Coconut Advent Wreath Cupcakes

Coconut Advent Wreath Cupcakes

I was going to make these with anise, but discovered at the last moment that I didn't have any, so I switched back to coconut, my old friend. The cupcakes are delicious, moist and kind of buttery, despite not having a huge amount of butter in them.

Some of the folks who read this blog know that I would like to be a priest, so celebrating Advent via cupcakes is right on trend! The traditional Episcopalian Advent wreath needs three blue or purple candles and one pink. Optionally there can also be a white candle in the middle of the wreath. For Advent One, which is today, you would light one of the purple candles.

Almond Cupcakes:

3/4 cup cake flour

3/4 cup regular flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into small cubes

2 eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla paste

2 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Sift together both flours, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Add in butter cubes and blend on medium speed until the batter forms crumbs (this may take a while). Make sure there are no big chunks of butter left.

Add eggs, one at a time.

Add the vanilla and almond extract to your heavy cream, then pour slowly into the batter. Mix well.

Fill cupcake tins about 2/3 full. Mine overflowed slightly, but it's easy to trim the cupcakes using a small serrated knife to even things out.

The recipe recommends baking for "17-20" minutes. Mine took closer to 35 minutes altogether. So: Bake for 15 minutes, turn tin, bake for 20 minutes.

Let cool.

Makes 12.

Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 cups xxx sugar

2-3 tbsp heavy cream

2 tsp coconut extract

Whip butter for about six minutes, until fluffy. Add cream and sugar and extract and whip until all the ingredients are combined and the frosting is very light and fluffy.

Frost cupcakes generously.

To decorate:

1 cup shredded coconut

Food dye

Purple and pink candles

To dye coconut, you just put it in a bowl, add 2-3 drops of food coloring, and then mix with your hands until it reaches the color you want. If you use a lot of color, you may have to let it dry for a little bit.

I used long taper candles and cut them down to the size I wanted:

Pat the coconut on the cupcakes in a circle, leaving a clear center. 

Place the candles around the center.

Light the first candle to get really in the spirit of things!

Recipe adapted from Sweetapolita.

Lemon Chiffon Cupcakes with Coconut/Lemon Frosting

Lemon Chiffon Cupcakes with Coconut/Lemon Frosting

Lemon chiffon is an amazingly light and fluffy cake due to the large number of egg whites that are added at the end, which makes them a great choice for summer when a more dense cake can be overwhelming. I made these for a coworker's last day, hence the fancy decorations and the need for a sturdy frosting, but you could almost definitely use a simple homemade whip cream to continue the light and airy theme.

Cupcakes:

7 eggs, separated

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 tsp grated lemon peel (I used four lemons, but you can probably get away with two)

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cream of tartar (or 1 tsp lemon juice)

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Put egg whites in a metal bowl of a standing mixer to let come to room temp.

In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and sugar. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks, water, oil, lemon peel, & vanilla. Add in dry ingredients and blend well.

Add cream of tartar or lemon juice to egg whites and beat until they reach stiff peaks (this is why I recommend a standing mixer; you can do it by hand but your arm will try to fall off). Fold egg whites gently into batter.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn, bake another 10 minutes.

Let cool.

Makes about 36.

Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2-3 cups xxx sugar, sifted

Lemon variation:

1/4 cup lemon juice 

Coconut variation:

2 tsp coconut extract

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp milk

Make sure butter is at room temperature or slightly soft. Beat until creamy. Add in xxx sugar and wet ingredients. Beat until icing reaches desired consistency; should be firm enough to pipe. Add color if desired.

To combine:

When cupcakes are cooled, pipe a spiral of frosting on the tops of each. Decorate as desired. I used some edible gold stars and a strawberry garnish (not pictured) on the lemon frosting:

and edible spray paint on the coconut:

I have to say, as someone who is not the hugest fan of lemon, I think the coconut frosted cupcakes were better because the coconut balanced the lemon in the cupcake. Even using just lemon peel and juice, lemon-flavored things can have a very overwhelming and almost artificial lemon taste that I personally don't much care for. Obviously, if you are a lover of all things citrus, go for the double lemon!

Cupcakes adapted from TasteofHome.com

Icing by me.

Coconut Chick Cupcakes

Coconut Chick Cupcakes

These cuties can be made with any type of cake, to be honest, so use your favorite flavor! You just want to make sure it's something with a firm, sturdy texture that will stand up to be unwrapped, flipped over, and decorated.

Cupcakes:
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together flour and baking powder. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time. Add in flour mixture and buttermilk in alternating batches. When everything is well mixed together, beat in vanilla.

Line your cupcake tin with plain paper or foil wrappers. Since you will be discarding them, make sure they're not pretty ones you like. Fill each cup about 3/4 of the way, although you can vary the amount you put in each cup to create different sized chicks.

Bake 10 minutes, turn, bake 10 minutes. Let cool.

Makes 22.

Icing:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups xxx sugar
Vanilla

Beat butter until soft. Sift in sugar, and beat, adding in vanilla as needed, until frosting is creamy and spreadable.

Toasted Coconut:
Take about one big package of sweetened shredded coconut and spread it about 1/2 inch thick in a 9x11 baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Stick the dish in, and let the coconut toast, stirring about every 2-3 minutes. You'll know when it's done because it will be lightly browned and sort of crispy. This can take a while, depending on how thickly you have the coconut in the baking dish.

Decorating:
Icing
Toasted coconut
Red jellybeans
Marzipan, dyed yellow (large amount) and black (smaller amount)

Form small beaks and feet out of the yellow marzipan. My sister, who is a genius at marzipan sculpting, did the honors for this, and she is pictured here in triumph. You will want to make the beaks and feet ahead of time because the icing sets up fairly quickly and you want to be able to stick them on while it's still soft and adhesive.

Remove each cupcake from its wrapper and turn it upside down.

Ice it everywhere except the side that it stands on.

Using a serrated knife, slice the jelly beans in halves to make a comb on the head.

Gently push a beak into the icing,

 then take cupcake to the dish of coconut. Using your hands, pat coconut onto the sides until the chick is coated and looks fluffy.

Then put the feet on the plate and set the chick down on top of them.

Use a little extra icing to adhere the eyes (little balls of black marzipan). Voila!

These are super fun cupcakes and people get very excited about how cute they are. If you are not a fan of marzipan, you can try using almonds for the beaks and pushing tiny pieces of black licorice lace into the icing for eyes. Mix it up! There are no rules about what candy you need to use for decoration, so pick stuff you like.

If you toast the coconut ahead of time, instead of doing it at the last moment (as I did) the process will go a lot faster, too.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

Cupcakes:
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup shredded coconut (I upped this to about a cup with no ill effects)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 whole eggs + 2 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup unsweet coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together flour, bp, and coconut. The original recipe suggests grinding the coconut in a food processor to make it more fine, but I just put mine in the way it came and had no texture problems.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, and add the vanilla. When these are well-combined, add the flour mixture alternating with the coconut milk until smooth.

Fill your cupcake tins. This recipe is supposed to make 20; I got 24. The cupcakes rise a reasonable amount, so if you fill the liners about 2/3 full, this gives them a nice swelling curve across the top. Bake them for 10 minutes, rotate, and bake another 10 minutes. Let them cool.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar (SIFT IT I PROMISE)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract. The original recipe calls for a vanilla bean/vanilla extract, but I wanted a really rich coconut flavour so I used coconut extract. Obviously you can modify this according to your preferences.

Beat the butter until it's fluffy, then add everything else. Beat it until fluffy. I found that when I beat it the icing developed a kind of weird texture, almost a little grainy? Which I think may have been because the coconut milk was too warm (mine was frozen in a tin so I had to reheat it on the stove).

I decided to be brave and try to use a piping bag, which negated the issue with the texture; however, I am pretty wretched at piping which is why it looks kind of weird and squiggly. I would suggest if you are comfortable with piping, go ahead! If you are like me and always cause a disaster when piping, just go ahead and spread it with the spatula.

Sprinkle with your choice of coloured sugar.

Adapted from epicurious.com