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The Pancake Princess

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Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

by erika 1 Comment

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Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes // The Pancake Princess

Though I rarely post standalone recipes these days, this is an application of the winner of my chocolate cake bake off that I couldn’t not share after this glowing review after I brought them to a birthday party:

Though not a flavor I would have thought to make on my own, chocolate coconut was the cupcake flavor requested by the birthday girl. And so:

  • I was fairly certain that Ina’s winning chocolate cake would work as cupcakes, so the cake part was covered.
  • When it came to adding coconut frosting, most recipes I looked at called for coconut extract or a few tablespoons of coconut milk. Unwilling to make room for another extract in my pantry or letting a mostly unused can of coconut milk rot in my fridge, I went with a simple vanilla buttercream topped with toasted coconut and topped with a drizzle of salted caramel.

The resulting cupcakes are just subtly coconutty and wow I will admit that you could break a tooth on how sweet these are, but MY GOD ARE THEY GOOD.

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes // The Pancake Princess

At a glance, they are:

  • a half batch of Ina Garten’s winning chocolate cake (which makes a perfect dozen cupcakes)
  • a quarter batch of Sally’s Baking Addiction’s vanilla buttercream (the perfect amount to scantily frost a dozen cupcakes, trust me)
  • a half batch of Live Well Bake Often’s salted caramel (you will end up with extra. If you want to risk attempting quarter batch, you can!)
  • some dessicated coconut, toasted! (Make sure to use unsweetened!)
Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes // The Pancake Princess
Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes // The Pancake Princess
Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes // The Pancake Princess
chocolate cupcake with coconut frosting

The (very small) trick to these is to frost them a la Sprinkles (you can watch my Instagram Reel to see how I do it or catch Candace frosting them here) so that you have a flat, fairly even surface to dip into the coconut.

Because the salted caramel is really gilding the lily, I purposefully frost these cupcakes with a thin layer of frosting so as to not to overdo the sweetness. Have caution when rolling/dipping these in coconut as they can easily become top heavy and topple over. And there you have it–very easy chocolate coconut cupcakes, perfect for any celebration!

chocolate cupcake with a bite taken out
Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes // The Pancake Princess
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Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

A deeply chocolatey cupcake frosted with a creamy vanilla buttercream, rolled in toasted coconut and drizzled in salty caramel!
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

  • 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 6 tbsp cocoa powder (Dutch-process or natural)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 extra-large (or large) egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup hot coffee

Salted Caramel

  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1.5 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Vanilla Buttercream

  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1.5 cups sifted powdered sugar
  • 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 3/4 tsp vanilla extra
  • pinch salt

Toasted coconut

  • 1/2 cup desiccated coconut (or unsweetened shredded coconut if that's all you can find)

Instructions

Make the cupcakes

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with 12 liners.
    Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk until blended.
  • In another bowl (I usually use a liquid measuring cup), combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just mixed. Then stream in the hot coffee and whisk again until everything is combined and smooth (but don't overmix, which will make the cake tough!).
  • Divide batter evenly between 12 cupcake cavities (you'll fill them almost to the top). Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean or the tops spring back when poked. Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then turn out to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the caramel

  • Combine water and sugar in a small or medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved. Then increase heat to high and bring to a boil (do not stir at this point). Then let mixture boil until it turns amber–this took about 10 minutes for me, but Danielle says it could take anywhere from 4-12 minutes.
  • Remove from heat and slowly stream in the heavy cream while whisking. Then whisk in the butter, vanilla and salt. Let caramel cool completely before using! You can make this ahead of time and store in the fridge overnight before using on cupcakes. Mine was still very runny the next day, but if yours thickens after being refrigerated, you can microwave it to loosen it up.

Make the buttercream

  • Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, whip the butter until creamy (about 1 minute). PS. If you forgot to bring your butter to room temperature, you can microwave it for 8-10 seconds to take the chill off!
  • Add the powdered sugar (ideally sifted for fewer lumps) and cream for 3-4 minutes to get a super fluffy texture. Add your desired amount of heavy cream to get the buttercream to your desired consistency, vanilla and salt, and cream again for another 1-2 minutes until fully incorporated.

Assemble the cupcakes

  • First, toast your coconut! Add the dry coconut to a frying pan over medium heat and toast until golden, stirring occasionally (it's okay if it's unevenly browned). Let cool completely before using.
  • Using an offset spatula, use a few tablespoons of frosting per cupcake to frost each cupcake with a smooth top and flat, angled sides (see videos above for inspiration). Then roll the cupcake in the toasted coconut and drizzle with salted caramel and enjoy!

Notes

This recipe is an amalgamation of the following recipes:
1/2 recipe of Ina Garten’s chocolate cake
1/2 recipe of Live Well Bake Often’s salted caramel sauce
1/4 recipe of Sally’s Baking Addiction’s vanilla frosting

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Instagram

New year, new profile pic surrounded by cookies ✨

For those of you who like to plan, here’s a very tentative guide to what I’m envisioning for this year’s bake offs (if the world doesn’t blow up). Thank you, as always, for your constant enthusiasm and support for the bake offs! 💕💕💕 

🍪Jan: lemon poppy muffins, Levain choc/pb cookies?
🍪 Feb: cream cheese kolaches, loft house copycat cookies, flourless chocolate cake?
🍪 March: carrot cake
🍪 April: liege waffles??
🍪 May: tres leches
🍪 June: key lime pie 
🍪 July: tiramisu
🍪 August: oatmeal cookies
🍪 Sept: doughnuts 
🍪 Oct: shortbread?
🍪 Nov: Mac n cheese 
🍪 Dec: ginger molasses or chocolate crinkle cookies

Photo credit: @juliejulez.jpg 👹💕
{HOUSTON GIVEAWAY} Hi friends! If you’ve been f {HOUSTON GIVEAWAY}

Hi friends! If you’ve been following me for a little bit, hopefully you know how obsessed I am with @happyearthcompost and their mission to make composting more accessible and easy for the Houston community! Here is just a sneak peek of all the eggshells and lemon peels from the lemon poppy seed muffin bake off that are going straight into my Happy Earth compost bucket instead of the trash 🎊

I’m thrilled to be partnering with @happyearthcompost to do a giveaway for one lucky winner! Here are the deets:

🌱 you will win 2 free months of monthly pick ups from @happyearthcompost! You’ll get a little counter top bin (pictured here) and a larger bucket to keep outside (in the second pic)
🌱 must be located in Houston or Bryan/College Station to win
🌱 to enter, just make sure you’re following me and @happyearthcompost and tag a friend in the comments! Each comment is a separate entry
🌱 giveaway will close this Saturday (1/16) at midnight! GOOD LUCK!!!
Thankful for another year of bake offs with you gu Thankful for another year of bake offs with you guys! Loving the appreciation for the coffee cake, blueberry muffin, pecan pie, gingerbread and Levain cookie bake offs (more Levain to come in 2021 hopefully!) 🎊💕

While on vacation, I’ve scraped a lot of recipes for future bake offs (thanks to your help) and I feel refreshed and ready to get back to baking ASAP! On the list for 2021 bake offs: carrot cake, oatmeal cookies, copycat lofthouse cookies, Levain chocolate pb cookies, shortbread, lemon poppyseed muffins, etc. Let me know if there’s anything else you’re dying to see in the comments!

THANK YOU for all of your support, your kind comments, your reviewing of different recipes and your spreading of joy through baked goods this past year. Thanks to my tasters for their critical tasting and hilarious comments. Can’t wait to do it all over again next year 💕
Gingerbread bake off is up! Commence all the ginge Gingerbread bake off is up! Commence all the gingerbread baking!! 🎄🎄🎄

Tap the pic to see all participating recipes and tell me which one looks the best or which recipes you’re most excited to try!! You really can’t go wrong with any of them 🎊🎊🎊 and if you’re planning on baking any other holiday cookies this weekend, gimme the deets on what you’re making! I need more inspo for my cookie boxes 🍪🍪🍪 #pancakeprincessbakeoff
According to Google, interest in apple cider dough According to Google, interest in apple cider doughnuts has waned by now but I’m not exaggerating when I say these doughnuts might be one of the best things I’ve made all year #sponsored

Pictured here are a few recipes I tried to satisfy a craving: @smittenkitchen, @tasty, and a few of @sallysbakeblog’s baked apple cider doughnuts as mini muffins. Sally’s were good but clearly in a different league than the fried doughnuts. I liked the denseness, tang and substantial exterior crunch of @tasty’s doughnuts that came from the sour cream, but once I got the hang of frying @smittenkitchen’s doughnuts, they edged @tasty out as my winner—ethereally light, they just melt in your mouth. Plus, Smitten’s method for rolling out the doughnuts is MUCH MUCH easier. 

I used @whitelily flour in all recipes and loved the way the fine texture led to feather-light doughnuts! If you’re looking for an application for low-protein flour, I can’t recommend these doughnuts enough. They’re worth getting over your fear of deep frying for 😜 #whitelilyflour
@THEPANCAKEPRINCESS

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