Caramel coconut cupcakes

These were a lot of fun to make! I love girls scout’s cookies, especially caramel delights! So I decided to make some cupcakes that highlight the most important parts of the cookie.
For me these cookies are all about the coconut, caramel and crunch. I LOVE chocolate, but it’s not the main thing that I think about when it comes to these cookies. So, while chocolate was a part of these cookies, they weren’t the may part. I have also discovered the Keebler makes an awesome cookie that is very similar, if not identical to the girl scout version, they are called Coconut Dreams. I used them for this recipe as I can get a box of 18 for $2.38 at Target! (and that’s without coupons)

cupcakes :
1 1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup salted butter (room temp)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup toasted coconut (plus extra for sprinkling over the cupcakes)
18 caramel delight cookies (or Kebblers Coconut Dream)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 cupcake cups, place one cookie in each cup.
2. Cream sugar and butter, add vanilla and egg.
3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk
4. mix in toasted coconut
5. I use a cookie scoop to get even cupcakes
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes

Icing: I have no idea where the original recipe came from, I adapted it from a hand written recipe that was in my recipe notebook

1 1/4 cup brown sugar
6 Tlbs salted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 oz powder sugar

In a sauce pan mix brown sugar and cream, bring to a rapid boil. Boil for one minute, mix in baking soda, boil 1 minute. Take away from heat, put in butter, DO NOT MIX.
Let it cool in fridge for 2 hours. Put in mixing bowl, beat until creamy, the color will get pretty light. Mix in the sugar. If icing is too runny you can add a little more sugar, if too stiff you can add more cream or water.

Topping:
toasted coconut
1/2 cookie (not really necessary)
chocolate drizzle- I used ghirardelli milk chocolate