Chocolate Caramel Coconut Cupcakes Recipe

These chocolate caramel coconut cupcakes come together with soft coconut cupcakes, homemade salted caramel filling, and creamy milk chocolate frosting. Each bite will remind you of a Girl Scout Samoas/Caramel DeLites cookie. The combination of coconut, chocolate, and caramel is an indulgent triple threat that’s sure to satisfy most cupcake cravings!

Tell Me About These Chocolate Caramel Coconut Cupcakes

• Texture: These coconut cupcakes are fluffy and moist. They’re probably the first cupcake we’ve ever made from scratch that completely melts in your mouth. Thanks to the cake flour, egg whites, and canned coconut milk—they are just so light!
• Flavor: We took our favorite vanilla cupcakes and infused them with coconut flavor using coconut oil, coconut extract, canned unsweetened coconut milk, and sweetened shredded coconut. Of course we also have all the caramel hiding inside and the mountain of chocolate buttercream on top. Certainly a lot of flavor packed in 1 cupcake!
• Ease: We categorize these chocolate caramel coconut cupcakes as an intermediate baking recipe just because there’s a couple extra steps including making the caramel and filling the cupcakes. And though the frosting tastes exceptionally creamy as if you worked on it for hours, the process of making it is basic and no-frills. (By the way, here’s a post dedicated just to our chocolate buttercream).

Can We Use This Vanilla Cupcake Recipe in Other Places?

As mentioned above, today’s coconut cupcakes are adapted from our vanilla cupcakes base. It’s a well-loved and popular cupcake recipe on the site—and one my team and I turn to often! You can see that we turned the vanilla cupcakes into many other flavors including pistachio cupcakes, white chocolate strawberry cupcakes, chai latte cupcakes, and mimosa cupcakes.

Key Ingredients in Chocolate Caramel Coconut Cupcakes

• Cake flour: The cupcakes are guaranteed soft and fluffy if you start with cake flour.
• Half coconut oil + half butter: Make sure the coconut oil is SOLID and at room temperature so it can cream properly with the butter. This creamed fat will be the base of your coconut cupcakes. To ensure you have a little coconut flavor, look for unrefined coconut oil (not refined).
• Canned coconut milk instead of whole milk: You can use full fat or reduced fat coconut milk, but make sure it’s from a can. Refrigerated coconut milk is more like a beverage and canned is more like a cooking and baking ingredient. (It’s what we use in this coconut cake, too.) Give the can a good shake before using because the solid coconut cream separates from the liquid. If it’s still separated, pour it all out into a bowl and whisk until combined, then measure what you need for the batter.
• Coconut extract: Only 1 teaspoon does the trick to really get this coconut party started! Though you could leave it out if desired, the cupcakes lack flavor without it.
• Sweetened shredded coconut: You can hardly taste the texture in the baked cupcakes as it breaks down and absorbs the moisture. But the flavor is all there!

Recipe Testing: What Works & What Doesn’t