Coconut Key Lime Cupcakes

Whenever you use coconut flour in baking, since coconut flour is extremely dense, you need to use more eggs than in normal wheat flour baking.  These cupcakes turned out pretty dense but they were really delicious.  The next time I make this, I'd like to see these cupcakes a little less dense, so I probably will add another egg and add some cream of tartar.

You can make your own baking powder by 2 parts cream of tartar and 1 part baking soda (2:1), so you can ensure there is no cornstarch used in the baking powder, as many baking powders are comprised of cornstarch, that is, if you don't want cornstarch in your food.

The original recipe comes from Elana's Pantry, which she has a lot of great recipes on her site.  However, she is a big proponent of agave nectar, which I absolutely refuse to use.  It sounds like a very healthy thing to use as a sweetener.  How can anything with 2 healthy words, "agave" and "nectar" be bad for you?  Agave nectar is highly processed and has just about as much nutritional value as refined sugar.  If that's the case, then why spend the extra money on it than you would refined granulated sugar, which is much less expensive?

Instead of agave nectar, I used maple syrup, Grade B.  Why Grade B?  Here are a list of health benefits for Maple Syrup, Grade B, and why I use it.  Hayley Mason & Bill Staley use this in their baking recipes at the Food Lovers Kitchen blog and their book Make it Paleo .  They try to keep their recipes with few ingredients, which I simply love.  They have an amazing blog with over 300 hundred recipes and I've tried a number of them.  They are so delicious.

Makes 10 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs (next time I'm adding another egg)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (extra virgin - Tropical Traditions)
• 1/2 cup Maple Syrup, Grade B (Elana uses agave nectar)
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 tspn sea salt
• 1/2 tspn baking soda
• 1 tspn cream of tartar (I haven't put this in yet, but will the next time I make this)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 tspn of lime zest, fresh (I wanted a lime taste in the actual cupcake)

The combination of the baking soda with the cream of tartar acts like baking powder and will cause the cupcakes to rise, to be lighter.  The addition of the egg, due to the density of the coconut flour, will also make the cupcakes lighter than the original recipe.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• Line cupcake or muffin tins with cupcake liners.
• In a small bowl, sift the coconut flour, sea salt, baking soda, cream of tartar.  If you don't have a sifter, you can use a fine strainer and just shake over a medium to large bowl (this can be a bit messy).  This is an important step, as coconut flour is very dense and you don't want this clumping in your mixture.  You must make sure that there is NO MOISTURE in your sifter, strainer or bowl.  Set aside.
• In a large stainless steel mixing bowl, beat the eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup.  I used a KitchenAid Mixer on medium speed for less than a minute.  You can use a hand mixer, too.
• Gradually add the dry coconut flour mixture to the wet products.  I did NOT dump all this in at once, as I didn't want it clumping.  I added maybe 1/3 of the flour mixture at a time and allowed each time to mix completely in the KitchenAid before adding the next portion.
• Once everything is combined, add shredded coconut and lime zest.  Only combine to mix and do not over beat.
• You should now get a big ball of dough.
• Fill each cupcake liner to the top.  Since my original trial of this recipe, I did not fill it all the way to the top, and the cupcakes did not rise.  However, with the addition of the cream of tartar and an extra egg, your cupcakes should now rise over the top of the cupcake liner.
• Bake at 350° F for 23 min.
• Remove cupcakes from oven and cool on wire racks (about 30 min.).

• Frost with Key Lime Frosting (put frosting in a plastic bag - I use a sandwich baggy - cut a small hole in the corner and pipe onto cupcakes).
• You can serve immediately, but I really like chilling in the refrigerator overnight and topping with a thin slice of lime.  It makes this really pretty, but the lime flavor really infuses into the cupcake and combined with the maple syrup, really gives this cupcake a rich flavor.