Friday, February 22, 2008

Cupcake Tropicana

My inaugural post and these are for my parents. My mom loves these and the pineapple in the cupcake batter gives a subtle sweetness and keeps them very moist. I had trouble getting them to brown evenly and even more trouble filling them with icing, they were so moist! The icing is a coconut buttercream. No piping today, I'm busy restocking my emergency cupcake supplies.

White on white on pale yellow isn't the most photogenic mix so I tried to colour some of the coconut but the wet colour wouldn't evenly colour the coconut. Suggestions welcome. The whole blog and cooking thing is a little low rent at the moment but I hope that will improve as I collect more equipment. I would definitely add dessicated coconut to the icing mix instead of sprinkling on top next time. The chewiness went well with the soft texture of the cupcake.

I've got rejigged peanut butter and banana sandwiches/cupcakes coming up next.

Tropicana cupcakes

You might want to bake these longer and see if it helps firm everything up but my oven is a little moody and I err on the side of caution.

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
small can pineapple chunks in natural juice (I use Aldi)
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder

Whiz up the pineapple chunks in a food processor. Throw all the juice in too. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the eggs in one at a time. Mix in the processed pineapple. Add sifted flour. Give it all a quick stir. Bake at 180 for 25 minutes.

Coconut Buttercream

I always use less sugar than all the recipies I read, but the texture is usually stiff enough to pipe and sweet so I figure that it's just an oddity of the humidity in my house.

1 cup butter
3 cup icing sugar
Coconut essence

Cream the butter then add sifted icing sugar slowly until it reaches the desired consistency. Add essence to taste.

Cut divots into the cupcake and slice the tips of the divots. Retain the tops. Fill the hollows of the cupcakes with icing and replace the tops. Cover with icing. Sprinkle dessicated coconut over the cupcakes. Feel free to use a heavy hand, the slight chewiness was quite nice with the cupcake.