Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

Cupcake Ingredients
3/4 Cup Butter (1 1/2 Stick)
2 Cups Sugar
3 Eggs
2 Cups A.P. Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Cocoa powder
1 1/2 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla

• Line muffin tins and preheat oven to 350
• Beat Butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Measure Dry Ingredients [Flour, Baking Soda, Salt and Cocoa Powder] in small bowl. Mix well.
• Measure Milk and Vanilla into bowl

• Add 1/3 of Dry Ingredients to butter/sugar mix, beat to combine. Add half of milk and Vanilla. Alternate wet and dry ingredients, ending with dry.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting Ingredients
1 1/2 Sticks Unsalted Butter
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Cups Powdered Sugar [Sifted]
1 1/2 Cups Flaked Coconut
1 Tsp Vanilla

• Beat Butter until light and fluffy, scrape bowl.
• Add sifted powdered sugar and Milk. Beat until smooth.
• Add coconut mix until combined.

I lessened the ammount of vanilla to 1/2 tsp and added 1 tsp of coconut extract, which made the frosting entirely too sweet. Next time I'm going to go half and half on both the vanilla and the coconut extracts.

I also burned the first batch of Coconut that I was toasting for the toppings. I placed the tray under the broiler and left it while I went to frost a couple of cupcakes. I kept hearing this popping sound that was unfamiliar, but didn't think anything until I smelt the burning of the coconut. The lesson learned was to stay right by your coconut while under the broiler. Luckily I had another bag of coconut to try again with.