Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

May 23, 2017May 23, 2017 ~ Angela ~ Leave a comment

I think this may be my best cupcake yet…

Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes | Shake Bake and Party

I found this fabulous Pineapple Upside Down Cake Rum from Malibu a few weeks ago, and then over the weekend I decided I needed to bake something with it.

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I didn’t want to do a traditional style pineapple upside down cupcake. I LOVE the taste, but they are a sticky mess. 🙂 So I figured I’d stick the outsides back in, and top it off with a brown sugar buttercream.

Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes | Shake Bake and Party

Every now and then, I feel like I have a brief moment of foodie genius. This was definitely one of those moments. These are ABSOLUTELY delicious, and would be perfect for one of those upcoming summer gatherings. Luau party anyone??

Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes | Shake Bake and Party

Lately I have been noticing that a lot of the recipes on food blogs come with step by step pictures of the ENTIRE process. I have a few thoughts on this:

I don’t have time for all that. I want to bake, snap a few pics of my cupcakes and then sit on my couch and eat them.
I am pretty sure you know what it looks like to throw some eggs, oil and cake mix in a bowl and then mix it up.
If you’re anything like me, you might just want the damn recipe. So here you go:

Take your favorite yellow cake mix. Follow the directions on the box, except substitute the Pineapple Upside Down Cake Rum for the amount of water called for. If you want to make a booze-free version, you can sub pineapple juice for half of the amount of water called for. Bake the cupcakes according to the directions on your cake mix box.

After the cupcakes have completely cooled, core the centers. You can use a cupcake plunger, or take a sharp knife and cut out a cone shape from the middle of the cupcake (you don’t NEED to put these bits back on after you fill the cupcakes, so feel free to eat them as you go!). After your cupcakes have been cored, spoon a small amount of pineapple topping (you can find this with the ice cream toppings) into the center of each cupcake, and then insert a maraschino cherry into each hole.

After that, whip up a batch of this delicious Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting from Two Sisters Crafting and have some fun decorating your cupcakes! I rolled mine in yellow sanding sugar, and then used some Wilton Christmas tree sprinkles as my “pineapple leaves”.

I will post a picture of the most important step… Take a bite and enjoy!!!

Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes | Shake Bake and Party

Sundae Funday

June 17, 2013July 7, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 9 Comments

Here we are folks, Monday AGAIN. Another weekend has passed by all too quickly and another week looms long on the horizon. Right now you are probably saying to yourself, Monday mornings are bad enough without this chick bringing me down. What gives?

I give! I give you this!

That’s right – I am turning Mondays around! Okay, well maybe just this Monday but it’s a start, right?

One day a few weeks ago, while perusing Malibu Rum’s Facebook page, I discovered the existence of Malibu Sundae. Chocolate ice cream, coconut, rum… This sounded SO GOOD that I had to have it! I hit my usual liquor store which has a huge selection of pretty much everything. They did not have this.

Neither did any of the other liquor stores within a 15 mile radius of my house. I know this because I called them all.

“Hi! I was calling to find out if you carry Malibu Sundae?”

“Malibu Sunday?”

“Sundae like ice cream sundae.”

“Oh, no, we don’t have that.”

I finally found it on the website for a nearby liquor store. They didn’t have it in-store but I could special order it through their site.

And then it arrived. And it was good.

It’s delicious by itself, straight out of the bottle. It’s awesome mixed with Baileys Caramel and half & half. It’s AMAZING in my Tropical Sundae Cocktail!

Tropical Sundae Cocktail

2 oz Malibu Sundae
1 oz Creme de Banana
2 oz half & half
1 oz pineapple juice
1 banana cut into chunks
ice
chocolate syrup, 1 maraschino cherry, 1 pineapple chunk for garnish (optional)

Combine all ingredients except the garnish ingredients in a blender and blend. Swirl chocolate syrup inside the glass, pour and enjoy! Adding a hokey cocktail umbrella ups the cheer factor – especially helpful after another soul-crushing Monday at work.

Cheers!

Sangria for the Sneezy Soul

June 2, 2012March 11, 2014 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

Last weekend was perfect. Sunny weather, an extra day off from work, the unofficial start to summer… Instead of going “down the shore” as we say here in Jersey, I came down with a cold.

When I get sick, I go all out. I don’t spend a day or two feeling like crap and then bounce back. I get bring-in-the-CDC-and-maybe-a-voodoo-healer-for-good-measure sick. The highlight of every day this week has been bedtime, except for that one night there was a freaking giant spider running around on my bed. Unfortunately it was real, and not some Nyquil induced hallucination.

So now it’s another lovely Saturday and I STILL feel like garbage! In order to cheer myself up (and in hopes that some alcohol might kill of the super germs that have taken over my body) I decided to make myself some sangria.

At first I browsed some recipes online but a lot of them required ingredients that I didn’t have, nor did I have the energy to put on some respectable clothes and go to the store. So I decided to just wing it with stuff I had in the house.

Not only does it taste great, I just LOVE the colors!

I am now back in my Angela-shaped indentation on the couch with my tissues, sangria and a package of Twizzlers that my wonderful boyfriend picked up for me, watching Tough Love New Orleans. I feel better already. : )

Summer Green Sangria

Bottle of white wine (I used Smart Cookie Sauvignon Blanc)
20 fl oz lemon lime soda
6 fl oz pineapple juice
1/2 cup melon liqueur
Agave nectar to taste (if you want a little extra sweetness)
Blueberries, one orange, one kiwi

Combine wine, soda, pineapple juice and melon liqueur. If desired, add agave nectar to taste. Give it a good stir, then add blueberries, orange slices and sliced kiwi. Let sit in the fridge for a least an hour to let the flavors combine. Then…enjoy (preferably in a nice sunny spot on the porch)!

Peanut Rum? Yum!

May 7, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 1 Comment

Peanut Rum Creme. Sounds a little strange, no? This is what I thought when I saw a drink called Banana Nut Bay on the menu at Rum Bar in Philadelphia last year. However, other ingredients were Creme de Banana and cream of coconut and I figured something with those flavors could never be bad so I ordered it.

Oh Happy Day! This drink was soooo good! It reminded me of boozy Gerber Baby Bananas. (Yes, sometimes I buy a jar of baby bananas for a snack, so what?) Now, it was last year that I had this drink. I don’t know what made me think of it today but I checked out Rum Bar’s website and it appears that – for some bizarro reason – this tasty concotion is no longer on the menu. For a brief second I was broken hearted, thinking I would never again taste such deliciousness, but then I remembered Google.

And so, here is the recipe!

1 oz Brugal Anejo Rum
1/2 oz Creme de Banana
1/2 oz Castries Peanut Rum Creme
1/2 oz cream of coconut
3 oz pineapple juice

Shake and serve with ice. Thank Angela for introducing you to a taste of heaven…

But wait – there’s more!! A few months after Banana Nut Bay, I was having brunch at Max Brenner’s and what do I see on the menu but another drink made with Peanut Rum Creme! This drink was called Satisfaction Guaranteed, and it did not disappoint! Castries Peanut Rum Creme, Caramel Liqueur and milk chocolate. It was a damn good drink on its own…extra bonus points for presentation!

I would say Peanut Rum Creme would definitely make a a great addition to any home bar!

Piña Colada and Sweet Tea Vodka

April 15, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

Don’t worry, I’m not making Sweet Tea Piña Coladas. This post is a two-fer! First off – Piña Colada cupcakes!!

There was another birthday in the office last week. This time I went with Piña Colada cupcakes. I recalled an at-home jewelry demonstration where the birthday girl consumed quite a few pineapple Jell-o shots made with coconut rum, so I knew she’d love the flavor combo.

At first I considered incorporating some coconut rum into my cupcake batter, but all I had was a bottle of 90 Proof Parrot Bay. I’ve baked using a little bit of alcohol before (made cupcakes with some Caramel Bailey’s once) but for some reason the thought of sticking 90 proof booze in a hot oven filled my head with thoughts of cupcakes on fire so I decided to skip it.

Instead, I grabbed another boxed cake mix and in place of the water I used pineapple juice. I also folded in some crushed pineapple. I went with my basic buttercream recipe and put in a little coconut extract. One of my favorite parts of a Piña Colada is the little plastic sword skewered through a cherry and a chunk of pineapple, so I mirrored that on my cupcakes using a dried pineapple bit instead of fresh fruit.

I seem to recall an episode of Cupcake Wars where the baker got bashed for putting a maraschino cherry on top of her cupcakes as decoration but the judges were obviously being idiots that day. There’s a reason the phrase “cherry on top” exists!

The balance of pineapple and coconut was perfect, and I ended up helping myself to a second one of these before the work day was done.

In other news that actually does involve alcohol (time for all you underage kids to go back to looking up Justin Bieber or whatever it is you do these days)… A coworker was telling me about Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Vodka on Friday afternoon. I’ve heard of Sweet Tea vodka obviously, and I had seen this brand in the liquor stores but hadn’t tried it. She said that you can make a great boozy Arnold Palmer by mixing it with lemonade.

That night, I was out at a local bar/restaurant and what should be on the happy hour menu but a Jeremiah Weed Arnold Palmer for just $5? Yup! I had to try it and I’m glad I did! It came out in a mason jar type glass garnished with a lemon wedge and tasted dangerously just like iced tea lemonade. I’m not sure what the ratio of lemonade to sweet tea vodka was, so I can’t give you an exact recipe but I’m sure you won’t mind experimenting to figure it out on your own!

If I hadn’t been the chauffeur for the evening I would have doubled up on this drink the way I did on those Piña Colada cupcakes!

Pineapple Cupcakes

Ingredients:

White boxed cake mix and oil and eggs listed on box
8 oz can crushed pineapple
pineapple juice

Directions:

Prepare mix according to directions on box, subbing in pineapple juice for the amount of water called for. In my case, I needed one cup of water. I drained the juice from the crushed pineapples into a measuring cup and then used Dole pineapple juice to get the 1 cup needed. Once you have beaten the batter for the requisite two minutes, gently fold in the crushed pineapple and bake according to the directions on the box.

For the coconut buttercream, use the same basic recipe from my Cherry Lemonade cupcakes but instead of the grenadine use 1 teaspoon of coconut extract.