112 cream cheese
• 56g softened unsalted butter
• 15ml coconut milk
• 128g icing sugar
• sweetened coconut to sprinkle on top.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F
2. Line a muffin pan with paper liners( I used cardboard cases without a muffin tin)
3. Cream the butter and the sugar together, by hand or in a mixer.
4. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time, and continue mixing until fully combined.
5. Mix the flour, coconut flour, baking powder and salt together.
6. Add one third of those ingredients to the butter mixture and beat to combine.
7. Add half the coconut milk and beat to combine.
8. Add another one third of the flour and beat to combine.
9. Add the second half of the coconut milk and beat to combine.
10. Add the remaining flour and beat until fully incorporated.
11. Pour the batter into the paper liners, until about 2 thirds full.
12. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until risen and springy to the touch, and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.
13. Place on a cooling rack and allow the cakes to cool completely
14. For the topping place the icing sugar, cream cheese, softened butter and coconut milk into a bowl and whisk to combine completely.
15. Spoon over the top of the cupcakes and spread out evenly.
16. Sprinkle sweetened coconut on top of the buttercream topping.
17. Refrigerate to let the buttercream firm up a little before serving.