Coconut Cupcakes made Two Ways

Post Edit: I’ve come back here to tell you, these cupcakes won second place at the Nashville Cupcake Palooza. For years I’ve told people these are award winning and it turned out to be true. For the contest, I adopted an Easter theme and dyed the coconut in several pastel colors.

Maybe you think you’re too grown up to eat cupcakes. Or you see cupcakes as I used to, as kiddie food porn with greasy frosting. These are grown-up cupcakes with sophisticated flavors and not only will you become a cupcake eater, you will start to think about them in your spare time. Nutmeg, vanilla, and coconut in a sour cream batter makes these a Christmas cupcake and an Easter cupcake. But, I bake them for all occasions, even the elegant dinner party.

They are dense, and yet moist enough to remind me of my coconut wedding cake, where Mr. ST  and I ate an embarrassing number of pieces of cake almost ten years ago. To this day, coconut cake is our favorite.

I have probably made them thirty times. That is how much we and everyone we know loves them. People beg for them, fight over them, and judges call them a winner!

If you want to make as jumbo cupcakes, they will more like muffins and a bit filling. My favorite way to make them is to make them into mini cupcakes. Because they are full of butter, keep them in plastic bags at room temperature and frost right before serving with a coconut cream cheese frosting which is also flavored with nutmeg and fresh coconut. Flavor is very key here in making these special.