Banana Pina Colada Cupcakes

It's spring break time! I'm far from the college days of getting a real spring break, but I am ready to be sipping some fru-fru drinks with umbrellas in them. Who's with me?!

How about fru-fru drinks in cupcake form? Will that do? They are mighty tasty!

What You Need (for the cupcakes)
1 ½ cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter (at room temperature)
1/4 cup coconut "cream" (see explanation below)
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 ½ tsp. Baking powder
¾ tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ c. coconut milk
1 c. mashed ripe bananas
1 sm. can crushed pineapple (drained)

What You Need (for the icing)
4 Egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) Unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1-2 Tbsp. Coconut Rum like Malibu
Special equipment:
Candy thermometer
Saucepan with about 1/2 inch water
Lemon juice or vinegar & paper towels 

Optional What You Need (for decoration)
Marachino cherries
Dried or "vaccuum fried" pineapple
Flaked coconut
Drink Umbrellas

To Make the Cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
First, you need to separate the "cream" of the coconut. I just read about this in a magazine article recently, and wasn't sure if it would work. It totally did. It was awesome!

So, you DO NOT SHAKE the can of coconut milk as it recommends on the can. Open the can and pour off the top liquid - it should be relatively translucent compared to the white of usual coconut milk. What you then have on the bottom of the can is the "cream" of the coconut.

For this recipe, I combined 1/4 cup of the coconut cream with 1/4 cup softened butter with the 1 1/2 cup of sugar. Mix well.

Add eggs, one at a time, and mix well.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, smash two bananas (about 1 cup), and add one can of drained crushed pineapple.
In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In yet another small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the remaining coconut milk (re-combine the liquid and the solids). Reserve 1/2 cup of this milk for the recipe. To that 1/2 cup, add 1 tsp. vanilla.

Add one-half of the flour mixture to the egg/butter mixture. Mix well.

Add banana/pineapple mixture. Mix well.
Add remaining flour. Mix well.
Add milk. Mix well.

Scoop about 1/4 cup of batter into cupcake liners. (I use a scoop, but you can also use a 1/4 cup measure.)

Bake at 350 for 13-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean.
Remove to cooling rack to cool.

For the mini cupcakes, I use a smaller scoop that equals about 1-2 tsp.
They bake for about 10-13 minutes at 350.

To Make the Icing:
While the cupcakes cool, make the icing. I will give you a short version of the icing recipe. Please click the link to see the whole swiss meringue buttercream tutorial.

Begin by wiping down all of your equipment with a paper towel dampened with vinegar or lemon juice. (To remove any grease. Grease is the enemy of meringue.)

Heat the egg whites and sugar over a pot of simmering water, whisking constantly until they reach 160-degrees on a candy thermometer. (This usually takes 5-15 minutes depending on how hot the water is, how cold the egg whites are when you start, etc.)

When the mixture reaches 160-degrees, remove the bowl from the heat, and whip until stiff peaks form. On my stand mixer, this takes me about 4 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment (if using a stand mixer). Add the butter and the Malibu rum, and mix on high until the icing is a smooth consistency. (It will get soupy first, don't freak out. Then it will come back together. It takes about another 4 minutes of mixing.)

To Decorate the Cupcakes:
Load your icing into icing bag bullets and/or fill a piping bag fitted with tip #1M.

Make a swirl on the top of each cupcake by holding the bag straight up from the surface, starting on the outside edge, and piping the swirl about halfway on top of the previous line of icing.

Click the link to see my complete tutorial on making a cupcake swirl.

Drain the marachino cherries, and dry them on a paper towel.
Add the dried pineapple slices and the cherries.

Add flaked coconut, if desired. (I'm weird. I like coconut flavor, but not flaked coconut.)

Then, you can always add the little umbrellas, if you're feeling festive.

For the minis, I was unsure about the cherries. I kind of felt like they were too big on there. But they add so much color.

What other fru-fru drinks do you like? Do you think we could make them in cupcake form?? Let me know, maybe I can give it a shot.

Click the Links Below to See:
Cupcake Swirl Tutorial
Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe
Other Cupcake Ideas

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