Piña Colada Cupcakes
What doesn’t say vacation more than a nice piña colada? There’s something about the combination of coconut and pineapple that really takes me away, I love that flavor. And so, why not have it as a dessert? I personally think it’s even more perfect because you’re actually eating it as a cake which is pure heaven.
When I first started making these cupcakes I used to make the cake with pineapple flavor and the buttercream with cream of coconut, I just thought that eating them together would be enough to get that piña colada taste, but I would always eat the buttercream first and then I would eat the cake ending up with two totally different flavors. Then I went online and saw a recipe that perfectly combines the two and they came out amazing.
The buttercream is what really makes these cupcakes. Mine usually turns out a little runny because I don’t like to make it with a ton of sugar, I really don’t know how people can eat buttercream that is soooo sweet, eeeck. On top of that, adding the pineapple juice and coconut cream makes it a bit liquity, so if you want it more firm, pile on the sugar. I also stopped adding rum a while back because I couldn’t taste the difference but if you really want to have it, knock yourself out. However you want to make them, these piña colada cupcakes rock!
¡Buen Provecho!
Piña Colada Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcake Batter
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ¾ cup white sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup cream of coconut
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk or buttermilk substitute
Buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 tbsp pineapple juice
- 2 tsp cream of coconut
- 1 tsp white rum (optional)
- 2 cups powdered sugar (or to taste)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl beat butter, sugar and cream of coconut until fluffy. Then, beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth.
- Add ⅓ of the flour mixture and beat until well blended. Then add ½ amount of buttermilk and mix again. Repeat process ending with ⅓ of the flour mixture. Make sure to scrape the sides or the bowl with a spatula to get rid of any dry lumps.
- Line a cupcake pan with liners. Fill them about ⅔ - ¾ of the way with the batter. Bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for about 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
- To make buttercream, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth, about 2-3 minutes at medium speed.
- Add pineapple juice, cream of coconut and rum (optional). Beat again for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add ½ amount of powdered sugar. Start mixing at low speed and increase to medium, beat for 2-3 minutes. Then, add the rest of the powdered sugar and beat until well blended. ** Add more sugar if you want your buttercream to be firmer.
- Fill a pastry bag with the tip of your choice with the butter cream and pipe it on top of each cupcake. Garnish with pineapple and cherries.
I was not very happy with the results and they dont look anything like the ones you made. Mine are very dense, like a bread like texture. I followed all directions, so i wonder what i did wrong.
Hi Nella, usually when a cake or cupcakes come out dense it's mainly because the batter was mixed for too long. This overdevelops the gluten in the flour, giving you a dense cake with a bread like texture.