Coconut Cupcakes – fluffy coconut cupcakes made with coconut milk and topped with smooth coconut buttercream and coconut flakes. A triple coconut cupcake recipe, created by our contributors, ellenJAY.
Living in the south our chance of having a cold winter is pretty slim. If we have to grab our coat to go run errands you know it’s COLD outside. And that white powder that falls from the sky — most of you know it as SNOW — well that’s pretty much unheard of here in Mobile…well that is until a few weeks ago! We were working late on a few orders at our shop one Friday night and just as we were heading home, it started snowing…SNOWING, as in holy cow grab your phone and start videoing as the white flakes are falling, it’s SNOWING!
So as you can imagine, snow is a pretty big deal in Mobile. Although there was only enough snow for a light dusting on the ground, you better believe we took full advantage and rolled up three of the best snowballs we could mange and made our very own Frosty the snowman! Of course by the next day, he was already starting to melt away, but it sure was a magical night to experience with our kiddos, and one that probably won’t happen again for a long time.
Since snow is simply not part of the regular weather forecast here in the south, we improvised and created our own edible snowballs that can be enjoyed all winter long…in the form of cupcakes of course! Our Triple Coconut Cupcakes are the perfect treat to enjoy when dreaming of snowy days.
Coconut milk is a key ingredient, which provides the perfect coconut flavor to this moist and fluffy white cake. We whipped up a deliciously smooth coconut buttercream using more coconut milk and heavy cream to compliment the cake perfectly. And for the grand finale, the triple dose of coconut comes from rolling the cupcakes in shredded coconut flakes to create a rounded mound on top resembling the cutest snowball look-alike cakes! Sink your teeth into one of these babies and you are in coconut heaven.
These cupcakes may not be the real deal snowball, but they’re the closest we’re getting to snow here in Mobile, so we are embracing them and enjoying them on our mild winter days!
Coconut Cupcakes
Fluffy coconut cupcakes made with coconut milk and topped with smooth coconut buttercream and coconut flakes.
- Yield: 24 cupcakes
- Category: ✽ ✽ ✽
Ingredients
For the Coconut Cupcakes:
- 3 cups cake flour
- 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
- 5 large egg whites
- ½ cup milk
- 1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
- ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut flakes
For the Coconut Buttercream:
- 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 4 teaspoons coconut extract
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut flakes
Instructions
Make the Coconut Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In medium bowl combine dry ingredients: cake flour, baking powder and salt.
- In another bowl combine egg whites, milk and coconut milk.
- In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on high for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Slowly add the flour mixture until combined.
- Gradually add the egg mixture and beat until incorporated.
- Stir in the coconut flakes.
- Fill cupcake liners ¾ full.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling.
Make the Coconut Buttercream:
- Beat butter and coconut extract in bowl of stand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, until smooth.
- Reduce mixer speed to low, and slowly add in confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time while mixer is running and mix until smooth.
- Combine heavy cream and coconut milk and add to icing slowly while continuing to beat until smooth.
- Prepare a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and fill with frosting.
- Swirl coconut buttercream on top of cupcakes then dip upside down in the reserved coconut flakes to cover the tops and mound like a snowball.
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Coconut Cake
Coconut Tres Leches Cake
Coconut Cake with Large Coconut Flakes
I havevbeen receiving your newsletter now for over a yr or so. I just notice that you are in Mobile. I live in Gulf Breeze, Fl and Pensacola Beach. We have had two dusting snow falls in tje last month here on Gulf Coast and I know Mobile probably had a nice dusting yesterday morning. Its feels like I am back in Va., living instead og the Gulf Coast.
I love all your bake goods that ends up in my inbox. I would love to visit your bakery real soon since we are 60 miles a part and I am in Mobile and Gulf Shoars alot. Could you post your business address so I could come by and shop and eat cake. Thank you very much!
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Hi Patricia! Lauren and Jennifer do indeed live in Mobile and own a bake shop! They are one of our many contributing writers, all of whom live scattered across the country (Chicago, New Hampshire, Georgia, Austin and Canada too). I’m sure they’d love to have you come visit. Here is a link to their website: https://www.ellenjayevents.com
Thank you sharing Coconut Cupcakes recipe. I will defiantly going to implement this recipe at my shop. Love it.. 🙂
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HI Carrie, I love anything coconut! These cupcakes sound delicious and are definitely going on my ‘to bake’ list for 2018. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Sorry, but you lost me at 8 cups of confectionary sugar.😑 Don’t like cloyingly sweet frosting. Really pretty, though!
definitely trying this out!! don’t know why i didn’t think of this before(since i live in a tropical country) <3
I’ve been talked into baking cupcakes for a friend’s wedding so I gave this recipe a trial run. The end product was delicious. The cake itself is light, tender and has just enough coconut in it to give it some texture. Normally I don’t care for powdered sugar frostings so I was skeptical but the frosting was delicious with plenty of coconut flavor. I highly recommend using a very good quality coconut extract since 4 tsp. is a considerable amount and the cheap extracts are terrible IMHO. The next time I make these (and I will make them for the wedding if not before) I’ll cut the extract back to 3 tsp. (for the full batch of frosting) since even the high quality extract that I used left a slight after-taste. The other change is that I’ll make only half of the frosting. I was able to pile on more than enough frosting and still had half of the full recipe left over. Even after refrigerating the cupcakes (with frosting) overnight, the texture of the cake was still perfect once they came to room temperature. 5 stars! Thank you!
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These cupcakes are great! Good coconut taste and the cake is very light, airy, and fluffy! If you like coconut, these will not disappoint. I’ve made them twice now!
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i love coconut so i like this dish….
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Hi. Unfortunately we don’t have Cake flour down here in Europe so can i use plain flour instead? Or do you have another suggestion. Thank you much.
I made these tonight but found my cupcakes were falling in the middle 😭 am I doing it wrong?
Hi ,I am staying in Sngapore.Every time I made the buttercream my buttercream is very thin.I didn’t add any milk also.Because of my weather or I dont understand what the reason.But this recipe you add 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup coconut milk. Give me a suggestion.