For our vote-winner, the batica from Sugar Plum of Vanillastrawberryfields, we are required to use a fresh coconut and grate it down (which is a bit of work!) and then to let the cake batter sit for at least four hours. The recipe was a little hard to understand, mainly because it’s not made in a traditional manner, but this is what made it special. What we liked about it is that it is very unique and traditional. It was definitely a moist cake with a lovely coconut flavor. 2 out of my 5 taste-testers preferred Sugar Plum’s batica.

For our competitor, the coconut rough cupcake from Catie of Catie’s Cakes & Cookies, the extra steps were the preparation of the chocolate-coconut nests and the coconut malibu truffles. Making these two particular things is not an easy task when it is so hot; a lot of refrigeration was necessary! When all was done and everyone had messy fingers!, the taste-testers really liked the chocolate-coconut nests and the gooey-ness of the truffles. This is what made these cupcakes so special. So special in fact, that 3 out of my 5 taste-testers preferred Catie’s coconut rough cupcakes.

This means that our winner in the throwdown by just one vote is Catie of Catie’s Cakes & Cookies!

Congratulations Catie!

Once again, I want to also congratulate you again Sugar Plum and everyone else who entered their coconut cupcakes!

Cupcake Hero will now return to I Heart Cuppycakes, so stay tuned over there to see what the next Cupcake Hero theme ingredient will be.

However, as you all know, it’s not over yet.  Sugar Plum’s cupcake must first enter a throwdown with the cupcake of my choosing.  My taste-testers will then decide whose coconut cupcake will win December’s challenge.  So whose cupcake have I chosen?

The Coconut Rough Cupcakes from Catie of Catie’s Cakes & Cookies!  Congrats, Catie!

Thanks again and congrats to everyone who entered the coconut Cupcake Hero challenge, all the cupcakes look amazing and delicious!

Stay tuned, I hope to announce the winner within the coming week!

Take a look through the entries below and choose ONE favorite only and cast your vote in the poll to the right.  Voting is open until January 2 at 11:59PM.

—Voting is now closed—

The Entries:

Coco LimeNut Cupcakes
by Catie of Catie’s Cakes & Cookies

Coconut Rough Cupcakes
by Catie of Catie’s Cake & Cookies

Put the Lime in the Coconut
by Sarah-Lyn of I Bake Cupcakes

Vegan Coconut Rum Apricot Cupcakes
by Dorothy of Fuzzykoala’s Caketastic Adventures

Snowball Cupcakes
by Alicia of The Red Deer

Brazilian Blush Cupcakes
by Rosemary

Snowball Cupcakes
by F_A of Seelensturm

Pina Colada Cupcakes
by Samantha of Sweet Remedy

Batica – A Gorgeous Rich Delicious Goan Portuguese Coconut Bolo
by Sugar of Vanillastrawberryspringfields

Coconut Cupcakes
by Christine of Whimsical Bakery

After some serious thinking and a lot of suggestions, I decided that I’d like to see COCONUT CUPCAKES in December!

I know, you were thinking I’d choose something Christmas-related, right?  Well, see, that’s the problem.  Everyone’s all cold and wearing heavy coats, it’s snowing, you can see your own breath when you go outside (at least those of us in the Northern Hemisphere).  I thought it’d be nice to use a classic tropical ingredient to make you feel like you’re relaxing on a warm ocean island in the tropics.

You can use any form of coconut in the cupcake, filling and/or frosting – coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut flour, shredded coconut.  You know the story, as long as it’s got coconut in it, you can use it!

To enter:

• Email me jamieanneATsweetestkitchen.com with your first name, blog entry link and cupcake name.  Please use this subject line:  Cupcake Hero [ingredient].
• Multiple entries welcome but please send me separate emails for each entry.
• If you haven’t already, join our Flickr group.
• Add 1-2 pictures of your cupcake to the Flickr pool with a small blurb about your cupcake. This blurb will be part of the round up on the blog so feel free to write your cupcake’s name, ingredients, baking experience and/or whatever you want. I will leave a comment on every entry so you know that I’ve received it.
• Please include a link back to this post and feel free to include any of the Cupcake Hero logos in your blog.

The deadline is December 24 at 11:59PM; voting will be from December 28-31.  I’ll also be doing the roundup, choosing who goes head-to-head with the cupcake that got the most votes AND the taste-testing.  Cupcake Hero will return to I Heart Cuppycakes in January.

For more information on Cupcake Hero, read the 411 and FAQ at I Heart Cuppycakes.

PLEASE NOTE! I will be moving from Indiana, USA to Sydney, Australia at the end of November.  Please go ahead and email your entries to me, and submit your photos to the Flickr group, but be aware that I cannot immediately respond until I get the computer and internet set up once I’m back in Sydney, which should be around the late part of the first week of December.

I’m looking forward to seeing those coconut cupcakes, and thanks for visiting me for Cupcake Hero this month! 

My second entry is a chocolate cupcake with chocolate chips and finely chopped crispy bacon baked inside.  It is frosted with peanut butter frosting, sprinkled with finely chopped toffee and topped off with a square of crispy bacon.

They were so yummy!  People laughed at me when I told them of my plan to make these cupcakes, but I’m going to laugh right back at them when I tell them how good these are!

Bacon has been a controversial, yet popular, ingredient in cupcakes these days, and I understand why.  Despite the fact that bacon combined with sweets is a little odd, it does make a great pairing of flavors.  Check out my dark chocolate bacon cupcakes, too.

If you’re interested in these cupcakes, but would like to skip on the bacon, I have a perfect solution.  Omit all the bacon and just roll the tops of the frosted cupcakes in crushed toffee!

Equally yummy!

The only problem I see with this particular cupcake recipe is that the batter is very runny, meaning that a lot of the bacon and chocolate chips will sink to the bottom.  If you make these, I might suggest picking a chocolate cupcake recipe that produces a thicker batter so the mix-ins won’t sink as easily.

Double Chocolate Bacon cupcakes
Adapted from My Sweet And Saucy
Makes 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients
Approximately 10 strips of bacon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch-processed)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
1 extra large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon espresso powder dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water
(I used 1 packet of Starbucks VIA Italian Roast)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method
Prepare bacon via your preferred method until crispy.  I baked my bacon in the oven at 375F for about 14 minutes.  Place bacon on paper towels to drain the fat and pat dry.  Finely chop the bacon, but reserve 1-2 strips to cut into 1-inch or so squares to top cupcakes.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with 24 cupcake liners.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar together into a medium bowl.

Combine the egg, milk, oil, vanilla, and dissolved espresso powder in a medium bowl and whisk by hand until well mixed. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.  Fold in finely chopped bacon and chocolate chips.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the cupcakes are puffed and feel springy. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

Peanut Butter Buttercream
Adapted from Shazam In The Kitchen
Makes enough to generously frost 12 cupcakes (plus some leftover)

Ingredients
1 toffee candy bar (I used Heath)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method
Finely chop or crush toffee and set aside.  In large bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk. Mix well, adding more milk as needed to make a fluffy spreadable frosting.  Frost cupcakes and sprinkle or roll in chopped/crushed toffee.  Top with a square of bacon if desired.

It might come as no surprise that the inspiration for my chocolate peanut butter cup cupcake came from Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, one of my favorite foods in the candy aisle.

My peanut butter cupcake is covering himself in a chocolate peanut butter shell that also holds a pool of creamy peanut butter in the bottom.  The cupcake is double-coated with chocolate ganache and a little peanut sits on top.

This is one rich cupcake and I highly recommend that if you ever attempt to eat one of these to have nearby an ice cold glass of milk!  They are so good and pack a great peanut butter punch.  They also taste great straight from the refrigerator!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Adapted from I Heart Cuppycakes
Makes 6-7 cupcakes

Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter, room temp
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk

Method
Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Mix in egg. Add vanilla and beat for 1 minute or until batter smooth.

On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each liner with a generous 1/4 cup of batter, to about 1/3 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 22 minutes. There will be cracks on the top. Cool cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on wire rack.

When cool, double-dip cupcakes into chocolate ganache (recipe follows) and top each with a peanut. When the ganache is set, place the cupcake into a chocolate peanut butter shell (recipe follows) to finish. Store cupcakes in refrigerator.

Chocolate Ganache
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes enough to double-dip 7 cupcakes (with a little leftover)

Ingredients
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
peanuts

Method
Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and stir until combined.

Dip cooled cupcakes into ganache and thoroughly coat the tops. Allow to set for at least 10 minutes, then dip the cupcakes again. Place a peanut on top of each cupcake.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shells
Adapted from Have Cake Will Travel
Makes enough for 6-7 cupcakes (with a little leftover)

Ingredients
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter, divided
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method
Line a cupcake pan with 6 or 7 paper cupcake liners.

Melt chocolate chips in double boiler. Stir in the 2 tablespoons peanut butter until smooth and thoroughly combined. Drop 1-2 tablespoons of melted chocolate into one paper cupcake liner at a time and use a small spoon to entirely coat the paper liner with a good layer of chocolate. When finished with all the chocolate, put the tray into the refrigerator until the chocolate is solid, at least 30 minutes (you can put it in the freezer if you like).

While the chocolate cups are in the refrigerator, prepare the peanut butter filling by thoroughly combining 1/2 cup peanut butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

When the chocolate is solid, fill each cup with 1-2 teaspoons of peanut butter filling. You will definitely have leftovers of the filling. Smooth the filling down into the cup with the back of a small spoon. Place cupcake inside.

Read more about who won the voter’s choice and how my cupcakes were chosen at I Heart Cuppycakes.  Stay tuned to see which one wins!

My second batch of Halloween cupcakes, baked especially for October‘s Cupcake Hero, uses dulce de leche, which I chose to make in the oven.  Mine took about 1 hour, 15 minutes at 425°F.  It didn’t turn very dark before the top of the dulce de leche started to turn a little hard and dark brown around the edges, even though I had it tightly covered with foil.  I used an electric mixer to smooth out the lumps, but little tiny bits of the burnt edges remained.  It didn’t affect the taste, though; it tastes great!

These are delicious and super moist pumpkin cupcakes, filled with dulce de leche and frosted with dulce de leche buttercream.  The web is made from melted semisweet chocolate and an awesome, creepy spider from Bake It Pretty adorns each cupcake.

The chocolate web is very easy to make.  I melted 2-3 tablespoons of semisweet chocolate chips, with about 1/4 teaspoon of shortening to make the chocolate a little looser, and spooned it into a Ziploc bag.  I then cut off a very tiny sliver of the bottom corner of the bag and piped four circles on top of each cupcake.  I would have used a toothpick to draw through the circles, but I didn’t have any, so I used an uncooked stick of spaghetti that I had broken down to the length of a toothpick!  But I just simply pulled the spaghetti stick through the circles, starting from the center for each line.  Easy spiderweb decoration!

These cupcakes are quite rich, and I knew they would be before I even made them, but they are absolutely delicious.  The pumpkin and caramel go very well together.  If you’re not after so rich of a cupcake, skip the dulce de leche filling and just use the dulce de leche buttercream on top.

       Print This!    

But these are!  This is what I created with Martha Stewart’s awesome Halloween cupcake liners, Bake It Pretty’s zombie hand toppers and a couple of Oreo cookies.

I’ll break it down for you.  First of all, if you’re making Halloween cupcakes, you’ll need these cupcake liners from Martha Stewart.  You can find them at Michael’s craft stores for about $4.

Next, I baked a batch of chocolate pumpkin cupcakes.  I’ve used this recipe before and liked the result.  Then, I whipped up some pumpkin buttercream to fill these cupcakes with.

The cupcakes are frosted with a plain chocolate buttercream, and perhaps there’s a bit too much frosting for my own liking, but I wanted a nice big round top on these.

I finely crushed 10 Oreo sandwich cookies, which ended up being way too many for 12 cupcakes; 6 probably would have been enough.  I dipped each cupcake top into the crushed Oreos to completely coat them.

For the “tombstones”, I found Oreo Fudgees made perfect-shaped tombstones.  I took the Fudgee sandwich cookies apart, scraped off the filling and stuck one side of the Fudgee into each cupcake, then stuck a zombie hand in front of the tombstones.

They’re quite spicy; I can taste a hint of ginger over all the other spices in the cupcake and filling (the filling had the most ginger).  And like I said, there’s a bit too much chocolate frosting, which makes a bit too sweet for me.  The kids love them though!  The decorations make a perfect Halloween cupcake – remember, you can find the zombie hands at Bake It Pretty’s Halloween shop!

This is my entry into Iron Cupcake: Earth for October’s theme ingredient “music” – these cupcakes are perfect for one of my favorite songs by the late Michael Jackson, “Thriller”!

Our Generous IronCupcake:Earth Prize Providers:

• The Demy™ by Key Ingredient
• Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
• Bella Cupcake Couture
• Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
• The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne

I’m also entering these cupcakes into Cupcake Hero for October’s theme ingredient of pumpkin and/or Halloween.  This will be my first ever entry into Cupcake Hero!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
Adapted from Country Living
Makes 12 cupcakes*

Ingredients
1 cup + 2 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 3 3/4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup + 2 1/2 teaspoons buttermilk
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon + 1 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2.25 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon + 1 3/4 teaspoons dark brown sugar
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon + 1 3/4 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs

For Oreo decorations:
7 finely crushed Oreo sandwich cookies
6 Oreo Fudgees sandwich cookies, pulled apart and filling removed
12 zombie hand cupcake toppers from Bake It Pretty

Method
Preheat oven to 350F; line a cupcake tin with paper liners.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl; set aside.

Combine buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla in a bowl; set aside.

Beat butter and sugars together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is smooth and light.  Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, blending well after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners.  Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes completely, then using the cone method, fill cupcakes with pumpkin buttercream (recipe follows).

Frost each cupcake with chocolate frosting (recipe follows), then dip the frosted tops into the finely crushed Oreos to evenly coat.  Stick an Oreo Fudgee “tombstone” into the top of each cupcake, and place a zombie hand in front of it.

*The original recipe yields 36 cupcakes, but I divided the recipe into fourths, which is why the amounts of the ingredients are a little strange!

Pumpkin Buttercream
Adapted from A Year In The Kitchen
Makes enough to fill 12 cupcakes (plus some left over)

Ingredients
1/2 cup + 2 1/2 teaspoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons + 1 1/8 teaspoons pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces confectioners’ sugar

Method
With electric mixer, cream butter and pumpkin (mixture will look grainy).  Turn mixer to low and add cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla.  Slowly add 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar at a time until the buttercream is creamy and no longer separating (the mixture will look grainy if there isn’t enough sugar mixed in).

Chocolate Buttercream
Adapted from a post at Cupcakes Take The Cake
Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes (plus some left over)

Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup milk (plus a few tablespoons to adjust consistency)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Beat butter and cocoa until smooth, then add sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until smooth with each addition .  Add milk and vanilla and beat for about 3 minutes.