Why You’ll Love These Easter Cupcakes
Delicious coconut & chocolate flavor combo like these coconut macaroons Extra soft & moist cupcakes, not dense or dry at all Smooth, rich chocolate ganache hiding in the center tastes like the inside of a truffle Tangy coconut cream cheese frosting is extra soft and creamy, and covered in shredded coconut A texture lover’s dream cupcake! Finish with candy-coated chocolate eggs for an adorable springtime/Easter dessert
How to Make the Best Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
Spoon/pour the thin batter into muffin pan lined with cupcake liners. You should have enough batter to make 15 cupcakes, so you will either need 2 muffin pans or you can divide and bake them in 2 batches. Fill the liners about 2/3 full. If you use the batter to make fewer than 15 cupcakes, you are overfilling the lined cups and your cupcakes will spill over the sides. A lot of us love a good coconut cake, but sometimes we also just. need. chocolate. Chocolate and coconut is such an underrated flavor combo, isn’t it? Coconut + pineapple, coconut + lemon, coconut + lime… all good! But whenever I pair coconut + chocolate, I always think, why don’t I do this more often? If you love chocolate and coconut together (I see you, Almond Joy/Bounty/Mounds bars lovers!), these festive Easter cupcakes are for you. It’s basically the handheld version of the most popular chocolate cake recipe on my website. And it’s hands-down the best chocolate cupcake I’ve ever tasted. Yes, even better than my super moist chocolate cupcakes recipe. Optional (but recommended) step: When the cupcakes are completely—or nearly completely—cool, place them in the refrigerator for 20–30 minutes to make them a bit easier to carve into and fill.
Filling Your Easter Cupcakes With Ganache
While you could skip this step entirely and still end up with delicious coconut chocolate Easter cupcakes, I recommend taking things to the next level by hollowing out the cupcakes and filling them with chocolate ganache. A hidden surprise inside that’s just as fun to discover as an Easter egg! See my How to Fill Cupcakes tutorial and video if you need any extra help with this step. This chocolate ganache filling tastes just like the inside of a soft chocolate truffle. You know those Lindt Lindor truffle balls? A soft chocolate shell, filled with even softer, creamier chocolate filling? Yeah, it’s like that. 😉 The ganache will be very thin at first, but since chocolate is solid at room temperature, it will thicken as it cools:
Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
When I set out to make a coconut frosting for these coconut chocolate Easter cupcakes, I first turned to this old recipe for piña colada cupcakes. (From 2014—practically vintage!) The coconut frosting on those cupcakes is basically my vanilla buttercream, with coconut extract added to it. Tasty, yes, but I worried it might be too sickeningly sweet when covered in sweetened shredded coconut. But then it hit me. What frosting do I love on BOTH coconut and chocolate desserts, which isn’t overly sweet… why, tangy, velvety-smooth cream cheese frosting, of course! Replacing the vanilla extract with coconut extract was all it took to turn it into coconut cream cheese frosting. Easy breezy cream cheesy! The extra soft and creamy texture of this frosting is a perfect contrast to the other textures you get from the shredded coconut above and the smooth chocolate truffle-like filling below.
Add Your Easter Cupcakes Decoration!
If you want to toast/brown some of the coconut for topping, like I do for this coconut Easter cake, just spread some out on a baking sheet and toast in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 6–8 minutes. Make sure the toasted coconut is completely cooled before adding it to the frosted cupcakes. Place a couple chocolate mini eggs in the center of each coconut “nest” for an easy and adorable finishing touch. (Similar to how we press jelly beans into these festive jelly bean sugar cookies!)
