Coconut Cupcakes

Mmm....coconut.  I loooove coconut!  There's just something very comforting about coconuts.  I remember talking with my cousin C about cupcakes.  I had asked her, if she were to get married, what cupcakes would she choose to have at her wedding?  Coconut was one of her choices...which amazed me because coconut is usually not a flavor the norm picks...but it was a flavor I would have loved to have too!  What can I say...great minds think alike, riiight? ;)
Last month, I made a whole bunch of different flavored cupcakes for a cake tasting and the base of this coconut cupcake was part of the tasting.  However, for the tasting, I had added pineapples to the mix and made a coconut-pineapple cupcake.  I've been meaning to play around with this coconut cupcake again but haven't found the time until a couple days ago.  I was going to meet up with C in Los Angeles for a "fun" day! :)  C is a somewhat health nut.  She is dedicated to exercise and the gym and that would probably be the <3 of her life, if it wasn't for me and the goodies I make and force upon her =D I guess it doesn't help that we are best buds in the foodie world either!  ....I digress....As I was saying, I made these cupcakes in honor of C...and let me just say, these coconut cupcakes were beyond delicious.  I'm not saying this just because I made these cupcakes! LOL...I mean, I usually don't eat a lot of the goodies I make.  I can usually eat one or two to see whether it's worthy of my recipe box and whether I need to fix the recipe.  However, these coconut cupcakes were sooo good!  So good, in fact, that C only got 6 of them...I was able to get 18 cupcakes out of this batch...C got 6, and what was left over was 4.  Yes, my math is completely correct...  The missing 8 ended up in my tummy.  And yes, I am completely serious.
   
Seriously...!  Oh, let me not forget, since I'm shamelessly confessing all my guilty secrets...all 8 disappeared on the same day......Have I convinced you how yummy they were yet?  If not, I have pictures as proof ;)

I made these coconut cupcakes with two different kinds of toppings.  The thinner shredded coconut is the typical coconut you'll find at any major grocery store.  They are the sweetened flaked/shredded coconut.  The fatter coconut topping is an unsweetened organic coconut flake.

I must say, though, that overall,  I truly enjoyed the sweetened flaked/shredded coconut better than the unsweetened organic flakes.  The unsweetened flakes were tasty in that, overall, the cupcakes weren't that sweet (because of the unsweetened topping).  However, the sweetened flaked/shredded coconut had a much better texture.  I'm not sure if it was because of all the sugar coated onto the sweetened coconut that made the shreds more tender, or if it was the size these coconuts were shredded to, but the sweetened coconut flakes were definitely softer and easier eat, albeit, a bit sweeter.  Whereas, the unsweetened coconut flakes took on a crunchy, stale taste :(  If only they had unsweetened finer shreds of coconut...This would then be a perfect coconut cupcake!

Mmmm...coconut cupcakes...must. make. more!