Almond Joy Cupcakes For The Win!

Well it's been a while and I did attempt to post the lime cheesecake recipe earlier in the week but it failed. I will be posting it just not today. I was thinking of things to bake and I thought about cupcakes. That's how this post was born. I mean who doesn't like cupcakes, they are the perfect size and they look cute. When you get the perfect bite ratio of frosting to cake you are in heaven. Oh and lets not forget about how portable cupcakes are. Ok, so I knew cupcakes were on the menu but I had to decide on the flavor. Chocolate is always a great choice because most people enjoy a chocolate cupcake. As for the frosting choice, I prefer a non chocolate buttercream because I feel like chocolate on chocolate is too much. I went with a coconut buttercream, so then I felt like hey this reminds me of an almond joy. Chocolate + coconut + almonds, thats what I went with.

chocolate cupcake with coconut filling and a coconut buttercream frosting

I think they turned out great. Oh and this recipe is totally adaptable, it's going to be your go to chocolate cupcake base. You can then customize this to however you'd like in the future. It's always great to have a good chocolate cupcake recipe in your  baking arsenal.

Chocolate Cupcake recipe

• 1 1/3 cup of All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1/4 teaspoon of Salt
• 3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1 stick of Unsalted Butter (softened)
• 1 1/2 cup of Granulated Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of Milk
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Coconut Filling

• 1/2 cup of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 to 1 1/2 cup of Shredded Coconut

Coconut Buttercream

• 2 sticks of Softened Unsalted Butter 
• 1-2 cups of Powdered Sugar (depend on your taste)
• 2-3 tablespoons of Coconut Extract
• 1/4 cup of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Additional Items Needed

• cupcake liners
• cupcake or muffin tin
• hand mixer
• mixing bowls
• piping bags
• dark chocolate for garnish
• almonds for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

 Add the eggs all in, beat well, then stir in the vanilla.

 Add the 1/3 of the flour mixture  then mix

Then alternate with the milk (I didn't have regular milk so I used chocolate milk) about half a cup; beat well.

Chocolate Milk and it's Lactose Free.....yay

Repeat process until you have no more milk and flour mixture. You should be left with a smooth silky batter.

Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 F for 18-20  minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Take them out of the oven and let cool on a wire rack

cupcakes cooling off 

Now on to the coconut filling. It's simple just mix the coconut and condensed milk together

For the coconut buttercream start with whipping your butter for 5-7 minutes on high speed. The butter will turn a pale yellow color and increase in size.

Next add in your powdered sugar and turn your mixer on low ( you don't want powdered sugar everywhere) I also add in the coconut extract and taste as I go and adjust if I need more sugar or extract, when I find the taste and texture smooth I add in the condensed milk and whip until incorporated.

This taste great just off of the spoon

Your buttercream should be smooth and silky and stiff enough to pipe, place the buttercream in a piping bag

Now to assemble these I began by using a little teaspoon measuring spoon and carving out a little hole in each cupcake. I then filled with the coconut+condensed milk mixture (make sure your cupcakes are completely cooled down)

Coconut + condensed milk filling

Then I piped a swirl of coconut buttercream to cover the top of the coconut mixture

look how silky that coconut buttercream is

I then melted a little dark chocolate and placed it in a piping bag and piped that on top of the cupcakes with some almond slivers, now they are finished.

Finished product with dark chocolate drizzle and almond slivers

Chocolate + Coconut are so good together

Almond Joy Cupcakes

cut in half so you can see that yummy coconut filling

These cupcakes are so moist and delicious, the added coconut filling makes these cupcakes taste amazing. I made one dozen with this recipe along with enough extra batter to make a small mini cake. So if you don't make the mini cake you can probably get 16-18 cupcakes out of this recipe. Also feel free to double the frosting to pile high on each cupcake.