Pina Colada Cupcake with Pineapple Flowers

Pina Colada Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a staff barbeque and they were a huge hit! The inspiration came from pinterest. I saw tons of posts with cocktail flavoured cupcakes and I thought - hey I might be able to do that!

 

I had a bottle of spiced rum I had won in a raffle prize at a stag and doe and couldn't think of a better excuse to crack it open.

 

For the cakes, I used the recipe found here: http://www.restlesschipotle.com/2011/07/pina-colada-cupcake-recipe/

 

I had some trouble finding the creamed coconut called for in the recipe, and ended up buying a pouch of powder that you add water to to create your own creamed coconut. The result was a watery substance I was highly skeptical of - it resembled nothing like I would expect something with the name 'cream' in the name to look like. HOWEVER, the cupcakes turned out great, they were moist and flavorful, although a little lighter on the coconut flavour than I would have liked. I may try using malibu rum next time to punch up the coconut flavour.

 

The cream cheese frosting was a nice compliment to the cupcake.

 

 

Pineapple Flowers

I stumbled across these beautiful flowers on pinterest also, and thought they didn't look too complicated. I followed the instructions by Martha Stewart: http://www.marthastewart.com/281566/dried-pineapple-flowers

 

I used silicone baking sheets, which kept the edges brown but not too crispy and burnt looking. I used a muffin tin instead of an egg carton to dry the flowers in over night because I wanted a wider flower. When they came out of the oven, I was worried. They were still sticky and wet, and didn't seem as pretty as the ones Martha made. I stuck with it, though, and let them dry overnight and I was pleasantly surprised that they worked out. They looked beautiful on the pina colada cupcakes and people still ask about them months later.