Coconut is one of my very favorite flavors in the whole wide world. Oddly, it's also a flavor that I'm usually a little leery of baking with because people either love it or hate it - there doesn't really seem to be a happy medium. Apparently you can't just be a moderate coconut fan?
Perhaps the reason I love coconut so much is for its association with the tropics. And by tropics, I specifically mean Hawaii ... more specifically, Kauai. It's a flavor that transports me to place with, in my humble opinion, the most glorious weather and landscapes in the world. I will keep claiming that until I visit New Zealand, which in my mind, is the only place that might rival the north shore of Kauai.
Coconut feels like a perfect summer flavor. It's a great addition to smoothies, salads, stir fry, and of course baked goods. I recently baked these cupcakes for a co-workers birthday. Quite tasty and oh-so-summery if I do say so myself.
Toasted Coconut Rum Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from the Barefoot Contessa
Makes 2 Dozen Standard Cupcakes
Makes 2 Dozen Standard Cupcakes
Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 3 sticks salted sweet cream butter, room temperature
- 2 c. sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. imitation rum flavor
- 1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
- 3 c. flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 c. buttermilk
- 1 c. sweetened, shredded coconut (I ran mine through a food processor for finer coconut bits)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325F. Cream butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs to butter and sugar mixture on low speed. Add vanilla, rum and almond extracts; mix well.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add half of dry mixture to the batter, then buttermilk, then last half of dry mixture. Mix just until combined. Fold in coconut.
Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full with batter. Bake 25-30 min or until tops are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
Coconut Rum Frosting
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 c. salted sweet cream butter, room temperature
- 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 tsp. imitation rum flavor
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
- 4-6 c. powdered sugar
- 1/2 c. sweetened, shredded coconut, toasted
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and cream cheese. Add rum flavor and almond extract. In small amounts, add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.
Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle each frosted cupcake with toasted coconut. Enjoy!
