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! 

Coconut Vanilla Cupcakes

I have probably made these cupcakes (or variations of them) more than any other recipe in my entire life.  This has been adapted from a few different recipes, and I have made many different variations just using the same basics of coconut flour and eggs.  It's hard to go wrong with these two key ingredients!  Just note with coconut flour that a little goes a long way - you definitely don't need the same sort of quantities that you would use with wheat flour. 

This version is gluten free as well as fructose free, and if using coconut oil (and no cream cheese icing) it is also dairy free - all of which come in useful in our extended family with all sorts of food intolerances.

These cupcakes are beautifully moist and dense. They have received compliments from so many people who had no idea that they were fructose or gluten free.  And as with most coconut flour recipes, they actually get better after a couple of days in the fridge - they keep really well for at least 5 days or so, and they freeze great too.

(with blueberry cream cheese icing)

Coconut vanilla cupcakes

(makes 12)

6 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil or butter
1/2 cup rice malt syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut flour
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

Beat eggs and add coconut oil, syrup and vanilla. Beat to combine.

Add dry ingredients. Blend with a hand mixer until smooth.

Pour into well greased muffin tins or into cupcake papers.

Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for 20 minutes.


These go with lots of different icings and fillings, but my favourite is cream cheese icing.


Cream Cheese Icing

250g cream cheese
100g butter (optional)
Dextrose or rice syrup to taste (around 1/2 to 1 cup)
Vanilla extract

Soften cream cheese and butter and mix until smooth. Add dextrose and vanilla and mix to combine.



Some variations I have tried to this recipe:

Lemon and coconut - add lemon rind, lemon juice and dessicated/shredded coconut

Raspberry and white chocolate - add fresh or frozen raspberries and white chocolate drops (make your own out of cocoa butter and sweetener for a fructose free version), and use melted cocoa butter instead of butter in the icing for an extra chocolate-y taste

Strawberry and dark chocolate - add a whole strawberry (I used tinned ones in the middle of winter) and a piece of 70% or 85% Lindt chocolate to the centre before baking - particularly nice to eat straight from the oven without any icing, and a great easy dessert to whip up at the last minute :-)

Mango and cream cheese - add a slice of mango and chunk of cream cheese to the centre instead of icing

And pretty much anything else you can think of! Coconut flour is great to work with because it is quite hard to mess it up! I rarely measure my ingredients, and several times I have completely messed up quantities by doubling the recipe but forgetting to double everything, or deciding to make 18 muffins instead of 12 but accidentally doubling some ingredients instead, and they have always turned out ok!

Enjoy! :-)

Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from http://www.glorioustreats.com/2010/04/recipe-perfectly-chocolate-cupcakes.html, which is from a Hershey's recipe.

Makes approximately 24 standard sized cupcakes

2 1/4 cups dextrose
1 3/4 cups plain (all purpose) flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used Nestle baking cocoa)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup cooking oil (I use coconut oil or extra light olive oil)
1/2 cup rice malt syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup boiling water

1. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 180C.
2. In a large mixer bowl, stir together dry ingredients (dextrose, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt).
3. Add milk, oil, rice malt syrup, vanilla and eggs. Beat on medium speed for one minute. 
4. Stir in boiling water. (Don't worry if the batter seems extremely thin – this is right.)
5. Fill liners 2/3 full with batter, leaving approximately a 1cm gap from the top of the liners. The easiest way to do this is to put the batter into a large measuring cup/jug with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.
6. Bake cupcakes for approximately 18-24 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. 
7. Cool completely on wire rack before icing. My favourites are Whipped Chocolate Cream Icing and Raspberry Cream Cheese Icing - see below.

The cupcakes photographed here actually have chocolate cream cheese icing, which I had several attempts at but never really liked. My first attempt (following the recipe linked to above) was way too sickly-sweet for me. When I reduced the sweetening it was a bit sour-chocolate-yoghurt, which is not usually what I'm after for a chocolate treat. ;-P You could make a chocolate buttercream icing, but I'm not a buttercream fan... probably overdosed as a kid! I find the cupcakes go perfectly piped with these:


Raspberry Cream Cheese Icing

This is enough for more than 12 cupcakes but not enough for all 24 cupcakes if you are extravagant when piping!

250g cream cheese (I use the spreadable version in the tub)
100g unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup – 1 cup dextrose (I used 7/8 cup – ie ¾ cup + extra 1/8 cup)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs (60ml or ¼ cup) thawed, mashed frozen raspberries (or fresh raspberries, or try substituting other berries)

Whip together. Add dextrose to taste. Transfer to piping bag and pipe on to cupcakes (or dollop/spread). Keep refrigerated!

Berry cream cheese icing
(blackberries, blueberries & raspberries)

Whipped Chocolate Cream Icing

This is enough icing for about 12 cupcakes – double if icing all 24 cupcakes

200ml thickened cream
2 tsp cocoa (I used Van Houten dutch processed cocoa powder, as it gives a darker colour)
1 ½ tablespoons dextrose
½ tsp vanilla extract

Whip together. Add extra dextrose or cocoa powder to taste. Transfer to piping bag and pipe on to 12 cupcakes (or dollop/spread). Keep refrigerated! This icing will not hold its shape for long out of the fridge.

Red velvet cupcakes

Make these for the cream cheese icing - it goes great with these cupcakes, but the cake is really just along for the ride and the icing is divine. 

Adapted from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/26697/red+velvet+cupcakes

Makes 18-24 cupcakes* 

Cupcake ingredients 

• 300g (2 cups) plain flour 
• 30g (1/4 cup) cocoa powder 
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
• 1 1/2 cups dextrose (I used 1 3/4 cups but would reduce to 1 1/2 cups in future - too sweet) 
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked 
• 250ml (1 cup) buttermilk 
• 200g unsalted butter, melted 
• 1/4 cup rice malt syrup 
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 2 tsp red food colouring (I used 2 tsp Queen's red pillar box food colouring, but this did not result in a very red cake. If you want a redder cupcake, experiment with different brands of food colouring or add lots more. Food colouring is entirely optional of course – there's nothing wrong with chocolate coloured cake – but you can't get away with calling it red velvet if it's not red!) 

Cream cheese icing ingredients

• 250g cream cheese block, at room temperature 
• 3/4 cup dextrose 
• 100g butter, at room temperature 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract Method 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C*. Line at least eighteen 80ml (1/3 cup) capacity muffin pans with paper cases*. 
2. Sift dextrose, flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Whisk the eggs, buttermilk, butter, rice malt syrup, vinegar and vanilla in a large jug until combined. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture. Stir until just combined. Stir in the food colouring. 
3. Divide the mixture among the lined pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes* or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
4. Use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese, dextrose, extra butter and extra vanilla until smooth. Spread or pipe over cupcakes. (NOTE: This didn't make quite enough icing to pipe on all 24 cupcakes. I think it piped 20 cupcakes, and spread on 2 more, and 2 cupcakes were un-iced. If I'd eaten less of it as I piped it may have gone a lot further. ;) )

* I made 24 cupcakes, filling the liners half full, or 1.5cm from the top. 
* Oven temperature and cooking times are based on original recipe. I generally need to turn my (non fan-forced oven) up 20°C and increase the cooking time. I baked these in my oven at 190C for 25 min, but 20 min probably would've been enough - dextrose-based cakes seem to need a little less cooking time than sugar-based cakes.