Coconut Cupcakes

I am nuts for coconuts.  

I've always loved it and I'm still at it at the ripe age of, ugh, never mind! Coconut sorbet, coconut ice cream, coconut custard pie (buko pie), any coconut-based desserts (ginataan) especially binignit, any coconut-based viand, and of course, fresh buko (coconut) juice. I love them all. Too bad because it's not easy to find them here.  There's canned coconut milk for cooking, young thai coconut which also tastes good but not the same as the ones in the Philippines, not to mention 6 times as expensive.  Naddy doesn't like it as much as I do.  Okay, I admit it.  Naddy hates coconut, so I try not to push it too much. Nothing that he'll be forced to eat- no coconut-based viands (sob, sob) and just smaller pints of coconut ice cream (all for me!)

So imagine my delight when I found coconut cupcake recipes online.  I chose Martha's because I liked how her recipe included coconut milk and shredded coconut.  I didn't make the whole recipe because I wasn't sure if Naddy will like it.  I also made two sizes: regular sized cupcakes (for me of course) and one-bite cupcake size (for Rafa and Naddy).  The cupcakes turned out very moist and surprisingly very light.  The coconut taste wasn't overpowering at all and the swiss meringue (7-minute frosting) was just marvelous. I refrigerated the rest of the cupcakes and I liked it even more the following day.  The coconut flavor was more intense, but didn't feel coconutey-oily.  The cake became more cakey and moist.  And the icing? Still soft as the day I made it.  I regret not making more cupcakes because my supply is running low.  Yesterday, I was selling the cupcakes to Naddy, telling him, "it's yummy, no?", "the coconut flavor is not overwhelming, no?", "the frosting suits the cake very well, no?".  He said he liked it. Not really sure if he did or he just didn't want to disappoint me but now's not the time to leave things to chance.  Now that the supply is running low, I might say, "I don't think you'll like it anymore because it's very coconutey..." 

Or I could just pretend to forget about it and not offer it for dessert.  

I didn't pretend to forget to post the recipe, I'm just in a hurry to finish this to eat more coconut cupcakes before Naddy comes home. It's here.