If you are wanting a tropical escape but can’t get away at the moment, this is the cupcake for you. Pineapple and coconut gives the cake a tropical flavour and an extra punch of pineapple is the pineapple curd in the centre of the cakes. To top it off is pineapple meringue buttercream topped with flakes of toasted coconut.
I can’t tell you how many times I sang ‘I like Pina Coladas’ as I was cooking these cupcakes. Well I actually sang about 4 lines of the song cause they are the only ones I know and unfortunately those 4 lines aren’t in a row so there was a lot of humming in between. Did you know that the actual name of the Pina Colada song is ‘Escape’? You might be a clever little cookie who did know that but I only discovered it about a year ago. I thought it was called ‘I like Pina Colada’.
- CAKE
- 350g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp bi-carbonate soda
- 165g white sugar
- 100g brown sugar
- 100g shredded coconut
- 125ml pineapple juice
- 350ml coconut cream
- 130g melted vegan margarine
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 flax eggs (30g golden flax meal mixed with ⅓ cup water)
- PINEAPPLE CURD
- 1½ cups pineapple juice
- 10g margarine
- 160g white sugar
- 30g cornflour
- ½ cup almond milk
- Yellow food colouring
- ICING
- 300g vegan margarine
- 500g icing sugar
- 30g freeze dried pineapple (blitzed into a fine powder)
- 25ml aqua faba (juice from a can of chickpeas)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Toasted coconut flakes
- PINEAPPLE CURD
- Add sugar and corn flour to a small saucepan on put over medium heat on the stove.
- Add juice, almond milk and margarine to saucepan and whisk until it thickens.
- Once it becomes a pudding like consistency, put into a plastic container. Put on the lid and refrigerate overnight. It will thicken further as it cools.
- CUPCAKES
- Pre-heat oven to 175C (347F).
- Add sifted flour, brown and sugar, shredded coconut and bi-carb into a large bowl and mix well.
- Add coconut cream, melted margarine, pineapple juice and vanilla into dry ingredients.
- Beat until just combined
- Add flax egg and mix until just combined
- Spoon into cupcake wrappers - an ice-cream scoop gives the perfect amount.
- Place on a flat tray (or cupcake tin if using paper wrapper instead of cardboard)
- Cook for 18-20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Transfer to a cooling rack.
- TOAST THE COCONUT FLAKES
- Place the coconut flakes on a flat tray and put into the oven after the cupcakes come out.
- Check after 5 minutes and remove from oven once they start to brown.
- ICING
- Add margarine to a mix master and mix until soft and whipped.
- Add fine freeze dried pineapple & vanilla mix until well combined.
- Add icing sugar in 3 batches and mix until well combined.
- Pour in aqua faba & mix for 3-5 minutes until fluffy.
- ICING THE CUPCAKES
- Once cupcakes & pineapple curd has cooled, cut a hole in the centre of each cupcake using either a knife or a cupcake corer. Don’t throw out the cake that you remove.
- Put the pineapple curd into a plastic piping bag (no nozzle needed). Cut a hole in the tip of the bag and fill each hole with curd. Put the cake you removed into the hole on top of the curd. You might need to remove some of the cake so the cake plug sits flat on the top of the cake.
- Add the icing to a large piping bag with a large star tip nozzle. Fill with icing and pipe a swirl on top of each cupcake. Sprinkle each cupcake with toasted coconut flakes.
BAKING TIPS
Flax Meal
My preference is for Golden flax meal. I feel like it works better in the cake batter but that could be my imagination. It definitely looks better in a light coloured cake because the brown flax meal can leave flecks of brown which you can see.
I buy golden flax seeds and grind them myself in my coffee grinder. Some flax meal that you buy isn’t fine enough. It takes a few seconds in an electric coffee grinder and the meal is nice and fine.
Cupcake Wrappers
I also prefer to use the more upright cupcake wrappers in a thin cardboard rather than the traditional wrappers. The reason is that the traditional wrappers can be very fickle about peeling back from the cooked cake. If you undercook slightly then do it. If you keep them in a sealed plastic container, they do it. It doesn’t always happen but with the wrappers than I now use, it never happens and that make me happy! The other great advantage of these wrappers is that you don’t have to use a special pan. Then just sit on a flat tray and won’t lose their shape.
ICE-CREAM SCOOP
This is the best and fastest way to get the perfect amount of cake batter in each cupcake wrapper. You need the old style scoop with the release handle. It makes baking cupcake so much faster.
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