Coconut Topped Buttermilk Brownies with Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting

Stop right there!! Don't scroll down to the recipe yet... pause and have a look and these beautifully lit photos my darling hubby captured for me. He got up early to get great lighting for me while I was heading off to work. What a sweetie?! He totally deserves mad props in my opinion!!

These little beauties are coconut topped buttermilk brownies finished with a chocolate buttermilk frosting. Yah, I may have had some buttermilk leftover from another recipe I was trying to use up, but it turned out to be a great success. These were eagerly devoured by my co-workers and my hubby's co-workers (did I mention the recipe made wayyyy more than I thought?!). These even started a little rivalry between husbands at my hubby's workplace.. turns out another wife had sent in baking that day too... cookies. It ended with one of his co-workers (who shall remain nameless), telling my hubby that my cupcakes were way better than so-and-so's wife's cookies... whoops!! Maybe we should plan which days we are allowed to send in baking so we don't step on any toes?!

Don't even think about how much work these may be... just go out, get the ingredients and get to it!! They are soooo worth the effort. :)

Coconut Topped Buttermilk Brownies with Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting
Brownie recipe adapted from Bake Space
Coconut topping from In Katrina's Kitchen
Frosting Recipe by me

Ingredients:
Brownies:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup butter
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup water
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Coconut Topping:

• 4 1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 1 small can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/4 cups icing sugar

Frosting:

• Find the frosting recipe here. Substitute 1/3 cup of the icing sugar for 1/3 cup of cocoa powder for a chocolate version of the same frosting.

Method:

1. To make the brownies: Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 3 - 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, granulated sugar and baking soda.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, cocoa powder and water. Bring mixture just to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture and mix until all of the flour is incorporated. Add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Whisk until mixture is smooth and silky (it will be quite thin). Fill prepared muffin tins 1/3 - 1/2 way full. Bake in preheated oven for 10-14 minutes (or until tops spring back lightly when touched). Do not overbake or they will be dry. Err on the side of slightly underbaked as they will continue to cook after they are removed from the oven.
3. Cool on a wire rack.
4. While brownies are cooling, prepare coconut topping by combining all three ingredients and stirring until evenly distributed. Mixture should be quite stiff. Once cupcakes are cooled, form 1-2 tbsp portions of the coconut mixture into disks and fit them on top of the cupcakes, pressing down gently to adhere them to the cakes. Repeat until all cupcakes have been fitted with a coconut disk.
5. Prepare the frosting and frost cupcakes however you like. 

This post has been linked up with the Recipe Party over at the Sweet Spot. Head on over to check out what other goodies fellow bloggers have whipped up this week.

Yep, these are pretty incredible!! :) :) Hope you'll take the time to try them out. Happy Baking my Friends!

Mini Egg Cupcakes just in time for Easter

Hoppy Easter friends!! :) Sorry, I know that was corny, but I love Easter. Yes, I know the true meaning of Easter (not the coming of the Easter bunny), but the reason I absolutely love Easter revolves more around family activities that I grew up with. We would always go to church as a family to reflect on the true reason for Easter and then we would go over to my grandparents house with our other 10 cousins and have an Easter egg hunt! We would all work together to find our Easter treats that had been carefully hidden in my grandparents' backyard (did I mention it was a HUGE backyard?!!). Needless to say, it was a task that kept us occupied until Easter dinner was ready. My grandma put on quite the show - making everything down to homemade mustard to go on the delicious ham. Yep, it was a lot of fun and cultivated such great memories of our family.

 Since I love Easter and the cute little treats that go along with it, you can imagine my excitement when all these cute Easter treats started showing up on Pinterest. I created these cupcakes based on some inspiration from here. Mine are a little different, but I'm really happy with how they turned out. Here is the recipe I used:

Mini Egg Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar, divided
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/8 tsp cream of tarter
• 1/2 cup Cadbury's Mini Eggs, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12 cup muffin tray with paper liners.
2. Separate the eggs placing the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium-high speed until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to whip until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup granulated sugar while mixer is moving and continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Scrape into a medium bowl and set aside for later.
3. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside for later.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter until fluffy (about two minutes). Add 3/4 cup of sugar and beat until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down sides of the bowl and add vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Once just combined, fold in the mini eggs. Then fold in the egg whites, being careful not to overmix or the batter will deflate.
5. Divide batter equally among the prepared muffin tin. Bake 18 minutes or until tops spring back when lighly pressed. Do not overbake!!
6. Frost with buttermilk frosting (recipe below) and garnish with three mini eggs for each cupcake.

Buttermilk Frosting
Recipe by me

Ingredients:

• 3 cups icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/8 - 1/4 cup buttermilk

Method:

1. Beat butter in the bowl of stand mixer on medium-high speed. Add icing sugar and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Add buttermilk 1 tbsp at a time until frosting is the right consistency for piping.

Thats that! The buttermilk frosting tastes a lot like a cream cheese icing, but with a far better piping consistency. Give these a try this weekend for your Easter get together whether its for friends or family or both. They're sure to be a hit.

This post has been linked up with the Recipe Party at the Sweet Spot. Head on over there and check out what other treats bloggers have linked up this week.

Happy Baking my Friends!