candied ginger and dark chocolate cupcakes with coconut frosting

each sunday i make a big dinner, complete with dessert for littlefoodie, daddy and i. this sunday littlefoodies grammi and papa were off and was he excited to see them. littlefoodie and i made grilled burgers, root veggie gratin with blue cheese, grilled zucchini and these cupcakes which he frosted and sprinkled and made into a x-mas tree!
the candied ginger in these was such a nice spicy touch with the dark chocolate and tiny orange flavor., next time i would do a dark chocolate frosting but we used coconut to add some texture for our cupcake x-mas tree. try these and you will not be disappointed!
i lifted and adapted the recipe from epicurious.com, a great source of recipes.

enjoy!




5 tbls unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
zest of 1 tangerine
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp mace
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
1/2 cup minced candied giner

preheat oven to 350F.

beat butter and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy. beat in egg, zest, and vanilla.

sift flour, baking powder, salt, and spices..mix into butter mixture at low speed, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

fold in chocolate chunks and candied ginger.

bake 20-25 min. cool completley before frosting.



cream cheese coconut frosting

1 block cream cheese, room temp
1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp orange extract or vanilla
zest of 1 tangerine or orange
1 cup coconut

beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. beat in extract and zest. gradually add powdered sugar until combined. stir in coconut.