Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Pina Colada Easter Cupcakes

My Mom recently sent me an amazing cupcake recipe book called, 100 Best Cupcake Recipes. It has a ton of recipes that I can't wait to try. A few days ago I made a recipe called, Tropical Luau Cupcakes, which basically were all the flavors used in a Pina Colada. And since it's the Easter season, I decorated the top of the cupcakes accordingly.
For the cupcakes, you will need:
2 cans (8 oz. each) crushed pineapple in juice
1 package yellow cake mix
1 package (4-serving size) banana cream instant pudding
4 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg


  • Preheat oven to 350. Line 30 standard muffin cups with cupcake liners. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Set pineapple aside.
  • Beat cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, reserved pineapple juice, oil and nutmeg in a large bowl with electric mixer at low speed 1 minute or until blended. Beat at medium speed 1 to 2 minutes or until smooth. Fold in pineapple. Spoon batter into cupcake liners, about 2/3 full. (I usually use a 1/3 measurement cup to scoop the batter in, not filling it, just scooping with it.)
  • Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool completely.
For the frosting you will need:
1 cube of butter, softened
2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream
Powder sugar
About 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
About 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.
    The frosting was a little bit more experimental, so when making it, just make to your taste.
  • With an electric mixer, mix the butter, whipping cream, and about 1/4 cup powder sugar to start with. Keep adding powder sugar until it reaches the consistency you like.
  • Add the extracts as you go, as well, until you get the taste you like too.
  • I also added green food coloring so the frosting could help the roasted coconut to look like grass. See below.
For on top of the frosting I dyed half a bag of coconut green and then roasted it in the oven at 400 degrees, and mixing it every 5 minutes until it had a crunchy texture to it.

I originally planned on just putting Starburst jelly beans on top to look like Easter eggs. But then I found an image on-line of Tuxedo Peeps, and decided to try to make SVU Baseball Peeps. So I went and bought my peeps and semi-sweet chocolate chips, and dipped half of the peeps into melted chocolate.
Melted chocolate recipe:
  • 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Place the chocolate chips and oil in a heat-proof bowl and microwave it at 30 second intervals, stirring in between until you get an even consistency.

Then place them on parchment paper and put in the freezer to cool and harden.
After the chocolate had hardened, I pulled the peeps out and used a green icing pen to write SVU on the front of the peeps. I then place them in the freezer again to harden, which didn't really happen.

So a little bit later, I took them out individually and wrote the SVU Baseball team's jersey  numbers on the back and then placed them in the freezer on their sides so the frosting wouldn't smudge. 

Later, I put toothpicks on the bottom of the peeps and stuck the peeps in the frosted cupcakes. The green icing ended out melting, so I had to wipe the frosting off before I left for the game. I was very sad. Next time, I'll melt white chocolate, dye it green and pipe that onto the Peeps and let them freeze on both sides. 
I kept the Peeps out of the cupcakes and stuck them in slip-lock bags and into a cooler to keep the hard shell during the game. Once the game ended I stuck them back in the cupcakes and added the jelly beans on top, as well.
I still can't decide if I like the chocolate peeps, or the pina colada cupcakes the best!



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