Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercreme

Photo by Diana Fye

These are so good. The recipe in the cake is just awesome! It calls for coconut milk in the cake so it has a strong but not overpowering coconut taste. To make the buttercreme, I wasn't sure what to use to make it taste like coconut. There are some things for which extract should be a no no. Buttercreme is one. There are also certain flavors of extract that should never ever be used - but more on that later.

The buttercreme is a vanilla buttercreme but to get the coconut flavor I added about a cup of the coconut milk and it worked perfectly! I added about a 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar to stiffen it up in order to pipe. Although here I didn't pipe it because I had made these in South Florida and
had forgotten my 2A tip.

The toasted coconut on the top was my sister's idea. It was good and gave it a little crunch, but I'm not opposed to using regular unsweetened coconut flakes. Which was my first choice.

If you love coconut, you'll absolutely love these. Everyone who has tried them has raved about them.