Coconut Caramel Cupcakes

Coconut vanilla cupcakes with homemade caramel center, coconut frosting and coconut shavings to finish them off. Two words: INSANELY GOOD. Three words: NEED TO TRY. Nine words: SURPRISINGLY EASY TO MAKE FOR HOW IMPRESSIVE THEY SOUND.

The Cupcakes:

Ingredients::

1 box of Pillsbury vanilla cake mix (If you aren't going to use Pillsbury, add one package of instant vanilla pudding mix)

1 stick of unsalted butter

1 cup of water

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 teaspoon of coconut extract

4 eggs

Steps::

1. Mix everything in a bowl. (Although I'm all for mixing by hand, it might just be easier to use an electric hand mixer for this one.)

2. Bake in cupcake tins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes or until they withstand the crucial toothpick test. 

3. Reread the instructions and believe that yes, it really is that simply put.

The Caramel:

While the cupcakes are baking and cooling completely, you are going to want to make the caramel filling. We used this recipe. It worked wonderfully... after we messed up once and then realized what we did wrong and did it over again... Once it was all cooled and ready to go, we cut some holes in the cupcakes like this:

And then added some powdered sugar to the caramel. I really couldn't tell you how much we put in but it was enough to thicken in  to a filling consistency so that we could pipe it into the cupcakes' holes like this:

Once that was all done, we whipped up a delicious coconut butter cream frosting which was to absolutely die for. Seriously, even if you don't like coconut, I feel like you would like this frosting.

The Frosting:

Ingredients::

2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

4 cups of powdered sugar (about)

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of coconut extract

2-3 tablespoons of milk

Steps::

1. Whip all of the ingredients together until it is all smooth and creamy. (Add some more coconut extract if you can't taste it enough, but you don't want it to be overpowering. Taste the frosting and it will have a nice little coco-nut-kick towards the end of the eating experience.) 

*Warning: We did not measure this recipe AT ALL while making it, so these measurements that I gave you are completely estimated. Just keep fooling around with the amounts of flavoring and powdered sugar but to be safe, start with 

Pipe the frosting on the cupcakes, give it a nice little dowsing of shaved coconut and enjoy!!