Snow-Capped Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes are one of my favorite desserts of all time. Who doesn’t feel happy when eating a cupcake? This is my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe, I make it for just about every special occasion in our house. And sometimes I make them just because. For a little winter flair I like to top them with sweetened coconut and add a little coconut extract to the frosting. I love how the coconut flakes make the cupcakes look like they’ve just come in from the blizzard. My daughter especially likes being in charge of the coconut flake application. This is no surprise, like most children, decorating is her favorite party of baking! Try these out this winter, everyone will love the fun wintery feel.

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

loosely adapted from Ina Garten

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup full fat yogurt, well-stirred

1 cup buttermilk

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 pinch Kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.

3. In a separate bowl whisk together the yogurt, buttermilk and coffee. Then, in a separate bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Working batches add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture in alternating batches to the mixing bowl while it is on low speed. Mix just until blended.

4. Spoon the batter into lined cupcake tin and bake cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the are set and spring back when touch. Cool completely before frosting.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon coconut extract

2 -3 Tablespoons whole milk

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1. Beat together the sugar and butter until well combined. Then add the coconut extract and the milk. Add more milk by the teaspoonful to achieve desired consistency. Spread on top of cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with sweetened coconut.

In Chocolate, More Cocoa Means Higher Antioxidant Capacity

Cocoa powder contains more beneficial antioxidants than other chocolate products, but processing decreases their contents.

Those are the results of a study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their cooperators interested in the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and procyanidin levels of six chocolate and cocoa products: natural (unsweetened) cocoa powders, Dutch processed (alkalinized) cocoa powders, unsweetened baking chocolates, semi-sweet chocolate baking chips, dark chocolates, and milk chocolates.

Chocolate and cocoa powder are derived from beans that contain hefty quantities of natural antioxidants called flavonoids. The researchers found natural cocoa contains the highest capacity of the antioxidant procyanidin. Antioxidants are thought to be effective in helping to prevent cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

Ronald L. Prior, an ARS nutritionist at the Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center (ACNC) in Little Rock, Ark., presented the study's results in San Diego, Calif., today with Liwei Gu and Xianli Wu of ACNC and Jim Harnly, a chemist at the ARS Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center. They presented the findings at Experimental Biology 2005, an annual meeting that brings together 16,000 biological and biomedical scientists from dozens of different disciplines.

The researchers found natural cocoa powders contained the highest levels of TAC and procyanidins, which were found to be the dominant antioxidant in chocolates. Milk chocolates, which contain the least amount of cocoa solids, had the lowest TAC and procyanidin levels. Baking chocolates contained fewer procyanidins, because they contained more fat (50-60 percent) than natural cocoa. Alkalinization, used to reduce the acidity and raise the pH of cocoa, such as Dutch chocolates, was found to markedly reduce procyanidin content. Researchers concluded that chocolates containing higher amounts of cocoa ingredients have higher procyanidin contents, therefore, higher antioxidant capacities.

Nine major manufacturers provided commercially available chocolate and cocoa samples and the National Institute of Standards and Technology provided its Standard Reference chocolate for analysis. The study was partially funded by a grant from the American Cocoa Research Institute.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.