Chocolate, Coconut and Rum Cupcakes with Coconut Lime Frosting

Inspired by some leftover limes from an earlier meal (that dry rubbed salmon), I really wanted to make some cupcakes. So much so that I've been dreaming and scheming about them in my head for two days now.

Lime and coconut sounded really good...but then I had an even better idea of adding chocolate to the mix! And what goes better with the semi tropical flavors of lime and coconut then rum?? Off I went to find a chocolate rum coconut lime cupcake, or something like it. Ha. Like that was really going to happen.

I decided I wanted to make chocolate coconut rum cake with coconut lime frosting. I finally settled on a "light" chocolate cup cake recipe by Martha Stewart and decided I'd modify it a bit to incorporate my coconut rum inspiration, plus add a buttercream frosting later.

Chocolate, Coconut and Rum Cupcakes with Coconut Lime Frosting

the cake:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp hot water
3 tbsp butter, melted
6 tbsp buttermilk
1 1/1 tbsp dark rum
1 large egg
1 large egg white

the frosting:
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 tbsp coconut milk, plus more as needed
1 lime, juiced

the recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and coconut.
3. Mix cocoa powder and hot water to form a paste. Add the wet ingredients and stir until smooth and well blended. Whisk in the flour mixture.
4. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
5. Cool on a wire rack.
6. To make the frosting, whisk all ingredients in a bowl until fluffy. Spread onto cooled cupcakes, and garnish with a bit of flaked coconut.

The cupcakes are quite light in my opinion, not to heavy or dense. While I would normally prefer my cupcakes a bit more dense, I think the texture compliments the delicate buttercream quite nicely. I suppose this is quite dangerous, as I feel I could eat half the batch in one sitting!

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