Coconut & chocolate

Over the weekend a couple of coworkers hosted a birthday party for a fellow teacher...another great opportunity for cupcakes! The birthday lady had tried my coconut cupcakes before, so for this occasion I decided to try the "sticky toffee" coconut cupcakes from the scent of the green bananas.


Coconut-chocolate-coconut

I also tried to make her dulce de coconut to fill the cupcakes, but alas, the thick gooey coconut caramel never formed...after more than six hours in the slow cooker, there was an oily mass of muddy-brown coconut milk...yuck! (Where did I go wrong?) Instead I made another caramel recipe for filling the cupcakes. I found that my mechanical pastry bag not only cannot fill airy whipped cream into cupcakes, it also fails at filling gooey caramel into cupcakes. *Sigh* So I used an apple corer to remove part of the cupcake, scooped the caramel in with a spoon, and replaced the cupcake core...it actually worked out pretty well. The cupcakes were then topped with chocolate ganache and toasted coconut...kind of like another version of the Samoa cupcake...they were very well received, so I think I'll be making them again.

And every birthday party needs chocolate, right? I also made chocolate cupcakes with marscapone cream and chocolate sprinkles for the party.


Chocolate close-up

I did not frost the cupcakes immediately, since marscapone cream needs to be refrigerated...and I do not like refrigerated cupcakes. Perhaps because of this, the cupcakes were a bit drier than usual...or maybe it was because I used the hand mixer instead of the stand mixer? Either way, next time I use a perishable frosting, I will try brushing the cupcakes with simple syrup to retain moisture overnight. A good weekend of cupcake-making, sampling, and learning...oh, and I went for a bike ride too!