Coconut Cupcakes?!

I never thought I'd like coconut cupcakes.. but by golly I do.

Ever since I topped the carrot cupcakes with toasted coconuts I've been pondering what else I could do with these sweet and crunchy flakes. I had so many toasted coconuts after making all those cupcakes for Max's birthday so I needed to use them up and quick.

So.. why not coconut cupcakes?

The only other coconut cake I've had was at the restaurant I used to work at and it was dry as hell and not very yummy. I dug around my library of cookbooks and came upon a coconut cupcake recipe. While thinking of clever ways to use the coconuts I thought of a brilliant idea to ground them and mix them into the cake batter! But.. when I opened up the Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook... they had already thought of it.

So much for MY brilliant idea.

I adapted the recipe slightly by adding twice the amount of coconuts. They didn't toast theirs but I did. Also, instead of 1 whole egg and 1 egg white, I used one whole egg and an egg yolk. Yolks bring more moisture to the cake and with the doubling of the coconut flakes, I knew it would need as much moisture as it was going to get.

4 1/2 oz AP Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Toasted Coconuts, Ground Fine

3 oz Unsalted Butter, Room temp.
5 1/2 oz Sugar

1 each Whole Egg
1 each Egg Yolk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup Coconut Milk

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk in the ground toasted coconuts and set aside.

In a standing mixer with a paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Make sure to scrape down the sides. Add the vanilla.

In 2 batches, alternate by adding 1/2 the flour then 1/2 the coconut milk, making sure to scrape down the sides after each addition. Finish with the remaining halves.

Fill the cupcake liner about half way. Bake at a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the tops bounce back after pressing down lightly.

Makes about 12 cupcakes.

I took these baby's to small group. It was our last session for this quarter. I don't know what I'll do with all of my experiments for the next 2 weeks that we're on break from small group..