Coconut cupcakes!

Closeup of the coconut cupcake (the hairy white ones...lol) Coconut cakes/cupcakes always crack me up because when covered with the shredded coconut, they tend to look all hairy. I made these for Brad and Jamie's engagement party which was a fabu beach bbq at Paradise Beach Park in Tiburon. We've cycled by the beach numerous times when riding Paradise Loop but have never been to the beach before and I have no idea why not because it is a really well kept beach/park/picnic ground.

As for the "white hairy" comment, I was going to write something about how Brad is old, white and hairy just like the cupcakes in the card but refrained as this was a family function - G rated please :)
As for the recipe, I used a different cake base recipe this time around. After many weeks of Magnolia's Vanilla cake base, I decided to go the American Cake Decorating route and used a recipe that has all of the same basic ingredients, it just has you work them in a different order. Instead of creaming together the butter and sugar with eggs and then adding the flour, this recipe has you mixing the butter and dry ingredients together then adding the milk/eggs....It creates a light crumb on the cake and I find it to be a little lighter in density than the Magnolia's method. And I used lots of coconut extract...in the batter and in the frosting.

Recipe
4 eggs at room temperature
1 cup milk
2 1/4 teaspoons coconut extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 sticks softened butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl mix eggs, 1/4 cup milk and coconut extract.

In a large mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. Add butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk to the dry ingredients and beat on low speed, just to combine.

Pour half of the egg/milk mixture into bowl, mixing well. Add the last half of the egg/milk mixture and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat an another minute. Pour half full into prepared cake pans or cupcake cups and bake for 25-35 minutes.

Coconut Buttercream
2 sticks softened butter
1/8 cup whipping cream
6-8 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons coconut extract

Put all ingredients into a stand mixer and mix on low speed until incorporated. Then increase speed and beat at med/high for 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy.