As the resident family baker--not that I am the only one in the family with mad cooking skills--I guess baking just appeals to me more than to my siblings... On a side note, I always find it so interesting that my sister, my brother and I all ended up with crazy mad cooking skills. Growing up, my kitchen memories aren't the picturesque child standing next to mom watching what she was doing. In fact--not that my mom never cooked--but most of my memories are of me making some huge mess by myself and without my mom's knowledge...and then laughing at the shock on her face when she strolled into her newly flour covered mess of a kitchen followed by the screeches of "I swear Yanna, one day I'm going to come home and the whole house is going to be burned down!" Growing up in a single parent home, we all pitched in more than it seems our two-parent friends ever did. Dinner was another chore that we all had to help out with and we rotated days so everyone had to cook.

At the time I just loved being in the kitchen and never really thought anything of it. Looking back, I value it so much more because that was the start of my joy and passion for cooking. Luckily at the summer camp I went to, Summer Discovery (best summers ever!), I got to take advanced cooking classes and I never turned back. It's been one crazy experiment after another since then and I wouldn't have asked for my childhood to play out any differently. Whenever I meet people my age who can't cook...ehem...my husband...it's just flabbergasting. I don't know how they survive. At least my lovely husband straight up admits my cooking is definitely high up on the list of reasons why he married me, and as long as he washes the dishes I don't mind.

Anyway, back to where I started, as the resident family baker I was commissioned to make the cupcakes for my sister's baby shower. While we all can't wait until little baby Mia finally makes an appearance, the baby shower for her and her parents posed quite a fun challenge in the meantime. Of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't come up with some hair brained overly challenging plan. Since the co-ed shower is Caribbean themed and I wanted to have some variety in cupcake choices, I finally settled on 4 batches of 12 cupcakes in Rum Cake, Coconut Lime, Roasted Banana, and some Chocolatey chocolate flavor. I had originally planned to also make all kinds of different toppings and Caribbean themed decorations for each different cupcake but once I realized I didn't want to spend the whole week making them, I decided to keep it simple. Check out what I ended up with...

Coconut Cupcakes with Seven-Minute Frosting and Coconut Flakes by Martha Stewart
Ingredients (Makes 20)
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg whites
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Seven-Minute Frosting***!!! See note below
1 1/3 cups large-flake unsweetened coconut

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Pulse shredded coconut in a food processor until finely ground, and whisk into flour mixture.
2. With an electric mixer on Medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla beating after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed.Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with coconut milk and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl.
3. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake cupcakes, rotating tins halfway through, until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen up to 2 months in airtight containers. 
4. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread a generous dome of frosting onto each cupcake, and if desired garnish with flaked coconut. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they're frosted; store at room temperature until ready to serve.

Seven-Minute Frosting by Martha Stewart
Ingredients (Makes about 8 cups***!!!)

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 large egg whites

Instructions

1. Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the water, and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil, and cook until mixture registers 230 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Meanwhile, whisk whites with a mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. 
3. As soon as syrup reaches 230F remove from heat. With mixer on medium-low, pour sugar syrup in a slow, steady stream down side of bowl. Increase speed to medium-high, and whisk until stiff peaks form and mixture is cool, about 7 minutes. 
4. For a Coconut Variation, add 1/2 teaspoon pure coconut extract, whisking to combine. Use immediately.

A note from the Crumby kitchen...I used fresh coconut instead of the bagged sweetened kind. Worked great and I always get excited to bust out the food processor--yes I'm a freak, why exactly does it make me so happy to use the food processor? It has something to do with it being a recent gift and thinking about how I used to do these things by hand, but somehow I don't think it will ever lose that spark.


I also made my own coconut milk, which is made from the flesh or meat of the coconut and water. Here are some instructions by hand or  in a blender. Please do not  mistake coconut water (the juice you hear sloshing around when you shake a coconut) for coconut milk! It's not the same thing!!

***!!!Make sure to pay attention to that little note that says "Makes about 8 cups." I completely ignored it and had entirely too much frosting for 20 cupcakes. What Martha should say in the ingredients for the cupcakes is "1/2 batch of Seven Minute Frosting."

As you can see from the picture, I added a little candy lime slice for decoration, but the lime was also an interesting addition to the flavor. Originally I had intended to make a lime flavored seven minute frosting and realized it probably would have competed too much with the cupcake. Of course yours truly didn't realize we were out of coconut extract, so the frosting was sans Coconutty goodness, which I will most definitely change in the future.

Also, for those who love coconut as much as I do, going forward I would change the cupcakes only slightly by cutting the vanilla down to 1/2 teaspoon and adding 1 teaspoon of pure coconut extract. Otherwise, it was excellent! I really loved the addition of the processed coconut bits that I haven't seen in some other coconut cake recipes.

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes modified from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes

Ingredients (Makes about 16)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup hot, strongly brewed coffee
1 egg
1/2 cup mayonnaise  (Use only Real Mayonnnaise.)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar

1. Heat oven to 350F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. 
2. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set the dry ingredients aside.
3. Place chopped chocolate in heat-proof bowl. Heat milk in microwave or bring to a simmer over stove. Pour hot milk and coffee over the chocolate. Let stand 1 minute. Then whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool slightly. 
4. In a mixer bowl, beat together eggs, mayonnaise, and vanilla until well blended. Gradually beat in sugar. Add dry ingredients and coffee liquid alternately in 2 or 3 additions, starting with the dry ingredients and beating until smooth. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake approximately 20 minutes, or until pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on wire racks.

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream by Martha Stewart
Ingredients (Makes about 3 cups)

3/4 cups sugar
3 large egg whites
Pinch of salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 ounces of semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Instructions

1. Combine sugar, egg whites, and salt in a large heat-proof bowl of a stand mixer set over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk constantly by hand until whites are warm to the touch and sugar is dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes. (Heating the eggs relaxes their proteins, enabling the eggs to whip up higher and more quickly; the sugar also melts, for a silky smooth consistency.) Test by rubbing between your fingers; the mixture should feel smooth.
2. Attach bowl to a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat on low speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, and beat on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form and mixture is cooled completely, about 10 minutes.
3. Reduce speed to medium-low; add butter 2 tablespoons at a time, beating to incorporate fully after each addition. Don't worry if the buttercream appears curdled at this point; it will become perfectly smooth again with continued beating. After all the butter has been incorporated, beat in vanilla and melted chocolate.
4. Switch to the paddle attachment. Beat on the lowest speed to reduce air bubbles, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl with a flexible spatula and continue beating until the frosting is completely smooth. Let stand, covered with plastic wrap, at room temperature. (If not using the same day, transfer to airtight containers and store in the refrigerator up to 3 days or the freezer up to 1 month. Before using, bring to room temperature; beat with paddle attachment on the lowest speed until smooth and pliable, about 10 minutes.)

These cupcakes were just great! Although they were a bit too much chocolate to handle for my mom, I thought they were just perfect. The mayonnaise keeps these cupcakes super moist and just oh so fudgey. The silky smoothness and light airyness of Chocolate Swiss Buttercream was a great companion that wasn't too sweet or overbearing and really let the cupcake shine. I have absolutely no changes to make to these recipes, except to note that even after halfing the original frosting recipe, I still had enough to cover another 16 or so cupcakes.

As for the transportation, I didn't exactly think out the whole umbrella drink decorations. This is definately something that should have been added once we got there since the cupcakes all shifted around in transit and the umbrellas smashed into the frosting. I'm sure everyone else was less concerned about this than I was, but presentation can be key and from now on I'll either make an insert for my carrier that keeps them separated or wait to add the umbrellas at the last moment.

The "Baby Mia!" Cupcakes: Part 2 will be coming shortly and feature the other two recipes I used: Roasted Banana Cupcakes and Rum Cake Cupcakes.