I had a request for pina colada cupcakes and went right to
work experimenting with flavors and recipes to come up with something
spectacular. I started by adding coconut & pina colada drink mix to an old
fashioned pineapple upside down cake recipe. YUM! But the BIG STAR of the show
was the pina colada FROSTING and that’s the recipe I want to share with you
immediately.
It's SO delicious; I think I would scrap the cake &
just serve shots of this frosting! It is the perfect tropical delight for
those warm summer days by the pool cold winter evenings by the fire!
Yes, it’s the middle of November & I’m STILL in denial that summer is over.
One taste of this & I'm back to July! My recipe is alcohol free but you
could definitely add rum or rum extract to the recipe for the authentic pina
colada kick.
I used
THIS non-alcoholic Master of Mixes Pina Colada Mixer
& it’s so good. It’s basically lots of sugar, cream of coconut &
pineapple juice. It’s available at most grocery stores. If you prefer not to use it, you may substitute equal parts of pineapple juice and cream of coconut. Another unusual
frosting ingredient I used is
Jello brand Coconut Cream Instant Pudding mix,
just the dry powder, straight out of the box.
Pina Colada Frosting
click
here to print the recipe only
Yields: 3 cups frosting
1/3 cup dry Jello Coconut Cream Instant Pudding mix (a full
box has about 1 cup)
1/3 cup pina colada drink mix
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoon coconut extract or to taste (you may prefer 1 teaspoon)
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
½ cup salted butter
½ cup solid vegetable shortening
4 cups confectioners sugar
OPTIONAL: ¼ teaspoon rum extract OR 2 teaspoons light rum
1.
In a small bowl, add instant pudding mix, pina
colada mix, vanilla extract, coconut extract, pineapple juice & rum or rum
extract, if using. Whisk together until thick and smooth. Set aside.
2.
In a large separate bowl, cream butter and
shortening with electric mixer.
3.
Add pudding mixture to creamed butter mixture.
4.
Add confectioners sugar one cup at a time,
beating well on medium speed after each addition until smooth and fluffy. If
thinner frosting is desired, add additional pineapple juice.
This makes enough frosting for 24 cupcakes, decorated as shown. I garnished them
with toasted coconut*, fresh pineapple slices & well drained maraschino cherries.
*To toast coconut in the microwave, place 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut on a paper plate, cook on high with set microwave for one minute. Don't walk away. Watch it like crazy & pull it out several times and stir it up and put it back in until perfectly toasted. It will take less than 2 minutes.