Chocolate Pineapple Cupcakes

I recently made some cupcakes for a work colleagues Birthday. We'd had some lolly banana's given to us at work, and had a discussion on good they would taste in a chocolate cupcake... I set out to make them, but sadly after searching two supermarkets I could not find a single pack of lolly bananas! So instead I bought a pack of Pineapple Lumps, apparently a NZ candy, and used them instead. They tasted great!!

I used the same chocolate cupcake recipe as I did for the previous posts Choc Chip cupcakes, except this time I added chopped up Pineapple Lumps into the batter. I loved how as they cooked the lumps bubbled and oozed, and made a 'caramel like' texture in some parts of the cupcakes! I frosted the cupcakes with yellow cream cheese frosting with a tiny dash of coconut essence in it, then topped the cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles, al la NZ Cupcake Queen does with her 'Perky Nana Cupcakes'.

nom nom nom

Chocolate Pineapple Cupcakes - Recipe adapted from Women's Weekly Cupcake Cookbook
Makes 15 Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cup (225g) self-raising flour
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
185g softened butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup (125mls) milk
2/3 cup of Pineapple Lumps cut into small cubes

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/ 160C fan forced. Line holes of muffin pans with cupcake liners.
2. Sift dry ingredients into large bowl, add remaining ingredients, except the lump cubes; beat with electric mixer on low until speed until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium; beat until mixture is smooth and has changed to paler colour.
3. Now add the Pineapple lump cubes, gently fold through the batter.
4. Drop 1/4 cup of mixture into cases. Bake for about 20 mins. Stand cakes for 5 minutes before turning onto rack to cool.
5. Frost as desired. Enjoy!

I have had several people ask me for tips with using cream cheese frosting, honestly, my number one tip is to keep the cream cheese in the fridge right up until you use it! It tends to hold its shape much better this way. The only other tip I can give is test the consistency of the frosting in the bowl by using a spoon and seeing if it will hold a peak first, if it wont hold in its shape there, it ain't gunna hold its shape coming out the piping bag! If it is looking too runny, you can either add more icing sugar, or you can give it some time in the fridge then come back to it later. Hope that is somewhat helpful!

Here is the photo I promised of the beautiful things Chelsea Ann of Itty Bitty Birdy sent me! Isn't she the most amazing crafter/artist!? I love the beautifully hand crafted 'Cupcake Queen' wreath she made me, and the yo-yo headband is SO sweet!, it will look so good with my wigs.
I also adore her incredible illustrative skills, she remembered which prints I loved most of hers from her print shop, and added them to the package! I cannot wait to find frames fitting for these beauties, and will proudly hang them in my future dream studio/craft room. I am so lucky to have met such a beautiful, sweet, kind and generous girl. This swap has really reaffirmed my love of the blogging world, I am so lucky to be connected with such wonderful people!

I am going to finish up by showing off pictures of the tote bag I made for Chelsea Ann in return. I hand embroidered the felt centre of the bag, using a free vintage embroidery pattern on Flickr as a guide. I so loved the colour combination of yellow, orange, red and pink.

Swing Girl Tote Bag


Yo-yo necklace

Felt decorated Compact Mirror

Hopefully one day soon I will be able to open my dream Etsy store and my bags and accessories will be available for you all to buy!