Aloha, Hawaii

Photo courtesy of Miss Flamingo's iPhone (hipstamatic)

A few weeks back I was tasked with the challenge of coming up with some Hawaiian themed cupcakes.  So I sat down and had a little think. Volcanoes, surfing and pig roasts didn’t do much for flavour choices and my go to staple of some sort of lime / lemon / coconut combo seemed a bit same-old, same-old. 

So, as I sat with my coffee that Saturday morning I thought… what else could I offer up? Tropical flowers? Possibly with my new fandangled sugar paste skills…but not as a flavour option.  Tropical cocktails however? Now this was something I could sink my teeth into!

In the end I decided on the straightforward pina colada cupcake.   Good old pineapple, rum, and coconut milk – I could work with that.  Plus, what’s more Hawaiian than the pineapple?  The State even hosts the Dole Plantation, which claims to be  “Hawaii’s Complete Pineapple Experience”.  And yep, you can plan your private parties there too.  I've yet to visit Hawaii, but you betcha it's on my list of places to visit when I do.

So off I went, doing a little bit of research on the pina colada cupcake (there are surprisingly a large number of  recipes out there). In the end I decided on my own combination of pineapple juice, crushed pineapple, coconut milk, toasted coconut, and a healthy dose of white coconut rum to get that Hawaiian tropics feeling.

Taking the theme a step further (and in my opinion, one step too many) I piddled about making a shocking blue (colour of the ocean?) cream cheese frosting and 2-3 hours making some sugar paste tropical flowers.   However, there is something about frosting, even when ridiculously tasty and made with lovely organic butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla beans that when turned the colour of a Smurf is really off-putting.  

Apparently however, I'm the exception to the rule with this opinion - they were greedily snatched up by all of my lovely friends.  Who continued on throughout the afternoon with tongues in a matching shade of blue.