Greek Easter was this past Sunday. I cooked Sunday Easter dinner at my house for a small group of us. Growing up my step-mother, Patti, was one of the best bakers I knew. Every Easter Patti would make a delicious coconut cake in form of a lamb. I loved it! This Easter I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to recreate this as my gluten free and milk free interpretation as cupcakes. Who does not like cupcakes? And it is a great means to mind your portions.There is a great almond flour sponge cake that I thought would be perfect that comes from The Food and Life of Oaxaca. I substituted light coconut milk for whole milk that the original recipe calls for. The frosting had be sweet and light; I adapted a recipe from Paula Deen's son for a 7-minute frosting, reduced the quantity in half. 7-Minute frosting reminds me of a delicious marshmallow fluff. And I added in salt to round out the sweetness and give depth to the coconut and almond flavors, with additional on top that can decorative. This recipe is guaranteed to please; it is spongy, sweet, coco-nutty, and messy! And it yields about 20 regular size cupcakes.
Salted Coconut Almond Cupcakes, gluten free & milk free
Ingredients:
Coconut Almond Cake Ingredients: (to measure, use the scoop & sweep method)
4 large Eggs, separated
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1 cup finely Ground Blanched Almonds (I used Bob's Red Mill Almond Meal)
1 cup Cornstarch or Tapioca Flour (Tapioca makes a more spongy cake)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Light Coconut Milk, room temperature
Salted Coconut 7-Minute Frosting Ingredients:
1/4 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons
1 egg whites
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups coconut, flaked and sweetened
1/2 tsp your choice of finishing salt: kosher, sea salt, fleur de sel, pink salt, blue/turquoise salt, or smoked salt if you feel adventurous
Directions: Preheat oven to bake at 350F
Coconut Almond Cupcakes:
- In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture is thick and lemon-colored and falls from the beaters in a ribbon, about 3 minutes.
- Sift together the almond meal + cornstarch/tapioca + salt.
- Beat into the almond mixture alternately with the coconut milk, in three additions.
- In a separate, deep bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks (make sure you are using clean beaters and there is no trace of egg yolk in there); fold gently into the almond batter.
- Portion the batter into the cupcake foils, about 3/4 full. Bake for ~ 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Place sugar, cream of tartar or corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. This can be make-shifted using a mixing bowl over a saucepan. NOTE: Do not attempt to replace coconut milk for the water => the fat in the coconut milk will prevent the frosting from whipping up.
- Beat with a hand-held electric mixer for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water, being sure that boiling water does not touch the bottom of the top pan. Beat constantly on high speed with electric mixer for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla.
- Frost the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle top and sides of each cupcake with coconut.
- Finish the cupcakes with an addition sparse sprinkling of salt of your choice or what you have on hand.
The Sensitive Epicure
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