bloggy friends week! delish coconut cupcakes.

Welcome to Nugget On A Budget's Bloggy Friends Week! 

This week I'm in Arizona with Hubs and Baby Girl for our friend's wedding {having a fabulous time!}. I've rounded up a few of my bloggy besties and two other awesome ladies to guest post on here while I'm gone.

I hope you enjoy getting to know these lovelies as much as I did!

Kim has been one of my bff's from my days of under 10 followers. Which means she's awe.some. You'll always find hilarious posts {not exaggerating here!} and delicious recipes on her blog--making it one of my fave daily reads. Oh, and she has a pretty rad job that makes her travel to the beach. Sweetness.

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Heyyy you guys! My name's Kim and I blog over at Typical Kim.  I spent all of last year doing an intensive, full-time teaching internship to get my Master's degree in Education.  It was a crazy year that led me to need a creative outlet which is now my blog! I talk a lot about my life, my new job in the marine construction industry (I know - it ludicrous, I don't even know how to swim), my adventures and various crafting or baking excursions.  I'd love it if you came on by the blog and told me a little about yourself too!

So to help Kera out while she's away, I've decided to share my cheater's coconut cake recipe.  From time to time, we'd have parties at school during my internship and I'd (stupidly) offer to bake all my students cupcakes.  I love baking, and I love cupcakes, but making deliciousness from scratch for 40+ students didn't really seem ideal when I was getting up for school at 5:00am and getting home from post-school-work at 9:30pm.  Hence, the cheater portion - I'm cutting a lot of corners with this recipe.  But it's delicious, moist and oh-so-easy.  Did I mention the ingredients are pretty stock?  Meaning, you can buy a bunch whenever they go on sale making the cupcakes friendly to unpaid-internship (or really any) budgets too!  Here's what you'll need for cupcakes and frosting...

Cupcakes:

1 box - white cake mix

1 box - coconut pudding mix

1/2  can - coconut milk (throw this in the fridge right after you buy it)

4 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil 


Frosting:

1/2 can coconut milk

1 stick room temperature butter

1 2/3 cups powdered sugar 

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla

 

Step One: Set your oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Then, mix all of your dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Step Two: Slowly and carefully open your coconut milk.  If you've kept it in the fridge at least overnight, there should be a thick layer of fat on the top.  Slowly spoon the fat out into a separate bowl to use later in the frosting.  You should be left with a concentrated coconut oil.  Pour the oil into the dry ingredients.

Add in the vegetable oil and the 4 eggs.  Beat together with a mixer on medium speed for 2-4 minutes.

Step Three: Fill your cupcake liners 1/2 way with your cupcake mix. 

Step Four: Bake!

And that's it!  Your cupcakes are done!  So simple, so fast, but tastes so much better than just "box mix cupcakes" when you bring them to a room full of teenaged food critics.  The frosting is just as simple & quick.

Frosting:

Cream together butter, salt and vanilla on medium-high speed until butter is light and fluffy.  On a slow speed, slowly alternately add the coconut milk fat and powdered sugar, ending with the powdered sugar.  Once you've added everything, beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes for fluffiness.  

& the end.  Frost your cupcakes and maybe top them with some coconut flakes, sprinkles, or mini-chocolate chips.

Thanks again to Kera for letting me guest post today!  I wish I could have made these for baby girl's birthday for you!  And thanks also to all you Nugget on a Budget readers for having me today! I hope to get a chance to see you over on my blog soon! :)