Coconut Coffee Rum Cupcakes

The cupcakes are so pretty.

I may or may not have a sinus infection.  However, I appear to be getting better (that is, don’t constantly feel like I’m going to fall over and/or vomit).  Hooray!  I have joined the legions complaining about minor (mine is) illness on the internet.  Anyways: cupcakes.

After a fascinating glimpse in the grinding and ill-oiled bureaucratic machinery of a college, a friend of mine has officially graduated.  She likes rum.  She likes coconut.  She likes coffee.  All of these things?  All of them?  They go together REALLY well.

1 cup coconut milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coffee extract (other things that might work: Starbucks Via powder combined with a tablespoon of hot water, other instant coffee combined with a tablespoon of hot water, concentrated espresso.   Straight-up coffee won’t do.)
1 teaspoon coconut extract (not 100% necessary, but important for flavor)
2 tablespoons of  dark rum

Flavors!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your tins, and put the apple cider vinegar in the coconut milk.

Beat together the margarine and sugar (really, by this point, you all should be able to recite the basic rules o’ cupcakes in your sleep.  I know I can make cupcakes without a recipe in front of me, now.)

extracts and stuff.

Once the sugar and  margarine have been mixed (but not over-mixed), beat in your extracts/extract approximations/liquor.

Once the flavorings are evenly distributed in the margarine!sugar mixture, add the coconut milk/apple cider vinegar mixture.  A whisk is probably necessary at this point.

Yup. Goop.

Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder, and mix that into the liquid goop that is the other combined ingredients.  The coconut milk will make the batter very thick, but don’t worry about it.

Fill the cupcake liners 2/3-3/4 full, and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick poked in the middle comes out clean (no crumbs!).

The frosting is coconut cream cheese, again:

1/4 cup cream cheese (vegan or non-vegan, whatever floats your dietary boat)
1/4 cup margarine (seriously, earth balance is far easier to work with than butter)
a few tablespoons of coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3ish cups powdered sugar

Beat together the cream cheese and margarine until smooth and well mixed.  Mix in the vanilla and a tablespoon of coconut milk, and then mix in the powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments.  Use the coconut milk to thin out the frosting as you progress, and try to end up with a frosting texture that is stiff enough to hold its shape but not so stiff that you can’t pipe or spread it onto the cupcakes.

That is far more text in a clump than you should tolerate.  Here, a picture:

These aren't actually these cupcakes, but seriously, that was way too much text.

Anyways, the final en-awesomifying of these cupcakes is a rum syrup, which is taken almost verbatim from VCTOTW, the same one I adapted for the Vanilla Bourbon cupcakes.

1/4 cup dark rum
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons margarine

Simmer together the rum and sugar until the sugar is full dissolved, and let cook together for a minute longer.  Pull off heat, and mix in the vanilla and margarine until the margarine is fully melted.

aaaand cupcakes.

Once the syrup has cooled to just above room temperature, drizzle it on top of the frosted cupcakes, and serve relatively soon (the syrup might start crystallizing and stop tasting so deliciously of rum).

Happy Graduation!

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