Wicked Yummy: Light Coconut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Glaze

Servings: 24

Serving Size: 1 Cupcake

WW Points+: 4

Happy Valentine's Day!

When this day is usually filled with heavy dinners, boxes of chocolates, and decadent desserts, it can definitely be hard to stay on point and within your daily calorie limits. These yummy coconut cupcakes are the cure for that!

I used a boxed white cake and diet soda mixed with sweetened coconut, egg whites, and coconut extract to make a deliciously moist coconut cake. The cream cheese glaze has a hint of coconut and is topped with toasted coconut flakes. (Can you tell I like coconut?) And, of course, I had to make it pink for Valentine's Day :)

The cream cheese glaze is made the same way as a regular cream cheese frosting. However, low fat and fat free cream cheese has much more liquid in it than the full fat versions. This makes a much thinner frosting, hence I am calling it a glaze. It tastes just as good and the toasted coconut gives it a nice little crunch at the top.

I hope you have someone to enjoy these with because it's hard to keep 24 of these in the house!

Enjoy! <3

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

1 box White Cake Mix (I used Betty Crocker Super Moist White Cake)
12 oz Clear Diet Soda
1 cup Shredded, Sweetened Coconut
2 Egg Whites
1 tsp Coconut Extract

Cream Cheese Glaze:

8 oz Fat Free Cream Cheese
4 tbsp light butter (I used Olivio Light Butter Spread)
1 cup Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Coconut Extract
Food Coloring
3 tbsp Shredded, Sweetened Coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Add cake mix, diet soda, egg whites, coconut extract, and shredded coconut to a stand mixer or mixing bowl. Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, then increase to medium speed for two minutes or until combined fully.

Pour cupcake batter into prepared pans. Each will be about 3/4 full. Pop in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 325 F. Bake for 25 minutes. (This gets the cupcakes nice and fluffy and gives them a nice dome shape.)

After 25 minutes, remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.

While the cupcakes are cooling, preheat oven again to 350 F. Prepare the frosting and the toasted coconut.

For the frosting, add cream cheese and butter to a stand mixer or mixing bowl. Mix until just creamy. Over mixing will cause these ingredients to slightly melt and create an even thinner frosting, so be careful! Add powdered sugar, vanilla, coconut extract, and 3 or 4 drops of food coloring. Mix until just combined. Place in a gallon zip-lock bag and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the toasted coconut, place 3 tbsp of coconut in a thin, even layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for 3 minutes. Stir and spread out in an even layer and bake for another 2 minutes.

To frost the cupcakes, cut a small piece of the corner off the zip-lock bag. Pipe the glaze onto each cupcake. As this glaze is thin, be careful not to let it run over the sides.