Hi there heaven, it's me, Amelia...

From the City...

Oh man, Oh man, Oh man.

I'm going to give you the best recipe for coconut cupcakes ever, I suggest you make them. I also suggest that you have someone to give them to or a large group of people coming over to eat them because they are simply lovely and impossible to ignore.

I came across this recipe when I was researching for our monthly community dinner at the school where I work. Once a month, the entire community is invited to a dinner put on by my junior chef club as well as some form of workshop relevant to the communities needs (think, parenting teens, programs offered at the Library, healthy eating etc etc). Anyway, the kids are always trying to get me to make super sugary rich desserts that don't contain any fruits or vegetables, which I put in everything (think, zucchini muffins, banana bread, oatmeal apple cookies etc etc). So the community dinners act as our compromise, I create my desserts for the whole month except for that one night when I let them go wild.

Here's the recipe, give it a whirl.

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut
• 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs plus 2 large egg whites
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cococonut milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups large-flake unsweetened coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients, including shredded coconut, in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.
2. Reduce speed to low. Mix any remaining wet ingredients, including coconut milk and vanilla extract in a bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.
3. Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

...now you can either leave them just like so and enjoy a lighter treat or you can not be crazy and make this incredible coconut cream cheese icing.

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut flavoring
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 
  

Directions

Beat the cream cheese and butter in a mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, one cup at a time, alternating with coconut milk. Beat in the coconut flavoring, and vanilla extract. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and spreadable. Add additional confectioners' sugar if necessary to thicken the frosting, or more cream to thin. Stir in the coconut. If desired, spoon toasted coconut evenly over frosted cake.