MSC November: Marshmallow Turkey Cupcakes

Double post day!  It is Martha Stewart Cupcake posting day for November and National Bundt Day, and I am posting in support of Mary the Food Librarian and her quest to make 30 bundts in 30 days.  You can see that post here.  But on to the cupcakes...


When I saw that these cupcakes were the selection for November, I groaned inwardly.  You see, these cupcakes combine many elements that I am not that interested in... coconut, gummy fish and marshmallows (which are fine, but hard to find kosher).  As readers of this blog know, coconut is up there with foods that I really do not enjoy, so when I read that these cupcakes were covered in coconut and involved coconut covered marshmallows (hard to find kosher when its not Passover), I debated not making them.


But, now I have to thank Rachel at Simple Girl, because these cupcakes were really fun to make.  I joined this club because I love cupcakes, but I also enjoy learning new decorating techniques and it was a fun activity to make the turkeys.  I'm not sure how much they actually look like a turkey, but I think they are kind of cute anyway.


I made a few changes to this recipe.  First, I made 1/4 of the One Bowl Chocolate cupcake recipe and got 4 cupcakes, which was prefect because I had no where to bring these.  Second, I could not find coconut covered marshmallows, so I just used orange ones.  I did not use sprinkles for the eyes and instead I used dots of black food coloring.  Finally, 10 minutes was way to long to toast the coconut (burned the first batch and almost burned this one too).  I think I would do a much shorter amount of time, maybe 4 minutes.


You can find the recipe here.

Still Unofficial Martha Stewart Cupcake Club: Coconut Cupcakes

I still have not been approved for the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club (there is a waiting list), but I am enjoying baking along, so I thought I would keep going.  This month's pick, by Cinema Cupcakes, was coconut cupcakes on page 28-29 of the cookbook.  You might wonder why you have not seen more coconut on this blog, and it is because none of us really like it.  However, I decided to make these and send them along to my husband's office, since they always like cupcakes.  I don't know how they tasted (again, I don't like coconuts), but they smelled nice and they were very high, soft and springy, so I assume the texture was good.

So, now let's talk about the frosting.  The recipe called for coconut flavored 7 minute frosting.  I was psyched about this frosting, because it let me use up 6 of the egg whites I had in freezer.  Everything was going fine until I decided that, since I didn't have coconut extract, I would use coconut milk instead.  As soon as I put it in the fluffy beaten egg whites, I knew it was a mistake.  No liquid in egg whites, except in very small quantities!  I knew that, but I didn't think it through.  Anyway, no amount of beating could salvage the frosting, so I just kept going, adding the sugar syrup and beating until it was cool (for about 7 minutes, hence the frosting name).  It did not work out, so I just dipped the cupcakes in the sad, liquid frosting and called it a glaze.  I topped it with some shredded coconut to try to make them look pretty and to let people know what they were going to eat.  There is nothing worse than thinking something is vanilla and getting coconut.

I look forward to seeing what other people thought of these and if there is anyone in my husband's office reading this blog, feel free to comment and tell me how they were!