Coconut Rum Cupcakes

I saw on this muffin blog one day about making a little photo studio for the food you take pictures of with white paper, and tin foil  This picture of animal crackers was my test shot of my studio. :)

So I made these awesome coconut rum cupcakes last night with Jasey.  They are super light and fluffy and really "grown up".   First we blended everything together in my Ninja - I'm going to blog all about the Ninja as soon as I figure out some more things I can do with it.  Just know, it's awesome.

I thought this was interesting too - before we frosted/glazed the cupcakes, we put this syrup on them.  It kind of hardened before we put on the glaze and coconut.

My photo studio didn't work out so great since it was dark when we we got done with the cakes, and my kitchen is well lit with florescent bulbs, but you get the idea -

Coconut Rum Cake (Doctored Cake Mix Version)

For cake:

1 white or yellow cake mix (not prepared)

1 stick butter, cut into 8 pieces

Coconut milk to replace the water, reserve excess for icing (1 can should be enough)

3 eggs

2 cups sweetened or unsweetened, shredded coconut, divided (1 cup for the cake, 1 cup for topping)

For syrup:

¼ cup dark rum

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup water

For glaze:

2 tbsp. butter

About 2 cups powdered sugar

Reserved coconut milk

Place 1 cup of the coconut in a food processor. Process until finely chopped. Add the cake mix. Pulse. Cut the butter into 8 pieces. Add to the cake mix. Pulse until it looks like cornmeal. Add the coconut milk and eggs. Process until smooth and thick. Bake as directed. (I used one ten inch pan.) Let the cake cool on a wire rack.

As the cake is cooling, bring the sugar, rum, and water to a boil.. Let cool slightly. Place the cake on a serving platter and poke holes with a wooden skewer or fork in the top of the cake. Brush or drizzle the rum syrup over the cake and let it sit for about 15-30 minutes.

Prepare the glaze by whisking together the butter, powdered sugar, and coconut milk until it's runny enough to drizzle.

Toast the remaining 1 cup of coconut in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.

Drizzle the glaze over the cake and sprinkle with toasted coconut. Serve.