Island Cupcakes

One of Dave's ukulele groups celebrated their 17th anniversary last Saturday and they had a potluck - in fact they were so excited about having the potluck they decided to not even bother playing their ukes... they just ate instead hahaha. Gotta love it, that made me laugh - my kind of ukulele group!

I made a cross between my pina colada cupcakes and the coconut cream cupcakes that are still Dave's all time favorites. I've posted a different recipe in the past for pina colada cupcakes but that isn't how I've been doing them now - I've simplified by adding pre-made pina colada mix.

For the cake: I doctored a yellow cake mix by adding an additional egg, substituted pina colada mix for the water and replaced the oil with butter. Bake according to package directions. I made 12 large cupcakes and 24 mini ones (with enough batter left over to make a small 3" cake on the side).

For the filling: Stir together one small package of coconut cream pudding with 3/4 cup water and set aside. Whipping about 1/2 cup heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding and put in a piping bag fitted with a big open tip. Set aside until the cakes are baked and cooled completely.

For the frosting: Beat 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter until fluffy. Add 3.5-4 cups of powdered sugar (add small amounts at a time or the powdered sugar goes flying out of the bowl), a teaspoon of vanilla, pinch of salt, and 3 tablespoons of pina colada mix. Beat until fluffy and the right consistency to frost the cupcakes, add additional pina colada mix if needed.

To assemble: once the cakes are cooled - for the regular size cupcakes I cut a small circle out of the top and piped some of the filling into the hole, then replace the circle of cake that was removed. You want enough filling so it'll be obvious that it's there but not so much that you end up creating a volcano effect with filling bursting out the cupcake. For the mini cupcakes I inserted the frosting tip right into the top of the cake and squeezed some filling right into the cake without making a little hole first. Once you have them all filled, frost with the pina colada buttercream frosting - sometimes I pipe it on with a decorative tip but this time I just frosted them with a pastry knife and added sprinkles and island-y little paper umbrellas.

oops, this is what happens if you pipe in too much filling!

Check out yesterday's post about transporting a single cupcake, if there are any leftover that is!


3.13.18: shamrock sun catcher
3.13.17: shamrock butterflies and paper garland (why did I post two that day? hmmm...)
3.13.16: crock pot corned beef (yep, I'll be doing it this way next Sunday!)

Happy moment ~ grocery cashier gave me a free bag instead of making me pay for it - he said, and I quote, "you don't have to buy one - you're very pleasant and I'm going to reward you" LOL!