These elegant delicious cupcakes are flavoured with lemon zest and topped with lemon icing and sprinkled with toasted coconut make them the best Spring-time treats!
This simple recipe is one your whole family will love! There are fresh, light and not overly sweet. The icing balances the sweetness with a little added lemon juice. I like to add blueberry in my recipes or as a garnish to my lemon desserts, as I love the combination of the two flavours. You can always add other berries to this dessert, such as strawberries, blackberries or raspberries. They too will enhance the flavours of this dessert and of course, the contrast of colours will make this dessert look even more appealing.
When I decided to make these lemon coconut cupcakes, I realized I didn’t have the proper tools to decorate them. So, as we cooks/bakers do, we improvise. So I used a zip-lock bag and used it as my piping bag. As we all know, our go to guide, the internet, I picked a design I wanted, this was the result. Overall, I was pretty happy and pleased how they turned out. I have to say, this is my favourite cupcake and one that I will make often, and I hope you do too!
Ingredients:
Butter: I like to use unsalted butter since salt is added to most recipes
Sugar: I have added only 1/2 cup to this recipe and they turn out just as good and still have enough sweetness
Eggs: when baking important to use room temperature eggs
Coconut: without adding more sweetness, I added unsweetened
Lemon zest: for that extra punch of lemon flavour
Baking powder: is needed for a leavening agent
Salt: enhances the flavours
Milk: I like to use 2% milk for this recipe, not too much fat content but enough
Icing: consists of cream cheese, unsalted butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, icing sugar and toasted shredded coconut
Lemon Coconut Cupcakes
Equipment
- muffin tin
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup raw fine sugar (can substitute white sugar)
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 4 tsp lemon zest, grated
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
Icing:
- 6 tbsp cream cheese, softened
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tsp lemon zest, grated
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 cups Confectioner's sugar/icing sugar
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted for garnishing
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
- In a medium mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and beating after each.
- Stir together in a medium bowl, flour, coconut, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt.
- Start by adding and stirring in dry ingredients into butter mixture and alternating with milk. Start and finish with dry ingredients, with flour added 3 times and milk added twice.
- Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups, about two-thirds full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cupcakes.
- While the cupcakes are baking, toast the coconut by using a large skillet over low-medium heat, add the coconut, and stirring frequently to avoid the coconut from burning. It should only take about 3-5 minutes to get a golden colour.
Icing
- In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until fluffy; beat in lemon zest and juice. Beat in icing sugar until fluffy.
- Spread over cupcake and dip into coconut, or using a pipping bag and decorate cupcakes with toasted coconut, lemon zest and/or berries.
- Decorate with icing or store in refrigerator up to 24 hours, or freeze up to 2 weeks.
Nutrition
How to make this recipe:
In a medium mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and beating after each. Stir in the dry ingredients alternating with the milk. Start and finish with dry ingredients, with flour added 3 times and milk added twice. Once all of the ingredients are mixed, the batter will be slightly lumpy with the added coconut.
Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups, about two-thirds full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cupcakes.
To toast coconut, using a large skillet over low-medium heat, add the coconut, and stirring frequently to avoid the coconut from burning. It should only take about 3-5 minutes to get a golden colour. Sprinkle the toasted coconut to your preference. Store the extra in a zip-lock bag in cool place.
Once the 20 minutes are up, test the cupcakes by inserting the toothpick and if it comes out clean then they are done! They will too, turn a light golden in colour, more often around the edges. Now they are ready to decorate, have fun!!
Using a piping bag or zip-lock bag, as I did to decorate the cupcakes. These cupcakes I would say are more of a dense texture to them as oppose to a fall apart, fluffy cupcake. They have the right amount of balance of flavours that make a perfect afternoon treat with a cup of coffee or tea.
I decided to decorate each cupcake differently. It varies with either lemon zest, toasted coconut, or blueberries. Have fun with it and personalize the cupcakes to your style and flavours.
