One of my favorite cupcake recipes is one for Coconut-Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from the February 2008 Bon Appétit. (Find it online at Epicurious.com.) It was also one of the first cupcake recipes I took great liberties with, baking from what I had available, tweaking over time. The one substitution I always make is using coconut milk instead of regular milk in both the cake and icing.

I’ve used my variation of this recipe several times, to much acclaim. I always make some with shredded coconut on top, some without. Some people don’t like the texture of coconut, but I find most don’t mind the flavor. I had the same issue as a child, but I got over it!

For CupcakeCamp 2010, I wanted a fun look, so I colored the coconut blue and topped each cupcake with a Hershey’s mini (two, for the ones without coconut).

My heart—and cupcakes—were filled with coconut and chocolate chips for my Valentine in 2011 (this year, he got red hots). The coconut icing was colored pink for the occasion, and I added red heart sprinkles. Aw…

My coconut cupcakes also once held the candles at a double birthday party.

A friend requested I “get crazy with some rhubarb” for his birthday. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find rhubarb in August in NYC, as a local availability website said the season was May-July. However, I found some the second place I went, a fruit and veg store down the block. The grocer who stands outside to tempt passersby with fresh fruit samples led me right to a small pile, which I quickly depleted.

rhubarb

I made a rhubarb purée by cooking cut rhubarb with some water and a little lemon. I simmered until it was soft then used my hand blender. The purée went into both the cupcake batter and the icing.

I candied some rhubarb to top the cupcakes. I made a sugar solution over the stove, dipping julienned rhubarb to coat, then arranged on a foil-covered pan. I baked these sticky strips in the oven at 200° for about 45 minutes. After removing the rhubarb from the oven, I shaped them into knots while they were still pliable, then left them out to harden overnight.

candied rhubarb

The cupcakes came out a little denser than your average cupcake, tasting almost like pound cake. The rhubarb flavor came through, which was the most important thing.

For the icing, I used powdered sugar, rhubarb purée, and butter, plus a little cream cheese to give it extra punch. I hadn’t completely factored in the fact, though, that the purée and cream cheese might be too much moisture to get an icing consistency that would be easy to pipe. I prefer to pipe my icing because it is faster and usually looks nicer, but something I may have to face is that all types of icing are not meant to be piped! I did my best this time, though, adding some more butter and lots of powdered sugar to get what I wanted. I stopped my additions before they overpowered the rhubarb taste, doing my best to pipe a good amount on each cupcake, topping with a rhubarb knot.

rhubarb cupcakes

For these cupcakes, I baked with peaches from my mother’s orchard (she and my stepfather grow figs, lemons, and peaches on their cattle ranch in Winnsboro, Louisiana) and blueberries from Pop’s Blueberry Patch (north of Ruston).

I used the recipe from my previous peach cupcakes as a guide, but added blueberries and a little peach schnapps (because…well, why not?). Also, because my mother only had self-rising flour, I left out the baking powder and soda. Self-rising flour also includes salt, which wasn’t called for in the recipe. A little salt can bring out flavor, though, so I hoped for the best! (It all worked out just fine.)

peaches blueberries batter
The batter

My mom did not have any baking cups, either, so I put the batter directly into greased muffin tins. My main challenge there was that I had to wait for them to cool completely before removing, as attempts to remove after 5-10 minutes as I normally do resulted in their coming out in pieces. (That of course had to be eaten immediately, darn…)

I added peach schnapps to heavy cream and whipped it up for the topping. A half scoop of this spiked whipped cream went on each cupcake.

They were a tasty dessert, but also not too-too sweet for breakfast the next morning.

country cupcake
Cupcake in the country

What better to do with extra carrots from my CSA (Local Roots NYC) than bake carrot cake? I had about 1/2 pound, though, which wasn’t quite enough to make a full batch. I could have bought more carrots to make up the other 1/2 pound, but I decided to use zucchini instead. One big zucchini was enough to round it out. (The zucchini, I believe, brought in a little more moisture into the batter than just carrots would have.)

I worked from my usual carrot cake recipe (see my Carrot and Crystallized Ginger Cupcakes), but added chocolate chips instead of fruit or nuts. The chocolate chips sunk to the bottom, not necessarily a bad thing, but I had thought the grated vegetables would help suspend them in the batter.

I made cream cheese icing to top these, the traditional choice for carrot cake. I served them at a BBQ in 90° weather, and the icing was a melty mess. Everyone was very nice about that, even when they had to lick most of the icing off their fingers. One guest did run in to put his in the freezer for a few minutes before eating.

My boyfriend was coaching cupcake eaters. “Lift it very carefully. The icing won’t drip if you keep the cupcake level. Keep it steady… Eat it, quick!”

The chocolate chips were also a little melted, but the comment was that gave the cupcakes a just-out-of-the-oven taste. I didn’t intend to “cook” them with the icing on, though! Maybe my hot-day strategy should be to come with un-iced cupcakes, bring icing in a cooler, and finish on demand.

Recipe: Carrot Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Makes 2 dozen cupcakes

2 1/2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 pound grated carrots
1/2 pund grated zucchini
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F and line muffin pans with 24 paper liners.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla, then mix in the eggs, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add half of this flour mixture to the mixing bowl, reserving half, and mix completely.

Add the grated carrots and zucchini and chocolate chips to the remaining flour and mix well, then add to your batter. Mix until just combined, do not over mix.

Fill cups with batter about 3/4 full. Bake at 400° F for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350° F and cook for about 20 minutes more. Cooking time varies, so start checking after 10-15 minutes. The cupcakes are ready when a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, let cool 5 minutes in pans, then remove and cool completely on racks. Top with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting Recipe

Happy Independence Day, USA! I made you these.

I stuck with the basics for these patriotic cupcakes, vanilla with vanilla buttercream. The batter I colored blue, the icing red, using Ateco Spectrum Gel Food Colors.

blue vanilla cupcake with red vanilla buttercream icing