I haven't been baking all that much lately, not because I haven't wanted to, but because I haven't had a good excuse to. (I know, I know. Who really needs an excuse to bake, right? Well, I do. Go figure.) Anyway, seeing as how it was my Newport Bestie's birthday this past week and I had a big race on Saturday, I couldn't think of a reason not to bake.
Since my friend love, love, loves coconut frosting, I decided to go with a Key Lime Cupcake. I figured the tartness of the cupcake would compliment the sweet richness of the frosting. And guess what? It totally worked! I based my recipe off of one on found on What About Second Breakfast?, a great foodie blog. For the frosting, I used my tried and true adaptation of CakeLove's Coconut Buttercream, which derives it's richness from using a coconut pastry cream as the base. If you haven't tried this unorthodox frosting before, I highly recommend you get to it. It's addictive!See below for the full recipe. Happy Monday!
KEY LIME CUPCAKES
Adapted from MarthaStewart's Glazed LemonCakes
Makes 24 cupcakes
Unsalted butter (room temperature), 1 cup (2 sticks)
All-purpose flour, 3 cups
Baking powder, 4 teaspoons
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Greek yogurt (0% fat), 1 cup
Vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon
Key lime juice, ½ cup
Granulated sugar, 1 cup
Turbino sugar, 1 cup
Large eggs, 4 large
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup tin with cupcake papers.
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder andsalt. In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, vanilla, and zest and juice.Set aside.
With an electric mixer, cream butter and granulated sugaruntil light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Withmixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with twoadditions of yogurt mixture.
Divide evenly among cupcake cups. Bake until a toothpickinserted in center of a cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutesin tin, then cool completely on a rack.
Frost the cupcakes.
COCONUT BUTTERCREAM
Adapted from WarrenBrown’s Coconut Buttercream recipe in CakeLove
Milk mixture:
Coconut milk, 1 cup
Whole milk, 1 cup
Unsweetened coconut flakes, ½ cup
Extra-fine granulated sugar, ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons
Yolk mixture:
Egg yolks (large), 6
Extra-fine granulated sugar, ¼ cup
Potato starch, 3 tablespoons
Unsalted butter, at room temperature, ½ stick
Flavorings and butter:
Coconut rum, 1 tablespoon
Vanilla extract, 2 teaspoons
Unsalted butter, chilled, 1 pound (4 sticks)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Separate the yolks into a large bowl. Add the 2 ouncessugar and the potato starch and whisk to combine. Add the 2 ounces butter, butdo not stir in. Place a damp kitchen towel under the bowl to prevent it fromsliding.
Measure the milk mixture ingredients into a 2-quart,heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn off theheat and let the mixture steep for 10 minutes.
Measure the flavorings into three separate bowls and set aside.
2. Return the milk mixture to a simmer. Once it reaches asimmer, slowly pour it into the yolk mixture, whisking slowly in small circlesat first and ending with broader strokes until fully combined. Pour the mixtureback into the saucepan.
3. Return the saucepan to the stove and heat over mediumheat, whisking constantly but not rapidly, for about 4 minutes (3 minutes athigh altitude). The key is to keep the pastry cream moving so it won’t scorchon the bottom of the saucepan.
4. When you begin to see lava bubbles—large, slowly formingbubbles that burp steam—reduce the heat to the lowest setting and whisk brisklyfor 1 minute to pasteurize the pastry cream.
5. Pour the pastry cream into the bowl of a standing mixerfitted with the wire whip attachment. Add the coconut rum, and vanilla extract.Whip the pastry cream on high speed until it’s cooled to room temperature,about 4 to 5 minutes.
6. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the pound ofbutter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Whip on medium speed until smooth, about 2 to 3minutes.
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