Maybe you think you’re too grown up to eat cupcakes. Or you see cupcakes as  I did,  kiddie food porn with greasy frosting.  These are grown-up cupcakes with sophisticated flavors and not only will you become a cupcake eater, you will start to think about them in your spare time. Nutmeg, vanilla, and coconut in a sour cream batter makes these a Christmas cupcake AND an Easter cupcake. But, I bake them for all occasions, even the elegant dinner party.

They are dense, and yet light enough to remind me of my coconut wedding cake, where DC and I ate an embarrassing number of pieces of cake almost ten years ago. To this day, coconut cake is our favorite.

I can thank one of my favorite bloggers, Heidi Swanson at  101 Cookbooks for featuring these at Christmas time few years back. The recipe was adapted from Lisa Yockelson’s book, Baking By Flavor, and I highly recommend this book if you want to impress people and be impressed.

Snowball cupcakes: Put frosting on all sides and roll in coconut.

I have probably made them twenty times. That is how much we and everyone we know loves them. People beg for them, fight over them.  Because they are dense and rich, I don’t tend to make these for kids as much as for adults, but this week, in thinking about Easter, and my mom begging me to make coconut cream eggs, I thought maybe I could bake two desserts with one recipe.

On a whim, I experimented with  my freezer stash cupcakes, cutting one  into pieces and dipping it in chocolate just to see if I could get a “easter egg” coconut cream creation. It worked, They are delicious. A mini-cupcake pan will probably give you two good bites of amazing flavor, immediately making you think of a mounds bar, only it’s cake,  and it’s better.

Chocolate Dipped Mini-Coconut Cupcakes, too good to describe

If you want to create some Easter memories with food this weekend, this will do it. I promise you, you will make them every year, and there will be food fights. I want to hear how much you love these. I know I’ll be making them for the rest of my life.

 

Recipe (from Lisa Yockelson’s, Baking by Flavor)

The author suggests 8 jumbo cupcakes. I make 12 regular size.

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unsifted bleached all-purposed flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon  freshly grated nutmeg

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups superfine sugar

3 large eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup thick, cultured sour cream

1 cup tightly packed sweetened flaked coconut

Dry Ingredients

Sift together dry ingredients on sheet of waxed paper or parchment.

Wet Ingredients (Follow these times; it makes a difference)

Cream butter for 3 minutes.

Add sugar, beat for one minute.

Add eggs one at a time, beating for at least 45 seconds each.

Blend in vanilla.

On low speed, alternately add dry ingredients in three additions, sour cream two additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. On low speed, blend in the coconut.

Divide batter in prepared muffin pans (sprayed or in  paper) with a slight mound in center.

Bake 25-35 minutes (depending on size) at 375 degrees.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

12 ounces (one and one-half 8-ounce packages) cream cheese, softened

    5 tablespoons (1/4 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, softened

    2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

    3 tablespoons heavy cream

    1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

    5 1/2 cups unsifted confectioners' sugar 

    3/4 cup lightly packed sweetened flaked coconut

Cream the cream cheese and butter together. Add vanilla, cream and nutmeg.

Add the confectioner’s sugar in three additions, scraping down sides.  Top with coconut.

Make within 30 minutes of using. I usually do this while the cupcakes are baking.

Top with plastic, until cupcakes are cool.

Refrigerate.

Baking Notes

Follow the instructions carefully, especially the mixing times or the cake will be too heavy.  You may be tempted to not follow the instructions as I did the first few times. They will still taste good, but it will make a difference in the crumb of the cake. 

For Cupcakes:

I used 25% less frosting and made 12 large cupcakes instead of 8 jumbo.

I used regular sour cream and freshly ground nutmeg, as this is a major ingredient.

As far as baking times, I baked one dozen for 25-30 minutes in convection oven. 

For Chocolate Dipped Cupcakes:

Use mini-muffin pan. (Will get from 36-48)

You don’t need to  put coconut on cream cheese frosting.

Frost, dip in chocolate and then roll in coconut.

Melting Chocolate: I use microwave.  Melt for one minute at 50% power, stir, and then put back in 10 seconds at a time. You want the chocolate smooth and creamy. I took my chocolate out 10 seconds after I saw the last piece of chocolate, keeping in mind that it is still heating once taking out of microwave.  However, if you don’t like microwave, then simmer chocolate in double boiler, stirring and removing from heat immediately when chocolate is melted.

What Chocolate to use: Semi-sweet or dark chocolate will give you the original mounds flavor. but you can use milk chocolate if you prefer.  I like the chocolate sold loosely at Whole Foods, such as El Rey Apamente, which is 73.5% cacao, high quality and affordable.  I used a grocery store chocolate (Bakers Dark Dipping) for my test and it worked well. Of course, I would prefer to use the most expensive artisan chocolate available, but practicality searches for other options.

Both types of cupcakes freeze extremely well.

Key Words: Coconut Cupcakes, Easter

Spinach Tiger Entry 35 - Angela Roberts, Easter Coconut Cupcakes, Chocolate Dipped Coconut Cupcakes

All original content copyright © 2009 Angela Roberts, All Rights Reserved

NOTE: I had to redo this post due to technical issues. In the process, two comments were deleted and one question. Thank you Cook Fret Eat for your nice  comment. I also apologize to readers who are getting the same post in their subscription.