These moist and fluffy Coconut Easter Cupcakes are a delicious treat to make for Easter or any time of the year. These cupcakes are a festive version of my Coconut Cupcakes. The cupcakes are made with coconut milk and then decorated with a coconut frosting and toasted coconut for a triple coconut flavor. Top them with Cadbury mini eggs for a special treat.
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Coconut Easter Cupcake Ingredients
These are the ingredients you'll need for these pretty and delicious coconut cupcakes:
- Unbleached All-Purpose Flour: Flour provides the structure for the cupcake
- Granulated Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps ensure moist cupcakes.
- Unsalted Butter: Adds fat, flavor, and moisture to the cupcake. I recommend using unsalted butter so you can control the amount of salt in the final bake. Some recipes use vegetable oil, but you'll love the taste of butter in these cupcakes.
- Coconut Milk: Coconut milk is the main flavor component instead of coconut extract. Make sure to use full-fat coconut milk for this recipe and not reduced-fat coconut milk or coconut cream. The amount of butter for this recipe was reduced to account for the fat in the coconut milk. For a 14-ounce can the nutritional label should say 11 percent fat.
- Baking Powder: The baking powder helps the cupcakes rise once they hit the heat of the oven.
- Large Eggs: The egg yolks provide flavor and fat helping to create a soft cupcake. The egg whites provide structure to the cupcake.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: The vanilla extract helps elevate the other flavors in the cupcake, especially the coconut milk.
- Kosher Salt: A little salt elevates all the other flavors.
- Cadbury Mini Eggs: These are milk chocolate eggs with a hard, lightly speckled sugar shell that resembles a miniature egg. Perfect for turning these cupcakes into Easter cupcakes.
Full ingredients, measurements, and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
How to Make Coconut Easter Cupcakes
Step 1: Whisk together the eggs, the vanilla extract, and part of the coconut milk in a small bowl.
Step 2: Place the dry ingredients - all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix the dry ingredients on low until they are combined.
Step 3: Add the butter and the remaining coconut. Beat on medium speed until the cupcake batter is creamy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Step 4: Add the egg mixture in two batches beating after each addition until the eggs are incorporated.
Step 5: Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are mixed together. The batter should be creamy and smooth.
Step 6: Spoon the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners. Each cupcake should be about 2/3 full and the amount of batter should weigh about 60 grams in each liner.
Step 7: Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes. The baking time may vary based on your oven.
Step 8: Let the cupcakes cool in the muffin tin and place them on a wire cooking rack before decorating them.
How to Make Coconut Buttercream Frosting
This frosting is the best creamy coconut frosting you'll ever taste. Because of the coconut milk, it has a delicious sweet coconut flavor with the richness of regular buttercream.
The frosting contains the following ingredients:
- Granulated Sugar. Adds sweetness to the frosting
- Flour and Cornstarch. The flour and cornstarch thicken the slurry and help give it a nice creamy texture.
- Coconut Milk. Coconut milk is the flavor bomb in this recipe. If you don't have coconut milk you can use regular whole milk.
- Whole Milk: A combination of whole milk and coconut milk provides the needed liquid for this recipe.
- Kosher Salt. The salt balances the sweetness of the recipe.
- Unsalted Butter. The butter gives this frosting its rich, creamy texture.
Step 9: Combine all the ingredients except the butter in a 3-quart saucepan. Cook these ingredients over medium heat whisking constantly until the mixture is thickened.
Step 10: Cool the slurry to room temperature, about 2 hours.
Step 11: Cream the butter until it's smooth and creamy. Add the coconut milk-flour slurry to the butter.
Step 12: Once the butter and slurry are combined, whip it with the whisk attachment for about 8 minutes on medium-high speed until it is light and fluffy.
The flour slurry can be made the night before and chilled. Once it's thoroughly cooked, put it in a heatproof bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and chill. Before combining it with the whipped butter bring it to room temperature, warm it slightly over a pan of simmering water and stir until it becomes more fluid and is about 68-72°F.
This frosting is so good and so easy to make, that if you've never made it before, I think it will become a new favorite.
How to Frost and Decorate the Cupcakes
Once your coconut cupcakes are cooled to room temperature, it’s time to frost them. Fill an 18-inch pastry bag with the buttercream and pipe the frosting on top of the cupcake with a piping bag and piping tip Ateco 804 or your favorite piping tips.
Step 13: Pipe coconut buttercream onto the coconut cupcake so that it forms a nest to hold the mini Cadbury eggs.
Step 14: Press the toasted coconut into the sides of the buttercream.
Step 15. Top the cupcake with 3 or 4 mini Cadbury eggs.
How to Store the Cupcakes
- Undecorated Cupcakes: The cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days without frosting. Do not store the cupcakes in the refrigerator - that will dry them out.
- Decorated Cupcakes: The decorated cupcakes with the ermine frosting can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
If you make these moist and fluffy coconut cupcakes please leave a rating and a comment below.
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Moist & Fluffy Coconut Easter Cupcakes
Equipment
- Cupcake Liners
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup (161 ml) coconut milk room temperature (65-68 degrees F)
- 2 large (100 grams) eggs room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1-1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar
- 1-2/3 cups (212 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 8 tablespoons (114 grams) unsalted butter room temperature (65-68 degrees F)
- 1-1/2 cups (135 grams) sweetened shredded coconut toasted
- 1 bag Cadbury mini eggs or similar Easter candy
Coconut Ermine Frosting
- 3 tablespoons (30 grams) cornstarch
- 1/4 cup (32 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) coconut milk
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1-1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
- 30 tablespoons (424 grams) unsalted butter room temperature (65-68 degrees F)
Instructions
Coconut Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Line the muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- The fat in coconut milk tends to solidify at the top of the can. To ensure a homogenous mixture, place the can of coconut milk upside down in a container of hot water to melt this solid layer of coconut fat. When you open the can, stir the milk to ensure it is well combined before measuring out 2/3 cup for this recipe.
- In a small bowl combine the eggs, pure vanilla extract, and 1/3 of the coconut milk and whisk the ingredients together. Cut the butter into 8 pieces.
- Add the sugar, all-purpose flour, the kosher salt and the baking powder to the bowl of a stand mixer. With the paddle attachment mix the dry ingredients on medium-low for 30 seconds to thoroughly combine them. Add the butter and remaining coconut milk and mix on medium speed until the butter and coconut milk are thoroughly incorporated and the batter is creamy, about 1 minute. Be careful not to overmix. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add the egg mixture in two batches, mixing on medium speed until the egg mixture is thoroughly incorporated each time. Scrape the sides and bottoms of the bowl and fold the batter by hand to ensure all the batter is mixed together.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 cups of the muffin pan, about 60 grams each. Each muffin tin should be about 2/3 full.
- Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes until they are done. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan to a wire rack. Let the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting them.
- If making the cupcakes one day in advance before frosting them, store the cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature.
Toasted Coconut
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ (180℃). Spread the shredded coconut into a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast the coconut for 5 minutes, then toss it with a spoon to ensure even browning. Toast for another 5 minutes and toss again. Continue to toast the coconut until most of it is golden brown or a little darker. Check the coconut frequently to ensure it doesn't burn. The amount of time it takes to toast the coconut will depend on how much moisture there is in the coconut.
- Remove the toasted coconut from the oven and the let it cool to room temperature. Store the coconut in a container with a lid until ready to use it.
For the Coconut Ermine Frosting
- This recipe makes 5 cups of frosting, enough to frost and decorate 12 cupcakes. Leftover frosting can be frozen in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
- In a 3 or 4-quart nonreactive pan whisk together the sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly whisk in the coconut milk and whole milk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly and scraping the corners of the saucepan, until the mixture boils and is very thick, about 6-10 minutes. When the mixture starts to boil whisk it for 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a wide bowl or glass pie plate and let cool completely, about 2 hours.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the butter (which should be between 65-68 degrees F) on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5-minutes. Turn off the mixer, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and add the cooled coconut milk-flour mixture. Mix on medium speed until combined. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.
How to Decorate the Cupcakes
- Using a Pastry Bag: Fit your pastry bag with a 3/8-inch plain tip (Ateco 804) or your favorite decorating tip and fill it with frosting. Starting at the outside edge of the cupcake, pipe frosting in a swirl with the tip about 1-1/2-inches above the cupcake, exerting even pressure on the bag continuously. Leave the center open, then pipe some frosting in the center to hold the mini eggs.
- Place the toasted coconut on a large plate or small baking sheet. Take small handfuls of toasted coconut and press it into the sides of the frosting working around the cupcake.
- Place 3 of 4 Cadbury mini eggs into the center of the frosting.
How to Store the Cupcakes
- Unfrosted Cupcakes: Once the cupcakes are cooled to room temperature, they can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
- Frosted Cupcakes: Once the cupcakes are frosted, they can sit at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days with the ermine frosting. They can be refrigerated for up to 3 days in an airtight container . The cupcakes taste best if consumed the same they are frosted.
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