Tropical Pina Colada Cupcakes

So who doesn't like a cupcake that tastes like Pina Colada?! The classic pineapple coconut combination that instantaneously reminds you of the pristine white sand beaches, the cool turquoise blue waters, swinging hammocks, good company, laughter or maybe just a book if you're like me. 

Personally I am not much of a fan of the drink, I know!! i'm totally missing out! BUUUUUT, boy do I love these!! Especially because these are kid friendly. Thats right! No alcohol, great flavours. Ofcourse you can spike'em up with rum if you will and if it suits the occasion. Meanwhile, lets enjoy these! 

Update (2015): Revisiting an old recipe. 

Its been a while since I made the cupcakes and although the old ones were so moist and delicious, I have tweaked the recipe a little to make even more moist, melt in the mouth cakes with pineapple inside them. Not only they are gorgeous to look at, the deliciousness quotient is also higher. Some recipes just get better with time. Taking you through my new recipe now. I split the batter into two and made an Upside Down Pineapple Cake with half the batter. Will be updating the recipe for the same. You can make 12 cupcakes with this if you like, I just used my 6 mould pan. Onto the recipe then! 

Serves: 6

Time taken: 30 min + frosting and decorating

Complexity: **

You'll need 

1 1/2 sicks or 3/4th cup butter (170 gms)

3/4th cup brown sugar

1/3rd cup sugar

3 medium eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/3rd cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

5 slices of sweetened canned pineapple

pinch of love

1/2 tsp salt

For frosting

1 cup cream (30 % fat content)

1 1/2 cup sifted sugar (if you want it sweeter, add 2 cups)

1/2 tsp of coconut extract

couple drops of yellow food colouring

de-hydrated pineapple slices (optional)

coconut shreds (optional)

canned cherries

Method

We shall begin first by dehydrating the pineapple slices. This step is totally optional. I just like how pretty it looks. Makes the cupcakes look like sunflowers shining in the sun! Pre heat your oven for about 15 minutes at 120C or 250F. Take a pineapple and cut very thin slices- about 2 mm thick at the most like so

I very quickly ate up the extra pineapple while making the cake! You can use it in salads or try making my Pineapple Salsa with it. 

Place the pineapple slices on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 30 minutes or so till the slices dry up and start turning colour. 

Almost dehydrated and ready to be shaped. Immediately take them off the tray and place in a cupcake pan to let them cool and get rounded up. Your pineapple is ready to decorate. Just set them aside. 

To start with the cake, preheat oven at 150C or 300F. You can do this manually with a whisk, in a food processor or a standing mixer with a paddle attachment. Take the butter and sugar 

And whisk till it the sugar is completely melted in the butter and the mixture is fluffy. 

Next add in the eggs and the vanilla. Whisk till its frothy. 

Look at the bubbles. Incorporating air in the cake this way keeps them very light. 

Lastly but not leastly take your canned pineapple slices and chop them up into 1cm pieces. I just adore these pineapple pieces in the cake. Just brightens them cupcakes up! 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and the baking powder together. Add the mix to the wet ingredients. Fold in the dry ingredients and the pineapple pieces along with 4 tbsp of canned pineapple juice with the batter. Please do not over whisk at this stage otherwise the cake will turn bread-y. Now if you want to add salt you can at this time. I just use salted butter so no need to add salt. 

The batter is all ready! 

Spoon over the batter in the cupcake moulds.Don't forget to grease the moulds first. Fill it about 2/3rd of the way. Make sure you tap the pan on the counter so it gets rid of the air bubbles. 

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 160C or 320F or till the toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Pineapple cupcakes are ready! Now for the coconuty part. 

You can either grate the coconut or get shredded coconut. Place that on a griddle or a skillet to toast it lightly. 

In about 3-4 minutes, the coconut shred will be golden in colour and absolutely ready to top the cupcakes. 

For frosting you can use butter cream but I used whipping cream to keep things a little lighter. Since it is hot and humid in India at the moment, I used a big bowl, filled it with ice and placed a second bowl on top of it to whisk the cream. Whisk cream so that it forms soft peaks. This should take about 3-4 minutes. 

Add in the sifted sugar, 

Coconut flavouring and yellow food colouring. 

Whisk for another 5 minutes or so till the cream is whisked completely. 

Look at the gorgeous peaks. Perfection! 

To frost your cakes, take this whisked cream in a piping bag. Just mount the bag in a tall glass. I used a ziplock bag for the same. 

Add in the whipped cream to the bag. Snip off the end and your piping bag is ready to go! 

Take your cupcake and frost the top. Just start from the outer edge and keep going to the centre in a continuous circle. Don't worry if its not neat, we're going to cover it up anyway. 

Add the toasted coconut on top of the frosting. 

Next goes the dehydrated pineapple slices. 

A cherry makes a cake complete! We absolutely need a cherry on the cake. 

I added a cocktail umbrella to make it more fancy. 

Fancy Pina Colada cupcakes ready to be gobbled down! 

The texture of these was unbelievable! Totally melt-in-your-mouth. Ohhh how pretty do they look! Have a bite or two or maybe a couple of cupcakes. Indulge! 

P.S: These are the old ones. As delicious as they were, I can't believe I used to take pics with the flash on!