RECIPE || Pina Colada Cupcakes

Hello Lovelies, how has your week been? Another topsy turvy one with Covid wreaking havoc once again. We had our daughter’s 18th planned for today, but needed to cancel as most of her friends were coming from Sydney. As it turns out, we are enjoying glorious rain this weekend anyway, so in a word phew! Not the best weekend for a party as it turns out. 

I didn’t get much baking done this week. I did, however, make two batches of toasted coconut marshmallows. You haven’t lived till you have tasted homemade marshmallows. They are simply out of this world and not as difficult as you might think. I will definitely be posting them on the blog soon. Living with anti sugar children, I also made a double batch of refined sugar and gluten free choc chip peanut butter cookies which were devoured pretty quickly. 

Baking is such great therapy. I actually smashed out those cookies after yet another testy encounter with a household teenager. I’m not sure what it was exactly, but the extra adrenaline surely wielded some cookie magic in the kitchen! They were absolutely delicious. My best batch yet.

I was chatting with a friend this week and we were discussing various stresses that were tugging at us in the normal course of family life. I had to chuckle to myself as she casually mentioned that her distress drove her to make two jars of lemon curd and a batch of mini pavlovas which she has enjoyed eating every day since.  I can soo relate!! Ha! Does anyone else turn to baking when they are stressed? I have heard of people getting up in the middle of the night to clean the house, or  frantically scrubbing windows till they gleam when they are feeling under the pump, but sadly not me. I wish that was my reaction to stress. It would be way more practical and beneficial to the household. Unfortunately for me, whipping up a batch or two of cookies is a lot more enticing that scrubbing a toilet. 

Do you know it’s actually a thing? (no, not scrubbing a toilet, although yes, that is a thing too, or so I’m told). I read this book once by a lady who survived depression  literally by baking cakes. Saved By Cake was written by a successful, established author who was hit hard with depression. To get through the day she decided to bake a cake for a friend and it helped her so much that she baked another one, and then some cupcakes and cookies and then wrote a book about how baking helped her survive depression. Perhaps there is something in having a finished product or achieving a goal that boosts the feel good hormones? Who knows. But one thing for sure, baking is just SO much fun and as it so happens, is good for the soul too. 

Now, onto these cupcakes. There are a few steps to making them, but you will be rewarded with the most delicious, flavourful treats that will make you feel like you are sipping cocktails on the beach. (Not that I would ever want to do that. Give me a fireplace, books and tea any day!)

Let’s start with the cupcake. Rubbing lime zest into the sugar gives you get that fruity citrus flavour which sets the stage for the hero of the dessert, Malibu infused caramelised pineapple. Yes, it’s as good as it sounds. Boozy chunks of fresh pineapple sautéed to perfection in generous amounts of Malibu. As mentioned in an earlier post, I am not here to reinvent the wheel, so I use Donna Hay’s Lemon curd recipe for the curd on top. For these cupcakes I simply swapped limes for the lemons. You can add curd into the caramelised pineapple filling after It’s cooled if you want, but I piped some into the middle of  frosting swirls on top. 

Pina Colada Cupcakes

Delicious fruity lime coconut cupcake with malibu infused pineapple filling topped with lime swiss meringue buttercream and lime curd.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 1 tblsp vanilla bean paste
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarb soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 cups castor sugar
  • 1 lime zest
  • 1/2 cup toasted coconut

Instructions

  1. Pre heat oven to 180C

  2. Line two muffin trays with 18 cupcake papers

  3. In a medium bowl using a hand whisk, beat eggs and add oil, sour cream, vanilla and water. Whisk until well combined.

  4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, bicarb soda and baking powder

  5. Zest one lime and rub into sugar untill fragrant. Add to flour mix and whisk until well combined.

  6. Add toasted coconut.

  7. Carefully pour wet mix into dry mix and whisk together until well combined.

  8. Using a cookie scoop, fill each cupcake paper until 2/3 full. Bake in a moderate oven for 18 minutes or until brown on top and firm to touch. Cool on wire rack.

  9. When cool, use an apple corer to scoop the middle out of each cupcake. Fill with caramelised pinapple. Top with a swirl of swiss meringue buttercream and lime curd. ENJOY!

MALIBU INFUSED CARAMELISED PINEAPPLE

  1. Peel and dice one fresh pineapple (Remove core)

  2. Heat 2 tblsp butter in heavy base frypan. Low heat.

  3. Add pineapple and sprinkle with 2 tblsp castor sugar. Stir continually.

  4. Add dashes of Malibu and keep stirring. Add more malibu as the mixture needs more liquid. You will need about one cup.

  5. Simmer and stir for about 10 - 15 min. Just keep an eye on the mix and taste it as you go. Stop when it tastes amazing and still has some syruppy liquid. Store in a clean jar at room temp until needed in cupcakes. Keeps for a week.

LIME SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM

  1. Create a double boiler by putting 3cm water in the bottom of a medium heavy based saucepan.(The mixer bowl will go on top)

  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add 6 egg whites and 1 1/4 castor sugar. Hand whisk until combined.

  3. Place bowl onto saucepan as a double boiler.

  4. Use a hand whisk to mix together until combined. Leave to simmer until sugar is dissolved. Feel the mixture between your fingers (it won't be too hot) until there are no sugar grains.

  5. Meanwhile, chop 1 1/4 blocks butter (312g)

  6. When sugar is fully dissolved, put mixer bowl on stand and turn onto high. Beat for about 5 minutes until meringue is stiff.

  7. Turn mixer to low and add butter two cubes at a time. Mixture will look soupy and perhaps like scrambled eggs, but keep adding butter and mixing for another two minutes or so until it turns into pipable Swiss meringue buttercream.

  8. Add juice of one lime. Mix on low until combined.

  9. Pipe onto cupcakes. Do a swirl with a star tip and spoon lime curd in the centre.

Thanks again for spending some time with me today. If you make these scrummo cupcakes do let me know. I’d love to hear from you so leave a comment and say hello.

Till next week,

Love  Anna xx

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