Pineapple Cupcakes

Cupcakes always look deceptively simple, and like cake-making in general they can be very quick to make. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix them together, pour into a tin and stick it in the oven. But as usual with such things the devil is in the detail. I wouldn’t say I’m a regular baker by any means, preferring instead to make savoury, and when I first tried making cupcakes I was regularly disappointed, primarily because they always came out rather dry compared to the moist little delicacies I thought they should be. So I turned my attention to meeting that specification and these pineapple cupcakes I think fit the bill, but getting pineapple in was not only in the pursuit of moistness but was driven by a different experience.

In 2009 Ms Onion and I had our 25th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we went on a holiday to Lord Howe Island. Lord Howe is one of the most beautiful places on earth, especially if you’re into natural landscapes and native flora and fauna, particularly birds, as I am. Both these factors led to the island group and surrounding marine area being listed as a UNESCO world heritage property in 1982. The island is also relatively remote, lying 600km east of the Australian mainland out in the Pacific Ocean, but if you ever have an opportunity to go there I would highly recommend it. If the monthly community market is on at the local school while you’re there and there is a woman there selling pineapple cupcakes get some.

Cream together the butter and sugars. All the mixing steps in this recipe can be done with a mixer but my granddaughter was “helping” me.

When you add the flour and the fruit, be gentle with the mixing.

You can probably start to see where this is going. There was a market on while we were there that we went along to, and there was a cake stall. I don’t remember much else about either the market or the cake stall other than the cupcakes. I can’t even remember whether they were being sold as pineapple cupcakes or just generic cupcakes that we determined were pineapple upon tasting, but in the spirit of providing a bit of support to the community I bought two and we sat down nearby and ate them. They were just divine and I’ve never had anything like them before or since, having both a wonderful flavour and a perfect moist texture. Having had the first taste and then disposed of the rest at an unseemly pace I rather guiltily went back and bought two more, which we also devoured then and there. To this day I wish I had the presence of mind to have asked the lady if she would share her recipe.

Spoon the mixture into 12 cupcake cases and bake in the oven.

Ever since then, although admittedly fairly infrequently, I’ve been trying to reproduce those cakes, starting with various base recipes and tweaking them to see if I can get the desired result. Maybe my memory has made them better with time but I think I’ve come close with this variant, and at least one of our friends would agree. Our friend was having a birthday party and since the invite was ‘no gifts’ I took along a batch of these cupcakes for her. We went home at a respectable hour but as these things do it apparently turned into a rather big night. Our friend over-imbibed somewhat but must have had the presence of mind to recognise that she needed to eat something before going to bed, resulting in her waking up with one arm hanging out of the bed with a half-eaten cupcake in it! The remainder were reportedly very good.

Once they’re out of the oven let them cool for five minutes in the pan and the put them on a wire rack to cool completely. Prior to these I also made a different variety that can be seen in the background. Stay tuned for the recipe.

Pipe the icing mixture onto the cupcakes. My piping talent knows no bounds!

As with pretty much all cake baking, don’t beat the mixture too much once you’ve added the flour. To get that delicate texture just bring the ingredients together gently, or the gluten in the flour begins to develop and they get tough. Also experiment with the cooking time a bit to suit your particular oven so that they are still moist and don’t dry out too much. I really like cream cheese icing, which is what I’ve provided for here, but if you have a different favourite compatible with pineapple flavour go for it. The icing mixture should be very smooth and relatively soft making it ideal for piping. Disposable piping bags with a set of nozzles are very cheap so if you’re not a regular at cake icing get some of them, then pipe the icing onto the cakes with a star nozzle.

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Pineapple Cupcakes

Cooking: About 35 minutes
Serves: Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 200g soft butter or margarine
• 100g brown sugar
• 75g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (I prefer bean paste but vanilla extract is fine)
• 4 eggs
• 200g self-raising flour
• 200g crushed pineapple, drained

Cream cheese icing

• 60g soft butter or margarine
• 125g cream cheese (cold)
• 250g icing sugar

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C
• In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until pale and creamy, then add the vanilla, eggs and half the flour and mix well. Add the remaining flour and mix gently to combine.
• Gently fold the pineapple through the mixture
• Divide the mixture between 12 cupcake liners and place in the oven for 35 minutes until golden. They are cooked if a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
• Let the cakes cool for a few minutes in the tray, then remove them to a cake rack and allow to cool completely.
• For the icing, beat the butter in a bowl with a wooden spoon until soft and creamy, then add the cream cheese and cream together until combined and smooth.
• Add the icing sugar and mix together, again until well combined and smooth. Go gently with the mixing when you first add the icing sugar as it has a tendency to try and explode out of the bowl.
• Fit a piping bag with a nozzle, spoon in the icing mix and pipe onto the cupcakes in your favourite pattern.