Saturday, May 7, 2011

Cupcakes


I could have sworn I posted about the cupcakes I made for my two girls' birthday party. Everyone loved them and I thought I had already put up the recipe, but I can't find it on here so I must be losing my mind :) The great part about these cupcakes is the fact that they use coconut oil for the fat. It not only gives a subtle coconut undertone, but it's a healthy fat, too. And I used coconut sugar (in place of regular sugar) because it's lower glycemic. The inspiration came from the Farm Chicks blog.

Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup coconut oil (if yours is solid, spoon into glass measuring cup and melt - you want 1/2 cup liquid)
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill muffin pans with 24 cupcake liners.  Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat until well blended. Add the boiling water and stir to combine. The batter will be thin. Pour into prepared muffin cups and bake for about 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack and frost when completely cool.

I also tried a vanilla version where I omitted the cocoa powder, reduced the sugar and added more flour. They came out good too.

Frosting
I hate buttercream frosting. It's thick and sugary and to me it just overpowers cupcakes. However, I wanted to frost these all cute and girly so I needed a frosting that would stand up to piping. I modified an easy buttercream by reducing the sugar and adding all-purpose flour. I had no idea you could do that until I did a search online on how to thicken up frosting. (Because my first thought was to just not use as much sugar. But then you end up with runny frosting).

1/2 cup butter at room temp
2 cups powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
1/4 cup or so all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup or so milk

Beat butter and powdered sugar together. Add flour and vanilla. Add milk in thin stream until you get to desired consistency. Color with food colors if desired.

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