Coconut Lime Snowball Cupcakes

I am a bona fide coconut-aholic. I seriously love anything and everything that has to do with the coconut. And with the exception of the sugary shredded coconut and the uber sweet coconut cream used in Pina Coladas, coconut is amazingly healthy. The oil alone has numerous health benefits, and even though it has gotten a bad rap in the past for being a saturated fat its a GOOD fat, an essential fat, one that I consume daily. But not in cupcake form although I wish it was a cupcake a day keeps the doctor away. But it could very well be some coconut a day keeps the Dr away. But until that happens for sure lets just concentrate on these little goodies. Coconut lime snowball cupcakes. A few bites of tropical cupcakey goodness during the rainy cold dreary winter almost soon to be spring season.

 I think I might have been a south pacific islander in a former life because of the flavors and foods I love. Coconut and lime is one of my favorite combos and the two ingredients is in many island dishes as well as south east Asian such as Vietnamese and Thai, two cuisines I adore. I recently discovered an Asian superstore here and have found some awesome ingredients that aren't at a normal American grocery.

 Chaokoh is my favotrite brand of canned coconut milk and the super store carries the Chaokoh coconut cream which is awesome for Thai green curry. This is the full fat coconut milk. I don't use the light when baking.

 I love my lime squeezer. Like really. I am a kitchen gadget freak and my drawer is getting very crowded. I might have to renovate my kitchen just for all my gadgets.

 Making the lime curd. Lime zest, freshly squeezed lime juice, sugar, egg yolks and butter

 My curd ended up a little lumpy before straining because I had the pan on my back burner while cooking so my kiddo didn't reach up to a hot burner on the front since she was trying to help me and some of the egg scrambled which I couldn't see until I pulled the pan off the heat to add the butter. So it is very important to be able to SEE inside the entire pot when stirring the curd to make sure none of the egg is sticking to a side you can't see and end up scrambled.

 Straining it out to make sure none of the scrambled egg made it in

 The egg yolks and butter made this look more like lemon curd since the lime is such a light green

 Stirring in the zest. I think I had a wee bit more than what the recipe called for.

 Now it looks more like lime than lemon curd

 The recipe says to chop the shredded coconut even more. I was busy trying to take a cool pic and then I realized I just dumped the coconut it, I didn't chop. Oops

I use organic evaporated cane juice instead of regular white sugar. I like the flavor better and I try to keep my ingredients organic and minimally processed as possible. This type of sugar doesn't yield the nice light fluffy mixture when whipped with butter as regular white sugar does but that never affects the texture or taste as far as I can tell.

 So my toddler wanted to help "bake" and to keep her slightly out of trouble I give her a bowl with flour and water and this time she wanted some oats. She makes a fantastic mess and can seriously stay busy for an hour this way. Also I told her if she wanted to help me she needed to put her apron on like mommy has on and she was all excited to wear it. And make a mess.

I have no idea where my kid learns to make messes from

 I am on the hunt for thicker white cupcake liners. Mine are so flimsy and the always buckle like this when I fill them with batter. Makes me mad. Well not too mad but still. Its annoying

You can see that a few of the paper liners buckled.

 All baked up. The coconut smell was so awesome and you can see the little pieces of coconut.

 I used my trusty apple corer to cut out the middle to fill with the curd

 All filled with the lime curd. The curd is awesome, tangy and not too sweet. Perfect match for the sweet coconut cupcake and frosting

 At first I was going to attempt the nice smooth big BLOB of frosting and after several failed attempts ( I swear I am going to figure it out one of these days) I decided to just smooth it out a little with a spatula because I was going to be covering them in coconut anyway

 Lovely coconut lime cupcakes

Now you know why they are called snowball cupcakes. They look like snowballs ready for a fight. Except I wouldn't throw cupcakes just snowballs

 These aren't the fanciest cupcakes I have made. But they are so tasty that simple is better

You can see the coconut in the cake. I like the texture of the shredded coconut and am totally willing to make these again with chopping it even finer to do a comparison.

I had to snap this picture before all the curd oozed out!!  These were great freshly made and just as good if not better chilled to firm up the curd and then thawed slightly to soften the frosting.

Yum!! 

Coconut Lime Cupcakes with lime curd filling and coconut swiss meringue buttercream frosting.

From Shelly Kaldunski's "Cupcakes”

 Coconut Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter ( 1 stick) at room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I used coconut extract instead for extra coconut flavor)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup shredded coconut roughly chopped ( can be sweetened or unsweetened)
1  large egg plus one large egg white at room temp

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees line a standard muffin pan with paper or foil cupcake liners. In a bowl whisk your dry ingredients including the coconut.  In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add egg, egg white and extract and beat until smooth.  Add flour mixture in three additions alternating with 2 additions of coconut milk.  Beat on low and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Divide the batter into the cupcake pan filling 3/4 of the way up each liner.  Bake 18-20 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then carefully turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely for at least an hour before filling and frosting.

Lime Curd

4 egg yolks
6 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons lime zest
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons of butter cut into 4 pieces

In a saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, lime juice and salt and cook over medium high heat stirring constantly so it doesn’t boil.   When it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon take it off the heat. Whisk in each piece of butter one at a time until it is melted in. Pour into a mesh strainer over a bowl and scrape the curd through leaving and solids behind. Some of the egg yolk does end up cooking so this way you don’t have pieces of scrambled egg in the curd. Stir in the lime zest and place a piece of plastic wrap over the curd to keep a film from forming and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

 

Coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Makes 2 cups enough to pipe on 12 cupcakes or spatula on 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

3 egg whites

¾ cup sugar

pinch salt

2 sticks of butter at room temp cut into 16 pieces

2 tsp coconut extract

Using the bowl of your stand mixer add the egg whites, sugar and salt and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water on the stove. Make sure the bottom of the mixer bowl isn’t touching the water. Whisk the mixture until it feels slippery to the touch( all the sugar has dissolved) and is 160 deg f on an instant read or candy thermometer. This takes about 2 minutes. Remove the bowl and place on mixer immediately start whisking the mixture using the whisk attachment and slowly go from low to high speed. Whisk until the bowl is cool to the touch( room temp) and the egg white mixture is fluffy and hold stiff peaks. The mixture should not look dry. It will be glossy like meringue. This takes about 6-7 minutes. Stop to scrape down the sides. With the mixer on medium add the butter in 1-2 pieces at a time until all the butter is incorporated. Scrape down the sides and get any stuck pieces of butter out of the whisk. Beat on high until the frosting comes together. If it gets soupy looking just keep whisking. Stop to scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl. Optional switch to the paddle attachment for this step and beat on low to get rid of any air bubbles. Add in the extract and beat again until fully mixed in. Keep at room temp if using that day. If not keep in fridge for 3-5 days and thaw about 30 min at room temp and beat slowly for about 5 minutes before using.

This recipe can easily be doubled, tripled whatever. Just depends on the size mixer you have. If you have a commercial Hobart then you can make a TON of frosting. Also you can customize to any flavors you want. Instead of coconut you can add vanilla or any other extract you like, melted and cooled chocolate for a chocolate buttercream using milk, white or dark chocolate, add in caramel and some sea salt for a salted caramel buttercream. Really the possibilities are endless!!

Butter Almond Tea Cakes

 

 Most of the goodies that I bake are recipes I have been wanting to try that are in my ever growing list of recipes  and I mostly make them and share with my hubby's co-workers so I don't end up eating more than my share. Once in a while I take requests from friends.  A good friend of mine's husband was telling me about a local restaurant that had these AMAZING almond tea cakes at the brunch they went there for a while ago. And he wanted ME to make them for him. So I first called the restaurant thinking maybe, just maybe they would share the recipe or maybe give me a hint at what they are. I left a message and a manager was nice enough to call me back and tell me that the pastry chef would get back to me with the recipe. I can tell you I am glad I didn't  hold my breath. I had a feeling I wouldn't hear back. But it never hurts to try. 

So I was flipping through recipes in one of my cupcake books after looking online and not really seeing anything that he had described to me and I found the Butter Almond Tea Cake recipe in my book, Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. I am not sure if these were exactly what he was wanting but I thought they came out pretty dang good and all I can say is mini cupcakes are dangerous. You can eat them like popcorn. I mean shove them in by the handful. Well. Almost. Maybe in the privacy of your own home.

 First I toasted up some sliced almonds. I toasted a bunch since I sort of carelessly poured them into my pan and a bunch broke. They're very fragile.

 I really wanted to bump up the almondness ( yes that is a word. I say so) so I subbed a little of the all purpose flour with almond flour. All I had was almond meal so I put some in the trusty magic bullet blender and ground it up to a more flour like consistency. Don't grind too long or you end up with almond butter. Mmmm almond butter..

 Butter and almond paste mixing together. Almond paste comes in tubes or cans. Make sure you get almond paste NOT marzipan. Marzipan is much sweeter.

 There is just something pretty about cake batter plus t with the almond paste and extract made it smell so good.

 I have two mini muffin pan that bakes 24 cupcakes each so I was able to bake the entire batch at one time

 At first I was a little bummed they came out so flat but then realized that since they were getting just a swipe of glaze that flat would work better

 Wheeeeeee!!   I dumped them out because my oven mitt is a little thin in one area and it burnt my hand so I spazzed and almost dropped the muffin pan.

 I experimented a little with glazing some while hot and some while cool. I decided I liked the look of them glazed while cool a little better because the glaze sort of disappeared on the ones that were iced warm

 Aren't they cute?  They ended up being a very fragile cupcake, the crumb wasn't very dense, and they stuck to the wrappers. I think next time I will try a different recipe and look for a denser cake. Almost like a pound cake texture. These tasted great though and were liked by the friend that requested them

Butter Almond Tea Cakes

Adapted from cupcakes! By Elinor Klivans

 

Tea Cake Ingredients:

1 cup flour

¼ cup almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar, plus

1 tablespoon sugar

3 1/2 ounces almond paste, at room temperature

2 large eggs at room temp

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup buttermilk at room temp

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2-2 1/2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Topping

Almond slices lightly toasted

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 325. Line 48 mini muffin cups with non-stick spray OR paper mini cupcake papers
2.  Sift the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, sugar and almond paste until smoothly blended, about 1 minute.
4.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter.
5.  Add the almond extract and beat for 2 minutes or until the batter is smooth.
6.  On low speed, add the flour in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour and mixing just until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.
7. Fill each cup with a slightly rounded tablespoon of batter. Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool in pans for 5 minutes.
8. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.
9. 9To make the glaze, in a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, melted butter, 1 1/2 tablespoons milk and almond extract until smooth. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if needed for the proper consistency.
10.  If spread on warm cakes, the glaze will melt and become shiny. If spread on cooled cupcakes, the glaze will be white and opaque. The glaze will become firm as it sets.
11. Top each mini cupcake with one or two of the toasted sliced almonds.

Valentines Glitter Cupcakes

Ahh Valentines day. Some love it, some hate it, Hallmark makes tons of money off of it. I could take it or leave it but its always a good excuse to make cupcakes, especially ones with lots of glitter and sparkle. Since Valentines day is really more of a girly "holiday" than a manly one I decided to go over the top girly and make some fun, glittery, royal icing toppers.  I ADORE the blog, Sweetopia, and saw her LOVE cupcakes and wanted to try her technique, but not copy exactly. Marian is a genius when it comes to royal icing, her cookies are incredible, and she so generously posts tutorials and answers all of readers questions. I, on the other hand, am NOT so great with royal icing, but I am learning.

I had a pile of lemons that I couldn't remember exactly what I was originally going to do with them so I decided on some lemon cupcakes, but I have made lemon cupcakes before so I wanted to try a new recipe. We just recently signed up for a home dairy delivery from a local farm to get fresh, local, organic, lightly pasteurized only milk and stay away from the grocery store milk ( even the organic brands are homogenized and ultra pasteurized which kills all the GOOD stuff about milk) and the price is totally comparable. So yeah we have a MILKMAN now. So cool. I feel so retro, like a 1950's housewife. So I ordered a pint of real deal cultured buttermilk and made lemon buttermilk cupcakes. And to stick with the theme of Valentine's day and because I think they go so good together, I made Strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream.

I try to cook with and bake with as many organic ingredients that I can ( just plain better for you health wise - I try to keep my pesticide consumption to a minimum) and I am telling you all right now to try it at least once, if not maybe twice, to make frosting with organic sweet cream butter. OH MH GAWD is it insanely good. You can taste the rich cream that was used to make the butter. It has amazing flavor  - not bland at all. And with the strawberries added it tasted like strawberry ice cream. Honest it did. I know that some organic products can be more expensive but this is a splurge that is TOTALLY worth it.

I found these super cute Valentine's cupcake liners on sale at Michaels and I had to get them.
.

I was happy they showed up with the lighter cupcake batter. So many designs and prints on cupcake liners get washed out after baking. You can also see the flecks of lemon in the cupcakes from the lemon zest.  These smelled so good.

I used my Ateco #9 or as I call it my 1A on steroids piping tip to make huge swirls. I should have flattened the top down a little more than I did for placing my royal icing decors on.

Sweetopia has the tutorial on these and recipes for royal icing. I don't really know what I did wrong but mine were not dry in 24 hours and as I was trying to slide them off the acetate paper so many broke or bent from not being dry. And I know I used way too much Disco Dust. I have it all over my house still. Its basically floating in the air with all the rest of my house dust.

The red XO's look awesome in person. They just didn't photograph well. My camera was having a hard time focusing because they were so sparkly.

Oops. My husband said to use these because a broken heart can be a part of Valentine's day for some. Ouch!  I didn't use them. He was being silly. I hope! HA HA

Pictures also don't do the lone heart justice either. I used osiana rose disco dust. I should have made the hearts a more peachy color than pink since the dust is peachy. Its so pretty. 

These are some of the few royal icing decors I manage to scrape off and not break.

This one was my favorite. Raspberry disco dust on the heart and the light pink on the circle. It showed up best in pics.

The hubby took these to work for Valentine's day. I always make his co-workers eat the cupcakes so I don't have to. But I did sample one and it was oh so worth every calorie. The lemon and strawberry combo is one of my faves for sure!

Of course I had extra frosting after I piped all the rest of the cupcakes so the hubby and I had these ones with sky high frosting. So GOOD!!!

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes

my recipe I adapted from several other recipes

For the cupcakes you will need:

• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• Pinch salt
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp.
• 4 egg whites - room temp
• 2 tbsp grated lemon zest ( I use a lot but it makes them so good!)
• 1 tsp lemon oil or extract
• 1 cup buttermilk - room tem\p
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Then you:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two pans with cupcake liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter until well combined. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating until well combined.  Add lemon zest and lemon oil, beating well. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beating until smooth. Add lemon Juice, beating until just smooth.
4. Scoop batter into pan and bake 20-25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 5 cups

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoons
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/2 cup strawberry puree ( puree either fresh or frozen and thawed strawberries in a blender)

Directions

1. In the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer set over a saucepan of simmering water, combine egg whites and sugar. Cook, whisking constantly, until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch (about 160 degrees). I use a candy thermometer and gauge it that way instead of sticking my finger into hot sugar egg whites. 
2. Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat the egg-white mixture on high speed until it holds stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until the mixture is fluffy and cooled, about 6 minutes.
3. Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low speed, add butter several tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. (If frosting appears to separate after all the butter has been added, beat on medium-high speed until smooth again, 3 to 5 minutes more.) Beat in vanilla. Beat on lowest speed to eliminate any air bubbles, about 2 minutes. Stir in strawberry puree with a rubber spatula until frosting is smooth.