Coconut Cupcakes — Sweet as the Blessings at Anaya’s Seemantham

The seemantham happened on Sunday. And it was everything. Amma's living room, transformed. Mango leaves and jasmine flowers strung across doorways. A decorated chair — draped in red silk, flower garlands hanging from the backrest — set up in the center. The kolam at the entrance was Amma's finest work: an elaborate rice flour design that took her three hours and that we all had to step over carefully, which is challenging when you're thirty weeks pregnant and your feet are approximately invisible. Thirty-two women. All wearing silk saris in every color imaginable — ruby, emerald, gold, sapphire. The room looked like the inside of a jewelry box. Kamala Aunty in her signature blue. Mrs. Iyer in green. Amma in her wedding sari — red Kanjeevaram silk, the same one I wore at my wedding. She wore it for her daughter's seemantham because tradition is a thread and the sari is part of the thread. The ceremony: I sat in the decorated chair while the priest chanted mantras. Amma placed turmeric and kumkum on my forehead. Each woman came forward with a plate of flowers and fruit — their blessings, their prayers, their specific wishes for the baby. Mrs. Subramaniam blessed me with "a girl who is strong." Kamala Aunty blessed me with "a girl who is smarter than her mother." Amma blessed me with — she couldn't speak. She stood in front of me with the flowers and the kumkum and her mouth opened and nothing came out. Then she leaned forward and whispered in Tamil: "You are my greatest recipe." I wept. Every woman in the room wept. Even Kamala Aunty, who is famously unsentimental, dabbed her eyes with her sari pallu. After the ceremony: food. Of course food. Amma and the temple aunties had prepared a feast — sweet pongal, vadai, sambar, three types of payasam, lemon rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice. The kitchen had been producing for two days. I ate until I couldn't move, which at thirty weeks doesn't take long because the baby has claimed most of my stomach's real estate. Pushpa attended. She wore a green sari (Amma helped her pick it) and sat in the front row and cried during the blessings. She and Amma stood together afterward — Tamil woman and Gujarati woman, two grandmothers-to-be — and took a photo. In the photo, they're both smiling and Amma's hand is on Pushpa's arm and it's the closest to friendship I've ever seen between them. I kept the jasmine garland. It's drying on my nightstand, next to the ultrasound photo and the leather journal. Three artifacts. Three kinds of evidence that this is really happening. Anaya. Her name is Anaya. We said it out loud tonight, for the first time, lying in bed in the dark. "Anaya," Raj said. "Anaya," I said. She kicked. The name is decided.

Amma’s feast had sweet pongal and three payasams and more rice than I can account for — and yet the thing I kept thinking about afterward, lying in bed whispering Anaya’s name into the dark, was something small and sweet and quiet, the kind of thing you make just to hold the feeling a little longer. Coconut is woven into every Tamil celebration I’ve ever known — in the prasadam, in the payasam, in the garlands themselves — and these coconut cupcakes felt like the right way to carry Sunday’s sweetness into the week. I made a batch three days later, still wearing the jasmine scent that had settled into my hair, and I thought: yes, this is what thirty-two blessings taste like.

Coconut Cupcakes

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 box (15.25 oz) white cake mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, divided
• For the frosting:
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut (for topping)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.
2. Mix the batter. In a large bowl, combine the white cake mix, sour cream, vegetable oil, eggs, coconut extract, and vanilla extract. Beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes until smooth and well combined.
3. Fold in coconut. Gently fold 3/4 cup of the shredded coconut into the batter using a spatula.
4. Fill and bake. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for 18–20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops are lightly golden.
5. Cool completely. Remove cupcakes from the tins and transfer to a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before frosting — at least 30 minutes.
6. Make the frosting. Beat the softened cream cheese and butter together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the sifted powdered sugar one cup at a time, beating on low after each addition. Add the coconut extract, vanilla, and pinch of salt. Beat on medium-high for 1 more minute until creamy and smooth.
7. Frost and finish. Pipe or spread the coconut cream cheese frosting generously onto each cooled cupcake. Sprinkle with the remaining shredded coconut for a snowy, festive finish. Serve at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 285 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 39g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 210mg