Snowball Coconut Cupcakes

- Recipe -

Cake

● 1 egg● 3 egg whites

● 1/3 cup cream of coconut (make sure to mix it well in the can)

● 2 T. water

● 1 t. vanilla extract

● 1 cup cake flour

● 1/2 cup sugar

● 1-1/2 t. baking powder

● 1/4 t. salt

● 6 T. butter, cut into small dice

● 1 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut (about 8 ounces)

Coconut Flavored Whipped Cream:
● 1/2 cup heavy cream
● 1 T. sugar
● 1 t. coconut extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

I enjoyed polling my facebook friends to determine what cupcake recipe to try next.  I learned that That Takes the Cake isn't a democracy.  What can I say?  I went with a recipe that I had all of the ingredients for.  Results of the poll to be posted.  Technically this fabulous recipe requires a cream cheese frosting, but I adapted it into a flavoured coconut whipped cream instead because I had whipping cream in the fridge.  These cupcakes are chock full of real coconut and incredibly delicous.

1. In large measuring cup, add whole egg, egg whites, cream of coconut, water & vanilla. Mix together well. Set aside.

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in mixer bowl. Add butter a bit at a time, and mix until butter is pea-sized.

3. With mixer still running, add the egg/cream of coconut mixture. Mix until light and fluffy on medium speed, about 3 minutes. Add shredded coconut and mix until just combined.

4. Divide batter in cupcake pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

5. Cool pan for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes to rack to cool completely.

To Make Flavored Whipped Cream:
1. Beat the heavy cream, sugar and extract until soft peaks form.
2. Then spoon or pipe the whipped cream on top of the cupcakes.
Note: If you're going to pipe the whipped cream on, make a double recipe of whipped cream.When you're ready to frost the cupcakes, put the 1-1/2 cups of coconut into a medium bowl. Frost the cupcakes with the icing, then dip each cupcake, upside down, into the bowl of coconut, making sure to coat the top completely.

Snowball cupcake Ingredients

Make note:  Recipe required Cream of Coconut (thick and textured, used in pina coladas), I used Coconut cream (cream consistency yet flavourful)

Pour wet ingredients into measuring cup

whisk them around

gradually add dice cubes of butter

gradually adding wet ingredientsn to butter and dry ingredients mixture

SO-MUCH-COCONUT!

This is what makes the cupcakes amazing

See how dense the batter is?

This is what I used for icing.  Whipping cream, coconut flav and teeny bit of superfine sugar

Just a small amount.  It whips up nicely.

These are lightly done.  Mommy can't risk burning these or my kids won't touch them with a 10 foot pole.

Icing almost complete

SOMEBODY got some cooling racks!

This is what they'll look like dipped in coconut

But be sure to whip your whipped topping to a stiff consistency to hold all that coconut on

Proud to say I took this picture with my chin.

Dip in a bowl of coconut.  Fluff coconut between dips.

PERFECTION

For variety, I piped some whipped cream onto half and sprinkled with coconut for a more mild coat.

The finished batch!

The biggest fan of these cupcakes

My son testing one out

This little lady proceeded to crumble it and throw it all over the floor. 
Don't let that stop you from trying these out.  They're great, despite her masacre of the cupcake.

1st Scratch Recipe ~ Tiramisu Cupcakes

The Recipe / Tiramisu Cupcakes
Cake:

• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1-1/4 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 t. vanilla
• 1 cup milk

Syrup:

• 1/2 cup cold espresso or strong coffee
• 2 t. dark rum (or 1 t. rum extract)

Frosting:

• 8 oz. mascarpone cheese 
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 t. vanilla
• 2 t. dark rum (or 1 t. rum extract)
• cocoa powder, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 ̊F. Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners and spray top with baking spray. Set aside

1. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.

3. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Scrape the bowl down, making sure to get all the butter into the center of the bowl. Let the mixer spin for a few seconds so everything can combine.

4. With the mixer on a slow speed, add a third of the flour, half the milk, repeating until you've added all the milk and flour. Once the batter comes together, stop the mixer, scrape down the bowl and let it beat for just a few more seconds. Take a spatula and do a final mix down.

5. Using a large cookie scoop, divide the batter evenly into the cupcake wells, filling them about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes, testing with a toothpick for doneness. Let cupcake sit in pan, on a cooling rack, for 5 minutes. Then remove them carefully with a fork onto the rack.

6. While the cupcakes are still warm, use a toothpick and poke about 12 holes into each cupcake, making sure the toothpick touches the bottom of the cake.

7. In a small bowl, mix the espresso and 2 t. dark rum. Slowly spoon this mixture on top of the cupcakes, so that it soaks into the cake. Use all the espresso-rum mixture and try to cover the as much of the surface area of the cupcake as possible. Let the cupcakes sit and cool for another hour.

8. When the cupcakes are completely cool, it's time to make the frosting. In a mixer, cream together the mascarpone cheese, sugar, heavy cream, vanilla and rum on a low speed. Once the ingredients come together, turn the speed up to high and whip until the frosting is very thick.

9. Place frosting in a piping bag with a large tip. Pipe the frosting on top of cupcakes, leaving a little edge of the cake showing. Then sprinkle the tops with a dust cocoa powder.

These cupcakes must be stored in the refrigerator.

the salt and baking powder in my teeny dishes

cubed butter

Pure vanilla from Mexico and sugar for the cupcake

spritzed the pan to ensure no sticking

my mixer and spatulas, ready to go!

1 cup of milk

espresso, cooled

recipe calls for dark rum, but I used my bff instead

marscapone, an Italian cream cheese.  mmmmmmmm!

heavy cream

cocoa powder

two organic, grain fed, free range eggs.  Just kidding, they're standard.

creaming the butter and sugar

smooth batter

apparently a little less flour landed in my batter than was supposed to!

Enough batter left over for a tray of mini cupcakes too

The large cupcakes

Popped them in the oven.  Anyone who critiques a double oven has never enjoyed energy conservation while baking cupcakes!

A beautiful blend of what wakes you up in the morning, and what helps you relax in the evening.

A fairly large tip for frosting

I tried this handy "bag in the cup" technique this time, and liked it.

Adding cream to my marscapone frosting

Next comes vanilla

Rum!

It is so fluffy

Cupcakes were poked with a fork because I had no toothpicks. 

All coated with espresso and rum.

MMM, more marscapone goodness

1st try.  I didn't like how my cocoa plopped onto this one so I used a tea infuser to sprinkle the rest of the cocoa.

Easy to fill my icing bag this way!

Mini muffins all decked out

Finally, a use for this old tea infuser that Claire totes around

I CANNOT explain how nummers these are

The large cupcake batch

finished up on my makeshift cooling rack, an inverted pizza pan.

Don't you wish you were tasting this?

The finished product.  A success!


Many thanks to The Harwood Broadcast's Cupcake Show #33 for the great Tiramisu Recipe from scratch!

What I learned:

Measuring everything out before hand is very calming for me. 

I need dark rum.

Something appears slightly too soft with my marscapone frosting.  Maybe I whipped it for too long, or too briefly?

And lastly, I think I'll double the rum and espresso mixture next time because I did use all of the batter and could have used more coffee to fully saturate all the muffins that I made.  Paul suggested playing with a coffee liqueur next time.

Overall, LOVED baking from scratch and truly do want to use organic, grain fed, free range eggs next time!