2½ cups cake and pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1¾ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure coconut extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup coconut milk, full-fat
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
For the meringue topping:
4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
For garnish:
½ cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
toasted coconut shards
Takes ,
serves 24+.
Instructions
To make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Place paper liners into the wells of 2 12-cup cupcake or muffin tins. Set aside.
Spread coconut on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Transfer to oven and toast until lightly browned - watch closely. Toss coconut halfway through to ensure it is evenly toasted. Remove from oven and cool.
Prepare cupcake batter: Stir flour, salt and baking powder together in a small bowl. Sift and set aside.
In a large bowl, if using a hand mixer, or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the extracts and beat to combine.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after the addition of each. Scrape bowl as needed.
Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the dry mixture little by little, alternating with the coconut milk. Scrape bowl then gently stir in one cup of the toasted coconut. Fill the paper liners about ¾ full.
Transfer to oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until a cake tester comes away clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare whipped meringue topping: Stir egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, vanilla extract and salt together in a large stainless bowl. Place over a pot containing about 1-inch of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and egg whites are warm and frothy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Using the whisk attachment, beat the egg white mixture on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Decorate cupcakes: Transfer meringue topping into a piping bag fitted with a large star or open tip. Pipe topping onto the cupcakes. Toast meringue using a torch then sprinkle with additional toasted coconut and top with toasted coconut shard.
Store in a large airtight container, consuming within 5 days.
Coconut Cupcake Recipe with Toasted Meringue
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
2½ cups cake and pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1¾ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure coconut extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup coconut milk, full-fat
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
For the meringue topping:
4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
For garnish:
½ cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
toasted coconut shards
Directions
To make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Place paper liners into the wells of 2 12-cup cupcake or muffin tins. Set aside.
Spread coconut on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Transfer to oven and toast until lightly browned - watch closely. Toss coconut halfway through to ensure it is evenly toasted. Remove from oven and cool.
Prepare cupcake batter: Stir flour, salt and baking powder together in a small bowl. Sift and set aside.
In a large bowl, if using a hand mixer, or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the extracts and beat to combine.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after the addition of each. Scrape bowl as needed.
Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the dry mixture little by little, alternating with the coconut milk. Scrape bowl then gently stir in one cup of the toasted coconut. Fill the paper liners about ¾ full.
Transfer to oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until a cake tester comes away clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare whipped meringue topping: Stir egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, vanilla extract and salt together in a large stainless bowl. Place over a pot containing about 1-inch of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and egg whites are warm and frothy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Using the whisk attachment, beat the egg white mixture on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Decorate cupcakes: Transfer meringue topping into a piping bag fitted with a large star or open tip. Pipe topping onto the cupcakes. Toast meringue using a torch then sprinkle with additional toasted coconut and top with toasted coconut shard.
Store in a large airtight container, consuming within 5 days.
Coconut Cupcake Recipe with Toasted Meringue
5 / 5. 2
Scrumptious, toasted coconut cupcakes topped with marshmallowy meringue, torched until caramelized…
If you love the flavour of coconut, this COCONUT CUPCAKE RECIPE WITH TOASTED MERINGUE is for you!
People fall in love with this recipe for two reasons. First, they marvel at their beauty, topped with a welcoming swirl of toasted meringue and garnished with a shard of toasted coconut. They also appreciate the tender, crumbly cake itself, bursting with coconut flavour. You know us, when a recipe has that much going for it, we just gotta share!
Before we go through a few tips and suggestions on how to make these homemade cupcakes, we wanted to offer a few more recipes for all the lovers of coconut in our midst. If you’re craving something savoury, try this RED CURRY SHRIMP flavoured with coconut milk or this NUTTY COCONUT RICE side dish. For those with a sweet tooth, try these CHOCOLATE COCONUT MACAROONS or these crispy COCONUT BUTTER COOKIES. Finally, check out the cake that inspired this post, our MILE-HIGH COCONUT CAKE. Hope you enjoy!
Here are some tips on making this COCONUT CUPCAKE RECIPE:
INGREDIENTS
At the beginning of the VIDEO attached to this post, I explain how our MILE-HIGH COCONUT CAKE recipe was the springboard for these fabulous cupcakes. Because most cake recipes can also be baked off as cupcakes, we used many of the same coconut cake ingredients with just a few tweaks. Standard cake ingredients include eggs, butter, granulated sugar, kosher salt and baking powder. For best results, have the eggs and butter at room temperature before you begin. Additionally, we used cake flour for this recipe to yield a softer crumb, but unbleached all-purpose flour will work too. The other change to our ingredient lists was to swap the whole milk with coconut milk to boost the coconut flavour. All of the ingredients needed to make this recipe are readily available in your grocery store or local market.
COCONUT FLAVOURING
With the goal of giving the cupcakes lots of coconut flavouring, we had to find an alternative to the rich coconut cream custard we used in the coconut cake recipe. Not only did we use the coconut milk mentioned above, we also added pure coconut extract and shredded coconut to the cake batter. Shards of toasted coconut also get added to the top of the decorated cupcakes. Look for pure coconut extract at a cake decorating store or speciality food store. The shredded sweet coconut and shards of toasted coconut are both available from a bulk food store.
TOASTED COCONUT
In developing this recipe, we noticed the flavour of coconut is more pronounced when it’s toasted. This is easy to accomplish. Spread the shredded coconut out in an even layer on a parchment-lined baking tray, then transfer to a hot oven and toast for about five minutes or until golden. Because we used sweetened coconut for this recipe, we reduced the quantity of granulated sugar accordingly. Please don’t miss the instructions of only adding 1 cup of the coconut to the cake batter. Save the remaining quantity to sprinkle onto the decorated cups later in the recipe.
CUPCAKE BATTER
The cake batter for this COCONUT CUPCAKE RECIPE is surprisingly easy to make. Like most cake recipes, it involves sifting together a simple mix of dry ingredients. The next step is to blend the unsalted butter, sugar and large eggs together with the coconut extract and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. This is done on medium speed until light and fluffy. The final step is to then add the flour mixture and coconut milk, little by little, on low speed. Easy!
The batter is made even easier by using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. It gets the job done quickly and efficiently, with the only interruption being to occasionally scrape down the side of the mixing bowl as the batter comes together.
Once the batter is light and creamy, simply pop the bowl off the stand, add the toasted coconut and stir to combine. We suggest using a spatula to stir the coconut in gently. After the batter is prepared, time to fill the cupcake liners and bake.
BAKING CUPS
I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to share this helpful hint: use pretty cups or paper liners. Of course, plain white baking cups, AKA muffin cups, are fine. If you can, though, head to a cake decorating store or baking supply shop to purchase speciality cups. You can use seasonal, coloured or whimsically designed cups for holidays or special celebrations. Using cups such as these can help make your cupcakes even more appetizing.
FILLING BAKING CUPS
Spoiler alert: cupcakes bake differently from muffins. There we said it. For the most part, muffins tend to plump up when baked to form their distinctive muffin tops. Cupcakes also rise as they bake, but the goal is to have baked confections that sit within the cups themselves. This is achieved by filling the cups three-quarters full with batter.
When filling standard-size paper cups, we added a heaping tablespoon to each liner. As you add the batter to the cups, try to disperse it evenly without pushing it down too firmly. Tapping the pan on your work surface once or twice may help the batter sink to the bottom of each cup.
BONUS! We specifically included this pic as an added bonus because it showcases the yield on this recipe. What’s not to love about being able to take a flavour-boosted cake recipe and turning it into 24 cupcakes? LOVE!
BAKE
Baking the cupcakes is also an easy task. Because every oven is different, we’re giving you a bake time of 15 – 18 minutes. Mine turned out perfectly at 17.
The goal is lightly golden cupcakes, and you can test using a brochette or a toothpick. When a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes away clean, the cupcakes are done.
COOL CUPCAKES
Once the cupcakes are baked, we leave them to cool in the pan for five minutes. You’ll then be able to lift them from the baking or muffin tin, transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
MINIATURE CUPCAKES
But wait, there’s more? There sure is! The recipe also works if you’d like to make miniature coconut cupcakes. Feel free to use a small cupcake or muffin pan lined with miniature paper cups.
Then add a reduced heaping teaspoon of batter into each cup and bake for 10 minutes or until golden.
MERINGUE TOPPING
When we added coconut cupcakes to our shoot schedule, we originally brainstormed a simple creamy vanilla frosting to top them. But then we remembered how much we liked the flavour of our famous 7-MINUTE FROSTING on the COCONUT CAKE. That got us wondering, what if we meet in the middle and do something interesting with meringue? Ingredient list: egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, kosher salt and vanilla extract. Easy.
With those ingredients in hand, we prepared the topping in a similar fashion to the 7-minute frosting. All of the ingredients get stirred together in a medium bowl. Then place the bowl onto a pot of simmering hot water. Whisking the topping over this double boiler aerates the egg white while cooking the sugary mixture at the same time. Then, off the heat, whip the mixture to form soft peaks. This completes a fabulous billowy topping complete with a memorable marshmallow flavour.
CUPCAKE DECORATING
Once the meringue topping is whipped, it’s time to decorate. We found piping bags fitted with large tips work best. Star and open-tip nibs allow for a circular swirl of topping that features the edges shaped by the tip. You’ll also notice a culinary torch featured in the above image. We used it in this recipe to toast the meringue. If you don’t have a torch, you can purchase one either online or at a kitchen store. If using a torch seems like a skillset you might not be ready to tackle at present, simply add a swirl of your favourite vanilla or coconut buttercream in its place.
The last two items needed for decorating are the remaining toasted coconut and the shards of coconut. These get added to the cupcakes after the meringue topping has been torched or toasted.
Adding the meringue topping will get easier with practice. Crafting a simple, circular swirl works best, and we love how the shape of the swirl becomes more defined once the meringue is toasted.
MINI SWIRLS
Use this same decorating method on the smaller miniature cupcakes. They require just the tiniest bit of meringue, so decorating them is especially easy. One important word of advice: don’t point the torch too close to the edges of the paper cups. There’s less room to work with on the miniatures, so be careful and just go slow.
I’ve included one final photo worthy of your attention: a cupcake broken open, ready to be enjoyed. What’s the takeaway here? First, notice how easily the paper cup pulled away, leaving the cake intact. Next, check out the soft, crumbly texture; these cupcakes have a pleasingly soft, moist interior. Lastly, notice how we served them on a dessert plate with a fork? That’s strategy, allowing you to coax a bit of that toasted meringue onto every forkful. You’ll want to keep these cupcakes as fresh as possible, so we suggest storing them in an airtight container. You can also make and freeze undecorated cupcakes in advance. Then just thaw them out and add the topping before you serve. Amazing.
PIN ME
This delicious homemade dessert recipe is so fantastic, we suggest you PIN the recipe to a favourite dessert, cupcake or baking board on PINTEREST or BOOKMARK this tab for easy access. SHARE it with friends so they can make them too. We’d also appreciate seeing pics of all the delicious treats you’re making these days. Use #weekendatthecottage when you post those pics on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks!
I will end with a great quote from a follower on Insta. I posted a teaser of this recipe on a story, and she wrote in, “That looks so scrummy!” I was like… scrummy?! Apparently, that’s what happens when scrumptious meets yummy! My only follow-up comment to that?
This COCONUT CUPCAKE RECIPE WITH TOASTED MERINGUE sure is scrummy! Enjoy!
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
2½ cups cake and pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1¾ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure coconut extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup coconut milk, full-fat
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
For the meringue topping:
4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
For garnish:
½ cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
toasted coconut shards
Directions
To make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Place paper liners into the wells of 2 12-cup cupcake or muffin tins. Set aside.
Spread coconut on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Transfer to oven and toast until lightly browned - watch closely. Toss coconut halfway through to ensure it is evenly toasted. Remove from oven and cool.
Prepare cupcake batter: Stir flour, salt and baking powder together in a small bowl. Sift and set aside.
In a large bowl, if using a hand mixer, or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the extracts and beat to combine.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after the addition of each. Scrape bowl as needed.
Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the dry mixture little by little, alternating with the coconut milk. Scrape bowl then gently stir in one cup of the toasted coconut. Fill the paper liners about ¾ full.
Transfer to oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until a cake tester comes away clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare whipped meringue topping: Stir egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, vanilla extract and salt together in a large stainless bowl. Place over a pot containing about 1-inch of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and egg whites are warm and frothy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Using the whisk attachment, beat the egg white mixture on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Decorate cupcakes: Transfer meringue topping into a piping bag fitted with a large star or open tip. Pipe topping onto the cupcakes. Toast meringue using a torch then sprinkle with additional toasted coconut and top with toasted coconut shard.
Store in a large airtight container, consuming within 5 days.
Until Cottage Season
