These easy chocolate coconut cupcakes are super soft and tender, with a rich chocolate flavour, topped with a smooth and creamy dairy-free chocolate and coconut buttercream frosting.
Line a 12-cup muffin pan with patty cases and preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
Combine white vinegar and coconut milk and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk to combine eggs, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, and coconut oil.
In a separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salts. Add half of the dry ingredients into the wet and half of the coconut milk and stir until combined. Add in the remainder of the dry ingredients along with the milk and again stir until mixture just comes together. Be careful not to overmix.
Fill patty cases ½ full and bake in the pre-heated oven for 18 minutes or when a skewer inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
For the Chocolate and Coconut Buttercream:
In a large bowl, add dairy-free butter and vanilla and begin beating with an electric mixer on medium speed.
In a separate bowl, sift 3 cups icing sugar and cocoa powder. Slowly begin adding icing sugar mixture into the dairy-free butter ¼ cup at a time ensuring it is completely combined before adding more.
Once about half of the icing sugar has been added, beat in coconut milk slowly, 1 tablespoon at a time. Do this very slowly as it may split the butter. If the mixture looks too wet after one tablespoon, make sure to beat in more icing sugar before adding the remaining coconut cream.
Beat in remaining icing sugar and add salt to taste. If the mixture is a little soft for piping, add more icing sugar ½ cup at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Using your favourite piping tip, pipe icing onto cupcakes.
Notes
I use Nuttelex to replace butter in most of my recipes as it is vegan and gives a 'buttery' flavour without being greasy. As this is an Australian product, the closest US alternative I believe is Earth Balance. Otherwise any dairy-free spread will work.* Place a can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight. The cream will solidify and settle on the top. Use this in the buttercream for the best results. Mix together what remains in the can and use this for the coconut milk required in the cupcakes. I only use TCC Premium Coconut Milk as it only contains coconut and water and I find it has the best, creamiest flavour.