I love Pina Coladas and I love cupcakes, so combining the two seemed like an amazing idea - Moist pineapple cake filled with a coconut cream filling, topped with coconut-pina colada butter cream icing, and of course, each cupcake looks like your very own Pina Colada!

Step 1: Ingredients & Supplies

Ingredients:

Cake:
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons Pina Colada mix
2/3 cup crushed pineapple (do not drain)
1 1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
A pinch of cream of tarter

Coconut Cream:
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons shredded fancy un-sweetened coconut
1 tablespoon sugar

Coconut Pina Colada Butter Cream:
1 1/4 cups butter
2 1/2 cups icing sugar (more or less to taste)
5 tablespoons Pina Colada mix

Decorations:
Sweetened Shredded Coconut (to garnish)
Maraschino cherries
Canned Pineapple rings (or tid-bits)
Drink Umbrellas

Supplies:

Cupcake pan
Cupcake paper liners
3 mixing bowls
Electric mixer
Large spoon/spatula
Measuring cups
Piping tips and bags*
Wooden skewers

*I purchased my piping set which included 4 tips and 8 bags from a Dollar Store for $2.00.

Step 2: Cake

1) Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

1) Beat the butter and sugar until mixed and fluffy.

2) Separate the eggs. You can use an egg separator or simply separate them by carefully passing the egg back and forth between the cracked shells while letting the egg white spill into a separate dish.

3) Add the egg yolks, vanilla, coconut extract and pineapple to the butter and sugar and mix together well.

4) In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well with a spoon. Then, add a little at a time of this dry mixture to the wet mixture. Combine together gently.

5) Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar in a separate bowl until the eggs whites form soft peaks. Add egg whites gradually into the rest of the batter and fold in gently.

6) Divide the cupcake batter evenly into the cupcake pan. Bake for 25 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Remove from the oven let them cool. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and let them continue to cool completely.

Step 3: Coconut Cream Filling

This Coconut Cream Filling is for piping inside the cupcakes.

1) Pour the whipping cream into a bowl and beat until it becomes thick and fluffy (about 5 minutes).

2) Add the coconut and sugar and mix together. If you are using sweetened coconut you may not feel the need to add any sugar. Either way, there will be plenty of sugar later in the butter cream icing! Set in the fridge to keep chilled if you are not yet ready to fill the cupcakes.

3) Using a wooden skewer, poke a hole in the center of the cooked cupcakes, about 2/3 of the way in. Move the skewer around in a circle to dig a little "well" in the middle of the cupcake.

4) Spoon the Coconut Cream into a piping bag with a small narrow tip. Place the tip into the hole in the cupcake and gently squeeze the bag until the Coconut Cream fills up the hole in the cupcake and you can see that it is filled to the top.

Step 4: Pina Colada Butter Cream

1) Add the butter and half the icing sugar into a bowl and beat well until thick and creamy.

2) Add the rest of the icing sugar slowly in small batches and continue to mix until well blended. (You can add less or more icing sugar to your taste). Add the Pina Colada Mix and mix until well combined. Store in refridgerator if you are not yet ready to decorate your cupcakes.

Step 5: Decorating

To decorate the cupcakes I used the biggest "Open Star" tip in my piping set but feel free to use any tip you desire. You can also, of course, just use a knife and spread the icing smooth over the tops of the cupcakes. And they would still look and taste great!

To make what I have coined the "Swirly Star" pattern, start on the outermost edge of the cupcake and slowly squeeze, making a large swirl until you reach the center of the cupcake. Squeeze while pressing down firmly in the center of the cupcake and then slowly lift your piping tip away from the cupcake. It might take a bit of practice but you can always scrape it off the cupcake back into the piping bag and try again! I apologize for there being no pictures of the piping process but I needed both hands for piping.

Place a small slice of a pineapple ring on the edge of the cupcake. Poke the umbrella through a maraschino cherry. Gently press the umbrella with the cherry into the cupcake next to the pineapple slice. Sprinkle the cupcake with shredded coconut.

ENJOY YOUR TASTE OF TROPICAL CUPCAKE PARADISE!