Samoa Cupcakes

By Deniz Tekant

Ingredients

⅓ cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 stick butter (softened)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup milk

1- 1 ½ cups coconut flakes

Soft or hard caramel candy (I use Werther’s Original)

Melting chocolate wafers (I use Wilton Candy melts)

For the Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter with a mixer on medium high speed until smooth. 

4. Add in the sugar and beat 3-4 more minutes until creamy. 

5. Beat in the eggs one at a time, following with the vanilla extract.   

6. Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk, breaking the flour mixture up into 4 portions, beating at low speed. 

7. Beat on medium-high speed until fully incorporated.

8. Add in the coconut flakes. Feel free to add more if you want a more coconut flavored cake!

9. Equally divide among the muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on rack for 5 minutes.

For the Caramel Filling

1. Add as many caramels in a small pot as you wish to melt. I usually do half of the pack for 12 cupcakes. 

2. Add 2 tablespoons of water. 

3. Cook over medium-low heat for 10-20 minutes. 

4. Stir constantly until the caramel is fully melted.

For Chocolate Drizzle

There are 2 ways of doing this:

Microwave:

You could add the chocolate melts into a microwave safe bowl and microwave until fully melted.

Stove top:

1. We will melt the chocolate melts Bain Marie (hot water bath) style:

2. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. 

3. Add the chocolate melts into a large bowl that does not sit too low into the saucepan.

4. Occasionally stir the chocolate. Once the chocolate melts, remove the pan from the heat.

Putting it together

1. You can use a piping bag or a squeeze bottle to easily add the caramel filling in the middle of the cake.

2. If you do not have these tools you can also remove a small portion from the top of the cake with a spoon and pour in the caramel slowly and replace the top you removed back on top.

3. With the help of a spoon, drizzle the chocolate melts on top of the cake. Let your creativity flow! You can make zigzags or cover the whole top and sprinkle additional coconut flakes. If you have leftover caramel, add that to your drizzled chocolate top. It’s all up to you on how much caramel/chocolate/coconut you would like to taste.