Piña Colada Cupcakes

It was National Piña Colada Day on the 10th. Admittedly, I rarely want a a fruity drink as I'm more of a brown liquor person, but I LOVE pineapples and coconut. To commemorate this very important day, I decided to make a truly boozy treat this weekend as I had been slacking lately in that department. That and I attempted to celebrate with a friend on the actual day, which resulted in us having to resort to going to Ruby Tuesday's because normal bars apparently are unequipped to make piña coladas (but that's neither here nor there). Anyway, I attempted to create a cupcake that captured the tropical goodness of this drink during the Bastille Day celebration, which consisted of me pregaming while I baked and resulted in FOUR permutations of a piña colada cupcake (we're past questioning my sobriety at this point aren't we?).


Total time: 1 hour, includes letting cupcakes cool and frosting.


VERDICT: I'm not totally thrilled with the results of this particular experiment. The creamy coconut part of the piña colada didn't shine as much as I would have liked, but my last minute decision to incorporate pineapple chunks into the batter worked out. If I had to do it again, I'd try using coconut cream and maybe a pineapple liquor or jam to give it some extra oomph. Overall, it was a good cake. It was fruity and boozy, but I don't think it really captured the spirit of the cocktail as well as it could have.  Also, I should have let the frosting set in the fridge before tweaking it and frosting the cakes. The alcohol REALLY comes through after chilling the frosting, though not in an unpleasant way.

Left: coconut cream cheese frosting. Right: pineapple buttercream frosting.

Piña Colada Cupcakes

adapted from "Blue Hawaii Upside Down Cupcakes" and "Piña Colada Cake" from Boozy Cakes, yields 1 dozen cupcakes

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup pineapple juice 

1/4 cup coconut rum

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup finely chopped pineapple (I used canned)

1. Preheat oven 350F. Line cupcake tin with liners.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Stir and set aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar together, make sure there are no lumps of butter or sugar.

4. Beat in eggs, one at a time, to butter mixture. Add vanilla, pineapple juice, and coconut rum.

5. Add flour mixture to batter, 1/2 cup at a time. Alternate with chopped pineapple. Mix well.

6. Fill cupcake tins 3/4 with batter and bake for 20-25 minutes or until just set. Cool before frosting with either pineapple buttercream or coconut rum cream cheese frosting.

Pineapple Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup pineapple juice

3-4 tablespoons rum (I used coconut rum)

1. Soften butter and sift powdered sugar to remove clumps.

2. Combine rum and juice.

3. Add powdered sugar to butter, 1 cup at a time. Alternate with juice and rum in small batches. You may need more or less juice to get your desired consistency.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8oz) package cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

3-4 tablespoons coconut rum

1. Soften cream cheese and sift powdered sugar to remove clumps.

2. Add powdered sugar to butter, 1 cup at a time. Alternate with rum in small batches. You may need more or less powdered sugar/rum to get your desired consistency/booziness.

The original inspiration. Yes, that is my dress.