Coconut Vanilla Cupcakes with Pink Coconut Lime Glaze

I have made the Coconut Vanilla Cupcakes on this blog many times... but hubby always complains they are not quite sweet enough, so I have done some tweaking... and tried out a new icing. 

Coconut Vanilla Cupcakes with Pink Coconut Lime Glaze

Coconut Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 12-16 cupcakes, depending on the size of your cupcake papers. Suitable for freezing. 

• 6 eggs
• 100g (125ml) coconut oil or 100g butter, melted
• 250g  (3/4 cup) rice malt syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon liquid stevia (optional)
• ½ (75g) cup coconut flour
• ¼ teaspoon bicarb soda
• pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Prepare cupcake tray by lining with paper cupcake cases or greasing with oil or butter. (Tip: Double up your cupcake papers if you want them to look pretty after baking.)
2. Beat eggs and add coconut oil, rice malt syrup, vanilla extract and stevia. Beat to combine. 
3. Add dry ingredients (coconut flour, bicarb soda and pinch of salt). Blend until smooth. (You can beat it by hand or use electric beaters or a blender.) 
4. Pour into well greased muffin tins or into paper cupcake cases and fill to 1cm from the top. The mixture is very runny - I find it easiest to transfer it to a jug and pour it in. 
5. Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for 20-25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Turn off the oven but leave the cupcakes in another 20-30 minutes if you have the time. This will allow them to turn golden and taste more caramel without overcooking. Allow to cool and then chill in fridge before icing. 

Pink Coconut Lime Glaze 

Adapted from The Urban Poser's vanilla bean lemon glaze.

• 1/3 cup (75g) warmed coconut butter (made from blended shredded coconut or coconut flakes)*, in a pour-able state. (The oil can separate out - make sure it is mixed in to the rest of the coconut butter.)
• 1/4 cup (60ml) rice malt syrup
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract or half a vanilla pod, scraped
• 1 tablespoon juice squeezed from raspberries (I warm frozen raspberries and push through a sieve to extract juice... Or you could just add food colouring if you don't mind eating that.) 

1. In a small bowl, mix the coconut butter and rice malt syrup till they form a thick paste. 
2. Stir in the vanilla, raspberry juice and lime juice.
3. If needed, stir in some filtered water till desired consistency is achieved. 
4. Pour onto chilled cupcakes. Spread a little if needed, but you want it to spread out itself a little to look silky smooth. 

This glaze is not a family favourite, but is what I had iced the cupcakes with when several friends requested the recipe. The coconut-lime flavour complements the coconut cupcakes nicely, but is not near as sweet as typical cupcake icing, and it tastes a little grainy due to the texture of coconut butter. 

*Sometimes Woolworths sells coconut butter – it is labelled “Spiral Foods Coconut Paste” and comes in a box of 5 sachets. You can probably find it at a health food shop too. To make your own coconut butter, throw a whole packet (I use 500g) of desiccated coconut into a food processor and blitz until it turns runny. It may take around 15 minutes, and you will probably need to scrape the sides of the bowl several times. NOTE: You need to make a large quantity of coconut butter for the food processor to handle it. There are plenty of ways to use it up! 

Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownies

Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownies

Unsurprisingly, when you try to make brownies that are not laden with sugar and empty calories from white flour, they no longer taste that much like brownies. I have tried brownies made from almond or hazelnut meal and brownies made from coconut flour, and while they are nice, they are more like chocolate slices or cakes, and not really worthy of Brownie status. 

Surprisingly, when you use sweet potato as the basis for a brownie, it comes a lot closer to what you expect of a brownie: dense, moist and delicious. And, being made from real foods without added nasties, I'm happy to let my kids have a piece when they catch me sneaking some. 

I have been adding chocolate extract to my chocolatey baked goods since reading what dessert guru David Lebovitz has to say about chocolate and chocolate extract. Similar to vanilla extract, pure chocolate extract is made by infusing cacao beans (rather than vanilla beans) in an alcohol solution. When you add a tiny amount to a chocolate recipe, it boosts the chocolate flavour dramatically. Making chocolate treats without actual chocolate blocks/bars/chips or cane sugar, something seems a little lacking to me, and chocolate extract fills the lack. 

Chocolate flavoured extract exists. I've bought it, tried it, thrown it out. If you can get your hands on some chocolate extract actually made from real cocoa/cacao, buy it. And buy some more for me too. I have been using Stonemill Natural Chocolate Extract, which Aldi stocked (as a once off thing), and its ingredients are: Water, Vanilla Extract (Water, Alcohol, Vanilla Beans), Chocolate Concentrate (40%) [Water, Alcohol, Alkalised Cocoa Powder (25%)]. Contains 35% alcohol by volume. Not exactly made from whole cocoa beans, but at least made from a real chocolate product, and it is GOOD. 

If you are interested in chocolate extract, the online Australian store Premium Gourmet Food sells some... David Lebovitz recommends Star Kay White brand... Nielsen Massey is another brand... And if you want to try making your own chocolate extract, give this Instructables recipe a go (and then give me some feedback!). And here are some other recipe ideas for using your chocolate extract! 

Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownie

Adapted from recipes by Eat Drink Paleo and The Paleo Scoop. 

• 1 medium peeled white sweet potato (purple/red skin), steamed or boiled (weighing approx 250g after peeling, or 300g before peeling)
• 150ml (125g) coconut oil, butter or mild flavoured oil of your choice
• 150ml (240g) rice malt syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp chocolate extract (optional)
• ¼ tsp liquid stevia (optional, or substitute powdered stevia)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarb soda
• 1/3 cup (41g) cocoa powder (I used dutch processed cocoa)
• 2 Tbs (30g) coconut flour

Instructions

1. Steam or boil peeled sweet potato if you haven’t already – I cut mine into chunks and cook in the microwave with a little water in a covered microwave-proof dish. Alternatively you could bake the sweet potato in its jacket and then scoop the flesh out.
2. Preheat oven to 180 °C (365 °F).
3. Blend sweet potato with the oil/butter until smooth (or you can mash it really well). Ensure it has cooled enough that it won’t cook the eggs when they are added next.
4. Add rice malt syrup, vanilla, chocolate extract, stevia and eggs to blender/food processor with cooled sweet potato and blend till well incorporated (or mix well by hand). 
5. Add baking powder, bicarb soda and cocoa powder and blend in, and finally mix in the coconut flour. (Avoid adding too much coconut flour as it will absorb too much moisture, which will result in drier brownies.)
6. Transfer the mixture into a 20x20cm (8”x8”) greased baking tray (I use a silicon tray). It will hold its shape while cooking, so be sure to spread it out evenly. Cook for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Cool for 5-10 minutes before carefully removing from tin. Allow to cool right down before cutting to avoid jagged edges. 

This would be a really easy recipe for a Thermomix, I imagine - you could cook the sweet potato in it, then blend it up and blend in the rest of the ingredients. 

Sorry about the lack of photos - I must remember to take some next time I make these!