The Coconut Cupcakes That Weren't

This is the problem with a recipe blog by authors. Every recipe has a story. The drama! The gnashing of teeth! The sighs and tears.

Okay, so the recipes aren't quite that dramatic. I had every intention of making coconut cupcakes for Easter. But when I considered how to make the actual cupcake, I was underwhelmed because they rarely have much coconut flavor. Vanilla cupcakes, I decided.

So I baked the vanilla cupcakes, but in the process found that the cupcake liners I had were ginormous. Oh my! See the funny photos below showing the difference between a regular cupcake and giant ones. Not to worry, I thought, we'll eat them anyway.

So since the cake part was simply vanilla, I thought I should make a nice lemon curd as a filling. But when I was looking for something else, I spied a jar of Nutella in the pantry. It seemed somehow Easter-y to have a surprise chocolate hazelnut center and it's a lot less work than making the curd. Nutella it was.

I could still make the tooth-achingly sweet coconut marshmallow buttercream I had in mind. So as the mixer whirred and whirred and whirred (really, that's the secret to a wonderful frosting) and it became silky smooth, I didn't want to add the coconut and make it all chunky. Aha! I would sprinkle it over the top.

So I piped the lovely frosting on top and tried to sprinkle the coconut, which just looked really awful. And so the coconut cupcakes turned out not to be coconut. But they're still pretty good.

If this looks like a project, you can do a few different things.

1. Bake the cupcakes, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

2. Bake the cupcakes and fill with something else, like lemon curd.

3. Bake the cupcakes and don't fill them with anything, simply frost them.

Vanilla Cupcakes

1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick butter (4 tablespoons, room temperature)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs (room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Place cupcake liners in pan.

Mix the milk with the vinegar and set aside. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Cream the butter with the sugar and the vegetable oil. Add the eggs and beat at least two minutes. On a slow speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk mixture. Add the vanilla and beat at least 3-4 minutes.

Spoon into the prepared papers and bake 16 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

Nutella

Carve a small divot out of the center of each cupcake. You can use the wide part of a piping tip or a knife. Fill with Nutella and place the top part of the portion you removed back on the filling.

Cream Cheese and Marshmallow Buttercream

1/2 stick of butter (4 tablespoons, room temperature)
2 tablespoons cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
24+ jelly beans

Place the butter, cream cheese, and marshmallow fluff in the mix and beat well. Add the vanilla and beat. Add one cup of powdered sugar at a time, and mix on low, raising the speed as it's incorporated. Beat on high for five minutes.

Pipe onto cupcakes and place jelly beans in center.

Look at the difference!

Take out the divot with a piping tip!

Remove divot.

Spoon filling into hole.

Cover with top of portion removed.

 

Happy Easter, Everyone!  

 

Panic Cupcakes

  Happy 4th of July!

Let freedom ring!

If you're like me and you had a very busy week, you're drinking your morning coffee or tea and wishing you had planned better.  Where did the weekend go?  And now you're supposed to bring a dish to a cookout or at least do something more than order in pizza.  

So today I'm offering some links to great barbecue recipes, sides, a luscious ice cream dessert, and a cupcake recipe that you can make with items you probably have in your fridge and pantry.  

Kale Salad
from Wendy Watson














Southern-Style Potato Salad
from Riley Adams













Barley, Red Pepper, & Corn Salad, from Krista Davis














Barbecue and Blue, an entire barbecue dinner menu from Avery Aames









 

Coffee-Marinated Steak and menu suggestions from
Cleo Coyle

Spatchcocked Chicken from Sheila Connolly













Luscious Mocha Ice Cream Torte from Mary Jane Maffini









Woohoo!  What a selection!  But let's say you're missing ingredients for most of those recipes.  Your family will go for hot dogs and burgers, but a quick dessert would be helpful.


You know those interviews where they say "name three things that are in your refrigerator right now?"  I love those!  Chances are that not everyone has cream cheese, or heavy cream, or lemons.  Maybe you do!  But I went with basics, hoping to offer a recipe that wouldn't force you to take a trip to the grocery store.  These are easy cupcakes to make and they are as vanilla as they come -- in the hope you'll have the ingredients on hand.  You can use any kind of milk.  I used nonfat because that's what I had.  Sugar, butter, flour, vanilla -- is it beginning to sound do-able?  This makes 12 yellow cupcakes with a cake type crumb. 

Vanilla Cupcakes

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Optional: blueberries and/or strawberries


Preheat oven to 350.  Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.  If you don't have liners, butter and flour the cupcake pan.

Cream the butter with the sugar.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Add the salt and baking powder and mix well.  Add the flour and milk, alternating them.  Add the vanilla.

Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

IF you have blueberries, poke one blueberry in the middle of each cupcake for fun.

Bake 18 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

4 tablespoons butter
2 cups powdered sugar
8 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix together the butter, sugar, 4 teaspoons milk, and vanilla.  Add remaining milk one teaspoon at a time until you have reached a nice spreading consistency.  Frost the cooled cupcakes.

IF you have blueberries and/or strawberries and/or raspberries, use them to achieve a July 4th red, white, and blue look.  If you don't have berries, that's okay, too.  Place them on a blue and white plate, or line a plate or a basket with a red or blue napkin.  If you only have a couple of berries, that's okay, too.  Mix them up, some with berries, some without.  They'll look festive no matter what you do!

What's in your refrigerator today?