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These Lemon Coconut Cupcakes have a moist coconut cake, a sweet, tart lemon curd filling and are topped with a lemon Italian meringue buttercream!
Lemon, coconut, Spring, cupcakes…
Look me straight in the face and tell me that lemon and yellow don’t make you instantly happy.
That’s what I thought. That is to say, insta-sunshine
As I was photographing these little guys, I couldn’t stop smiling. Maybe it was the fact that the light was actually cooperating for once, or maybe it was the covert tastes of lemon curd that were making me happy.
Or perhaps it’s because my husband is visiting for the first time in a month!
You pair that happy-inducing lemon with a generous dose of coconut, and you have yourself a mini tropical vaca right there in your kitchen. #yourewelcome
These Lemon Coconut Cupcakes are a moist coconut cupcake! In particular, they are made with both dried coconut and coconut milk is filled with lemon curd and then topped with a coconut Italian Meringue Buttercream.
You could also make them lemon meringue cupcakes and top them with either marshmallow fluff or marshmallow frosting. I suggest leaning into Spring and line up this hummingbird cake, rum cake and thumbprint cookies filled with lemon curd for your next baking project.
I think I mentioned recently how much I emphatically love lemon desserts in this lemon bread pudding recipe, lemon meringue cheesecake, and lemon blondies.
I’ve been having a lemon moment. I want lemon everything.
I had big plans for the extra lemon curd, but I ate it all. Every last tangy sweet drop.
While I was developing this recipe, I took a look at my Lemon Curd recipe and was, like, “huh?” It seemed to be the most ridiculously convoluted process ever.
It doesn’t need to be that difficult.
I updated the recipe with precise measurements and I totally changed the cooking process. I make it in one pan and it essentially has 2 steps. Easy Peasy.
Thank you culinary school, thank you.
These cupcakes were the lucky recipients of my Italian Meringue Buttercream.
You can flavor the frosting with either lemon or coconut extract depending on which flavor you want to be most prominent.
Clearly I am in a lemony frame of mind, so I dropped a bit of lemon extract into mine and I may have spooned some more lemon curd on top…I know. Out of control.
It wasn’t pretty but it tasted pretty fantastic.
Just a note on frosting: There is an amount of buttercream that looks beautiful on cupcakes and then there is an amount of buttercream you would actually want to eat. This is the former. Frost with care…
Just sayin’…
Also, I used the coconut milk that comes in a carton at the grocery store. It is not that super thick, incredibly rich coconut milk that you get in the can. The coconut milk should be the consistency of whole milk: if yours is super thick, thin it out with some water.
Lemon Coconut Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 1 cup All-purpose flour
- ¾ cup coconut flour See Note
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter melted
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- ½ cup Sweetened shredded coconut toasted
- 1 cup Lemon Curd
- 3 quarts Italian Meringue Buttercream
- ½ teaspoon Lemon or coconut extract to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line 28 cupcake tins with liners. You can bake in 2 batches if you don’t have enough tins.
- Whisk together the all-purpose flour, coconut flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until thick and lighter in color, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl between each addition.
- Alternately add flour and coconut milk in three additions on low speed beginning and ending with flour, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the next addition when your batter is streaky; if you wait to long, you will overmix by the time you’ve added the remaining ingredients. You want to stop mixing as soon as the last flour has disappeared. I like to fold in the last addition of flour with a spatula to avoid over beating.
- Scoop or pour the batter into the liners ¾ full. I use a large cookie scoop for this task and it works beautifully. Sprinkle some toasted coconut on each cupcake. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. I always start checking at 12 because I’m not a fan of dry baked goods. The cupcakes are done when a toothpick, inserted into the center, comes out with a few clinging crumbs but no wet smears!
- Remove from tins immediately and let cool on a wire rack. They must be completely cool before filling and frosting.
For the Assembly:
- Cut a hole in the top of each cupcake with a pairing knife and fill each with about 2 teaspoons of curd. I don’t measure, I just fill up the darn hole. It doesn’t matter. The more the merrier. And, no, those little bits of cake don’t go to waste. Those have my name on them.
- Fit a piping bag with your favorite tip (I used an Ateco 883 here), fill with frosting and pipe on the desired amount of buttercream. In my opinion more is not more as with the lemon curd.
- Sprinkle with more toasted coconut. Best if served the day they are made.
Made these for my friends birthday and they were a HIT! The hardest part is definitely timing the buttercream. SO WORTH IT THOUGH ???? Panicked when I pulled my buttercream from the fridge, thank GOD for the video on refreshing it. I also made the mistake of not mixing the curd ingredients before turning on the heat, and my egg whites cooked, so make sure you don’t skip that step ???? ????♀️ Amazing recipe, sure to impress, just make sure to read all the tips ????
Hi Danica! So happy to hear they were a hit, and excellent tips! ????
I did a single batch and it only made 16, not 28. I used the metric weights and double checked everything. I filled my cupcakes papers only 3/4 full, maybe even only 2/3 full. That was disappointing. I ended up having to make another batch to get the # I needed. Otherwise, I love how simple this cupcake recipe is. I’ve not started the buttercream or curd, and it will be my first time making both, so fingers crossed that they work well.
I’m sorry that happened, Emily. The yield does seem high. I will double check my recipe. Thank you so much for the comment.
I’ve also done a single batch and only made 22 very small cakes (more like Patty pans than cupcakes).
That sounds wonderful!
Hi, thank you for sharing this recipe! I only came across it yesterday, can’t wait to try it. Is it possible to get metric measurements for your flour measurements in particular? I live in the UK, and as far as I can work out, US cup measurements of flour vary so much from one website to another. Thank you!
Hi LT! Absolutely, I’m so excited for you to try it! ❤️ I’ve went in and put my perseonal measurements, for this one and its ancillary recipes. ????
Made these yesterday for my sis-in-law’s birthday. The buttercream frustrated me though. Not the recipe, but what my experience was. I used store bought egg whites (the ones that come in a carton-pasteurized). I used these because I’m
concerned with serving eggs ‘raw’. Well, I tried twice – with very ‘sterile’ bowls, etc., and those egg whites just did not want
to get stiff. Ended up making a stabilized whipped cream – I didn’t have any more eggs! Question to all: what type of egg whites did you use? Concerned with raw eggs?
Also, I increased the recipe by 1/2 and ended up with 24 regular and also made 12 mini ones.
Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Sherri! Italian meringue is fully cooked and you don’t need to be concerned about the egg whites if you cook your sugar properly. Pasteurized egg whites as well as store bought egg whites behave differently than those you separate fresh from eggs. In culinary school they would buy the cartons of egg whites and they would whip up faster than regular ones and they resulting egg foam or meringue wasn’t as stable. I think this is your problem. If your whites aren’t whipping up, you can “cheat” and add some salt or more cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is best if you have it. Just keep adding until they start to whip up. If you add too much and ruin it, it doesn’t really matter because they weren’t whipping up in the first place! 🙂 Good luck. Also, just for future reference Italian and Swiss meringues are fully cooked and can be eaten “raw” but French meringues need to be baked if they are going to be consumed.
Wow – Thanks for the education. I really had no idea that by adding in the cooked sugar -to the whipped eggs – would result in ‘cooked’/safe egg whites. Thanks too for the info regarding the Swiss and French meringues. BTW – my family loved the cupcakes-saying they weren’t too sweet. So yum!
No problem! Eggs only need to be cooked to 155 degrees F and your sugar syrup that you are pouring in is 235-238F, so it’s more than hot enough. The heat of the syrup is the reason that you have to pour in the sugar slowly and with the mixer running, or you’ll just get scrambled egg whites! Gross.
I’m so glad you and your family enjoyed the cupcakes even without the buttercream – though whipped cream is good on everything!
I recently made these over the weekend and I need to know what I did wrong with the cake batter! I made the batter 3 times trying to get it right.
My first problem was that I only got 12 cupcakes, not 28. The texture on my 3rd attempt was the best but they were kind of crumbly and a little dense?
But the flavor was really good and I want to make them again!
And the lemon curd and Italian meringue buttercream were also amazing! Best buttercream ever!
Hi Shay! It is difficult for me to say without actually being there. I do think you are right on the yield, though I definitely got more than 12. This recipe is an adaptation of another one of my cupcakes and that yield is 18. It think 28 is a typo. These cupcakes are more dense than your standard box mix. The coconut flour and milk make them heavier. If you want to lighten it you can add a little extra baking powder or use room temperature butter instead of melted butter. Isn’t the buttercream divine!?!
The buttercream has seriously changed my life!!! It is just amazing! And the lemon curd is perfectly tart….
I will keep persisting and try a few things!
OMG! incredible cupcakes! They are just perfect, lemon and colrs used are classy, yellow is color of happiness and friendship
These are beyond gorgeous! You had me at lemon!
These cupcakes are out of this world gorgeous! They really are like a burst of sunshine! I’m glad you got to visit with your husband too!