skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I believe I first saw this recipe at BakeBakeBake. It sounded like such a delicious muffin and knew I would have to try it. Lo and behold, a couple days later our counter top was littered with some overripe bananas! Perfect! I made these muffins Monday evening and I found it incredibly funny that I woke up that morning to find a version of these muffins posted on Cathlin Cooks. I loooove her blog. She always has great recipes and pictures, and makes an effort to healthy-fy [I love making up my own words, don't I?] her baking.
I changed up this recipe to fit my own preferences, but the original can be found here.
Pina Colada Muffins
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract3/4 teaspoons rum
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup honey2 large eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoons baking soda3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple
shredded coconut [mine was sweetened]
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare muffin tins.
In a large bowl, beat together the applesauce, brown sugar, vanilla, and rum. In a separate bowl, combine mashed bananas, eggs, and honey. Add to the sugar mixture. Beat until thoroughly combined.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir into banana mixture, then add the pineapple.
Spoon the batter into muffin cups and top each muffin with coconut [yum!].
Bake muffins for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and cool in tins for a few minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.
These muffins are delicious! Absolutely delicious! They are so, so moist and flavorful. The whole wheat flour provides a different, heartier texture that I really do enjoy in this muffin. You can't even tell applesauce was used in place of the butter and I think it helps provide additional moisture to the muffin. If I could change anything about the recipe, I would perhaps add more pineapple and DEFINITELY add more coconut. I find it a little funny that I want to pile these up with coconut when maybe a year or so ago I would have screamed at the thought of coconut being in my food. Ahh, how things change.
The super-tiny font was getting to me, so I'm going to try something different this time around. So much for cohesion!
Anyway, I found the original recipe for these cupcakes over at Coconut & Lime a short while ago and
I've been aching to try them since. I'm a sucker for anything mango and these sounded like a really nice, light summer cupcake. I made some alterations to the recipe for personal tastes and other such reasons. My mom doesn't care for spicy things, so the chile was omitted. Also, I liked the idea of using pineapple with the mango, though I'm sure key lime would be really tasty. Finally, I went with the mini size to, again, make them more appealing to mom. She participates in a weight-loss "competition" of sorts at work and so I felt that mini cupcakes would be more approachable during this time.
Mango Cupcakes with Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Coconut & Lime
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour [only use 1 cup if using AP flour]
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature3/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1/4 cup mango nectar, at room temperature
2 teaspoons baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, at room temperature
Preheat oven to 350. Line or grease and flour the mini cupcake pan. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg, mix thoroughly. Add flour, baking powder, and salt to the butter mixture. Add the milk and mango nectar to the rest of the batter and beat until well combined. Fill each well 2/3 of the way full. Bake about 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted the center of a cupcake comes out mostly clean. Cool briefly in the pan, then remove cupcakes to wire racks to cool completely before frosting.
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons pineapple juice
optional food coloring
In a large bowl, beat together all ingredients until well combined. Spread on cupcakes.
I was worried that the cupcakes would stick to the pans, but a liberal spray of some Baker's Joy prevented that from happening and the little cakes popped right out after cooling. I also used more powdered sugar in the frosting so I could try some more piping. That probably wasn't the best idea and I made a pretty big mess while piping.
We all found the mango flavor to be very subtle. Maybe...too subtle? I could barely pick up on it and some people couldn't at all. In the future, I may try cutting down on the milk some and using more nectar, or perhaps adding fresh mango to the mix. As for the frosting...delicious! It's not too sweet and the pineapple juice provides a nice tang and some freshness to the cupcake. I would definitely try making these again, but with some changes to the cake and possibly a different frosting.
