A sprinkle cupcake adaptation of my Piña Colada Confetti Cake… With some optional flair.
Nathan’s 40th birthday Piña Colada Confetti Cake was a winner, sure. Still, good as it was, I was looking for any excuse to try to take it up a notch. Sprinkle cupcake, anyone? After his heavy AF birthday weekend, however, I didn’t exactly have a justifiable reason top of mind to be able to pursue delectable flavor experiments.
We had days’ worth of leftover cheesecake and confetti cake and party snacks and cream puffs, ahmahlawd. And I have a svelte figure to maintain, people!
But I was still inspired… Then, as luck would have it, our party-animal neighbors presented the perfect opportunity to test my ideas. We got invited to a seafood and crawfish boil across the street, and I wasn’t about to show up empty-handed. Not gonna let this serendipitous chance be wasted!
Bringing the Balance
I’ve come a long way from my no-nuance, little-flavor, Nieman Marcus Bar days. AKA “gooey butter cake”. It is sickeningly rich and sweet. Its chief ingredients are cream cheese and a metric ton of powdered sugar. Very southern, very sugary, very one note.
That’s all well and good on occasion. Since marrying Nathan, though, we’ve developed our palates to appreciate flavor over gratuitous blood sugar spikes. To add: Nathan has anosmia. This seriously affects his ability to pick up on more subtle flavor notes, like vanilla (when it’s absolutely overwhelmed by fat and confectioner’s sugar).
Personally, I can really get into some frosting from time to time. The homemade, coconut buttercream frosting I used on Nathan’s birthday cake and for Orson’s Dino-FOUR cake is delicious. Sweet, yes, but with judicious use of extracts, SALT, and cream of coconut, it offers far more than mere butter and sugar notes like most American buttercreams we’ve tried.
Still, I knew for a Piña Colada sprinkle cupcake where I wanted the pineapple to be the star, I needed to dial down the sweetness of that frosting. Behold, my coconut-mascarpone whipped cream! Mild, creamy mascarpone, cream of coconut, whipped cream, and a fraction of the powdered sugar…
Nathan picked up every note of coconut in the sprinkle cupcake version of his birthday cake. So, balance: check. Still, I wasn’t about to stop there when making improvements… I’m gonna give this sprinkle cupcake extra pizzazz!
Bringing the Booze
That’s right. This sprinkle cupcake recipe brings the Piña Colada to the party. Whereas my confetti cake was topped with a spiked Piña Colada gelée to resemble Caribbean-blue waters… My Piña Colada sprinkle cupcake comes lovingly adorned with fun, interactive, booze-filled, star-shaped pipettes!
I opted for two pipettes per cupcake. One with Island Getaway’s coconut rum. One with Deep Eddy’s pineapple vodka. Not enough to get sloshed, but enough to get a showstopping punch of flavor when injected into the cake. Squeezy-squeeze, if you please.
Or, you can make the mistake that Nathan did, and just squeeze the pipettes directly into your mouth… Psh. Speaking of squeezing things into mouths… Remember that guy, Brandon, I told you about? The guy that hates cake? Yeah. That guy. He squeezed a sprinkle cupcake into his mouth immediately. And then, another.
Valhalla, my soul can now rest. I finally bested the cake-hater with these recipes. Try them yourself, and you’ll understand why.
Bottoms up!
Tips for Sprinkle-Cupcake Success
Here’s just a couple last-minute notes to add that really make this sprinkle cupcake shine.
Adopted from my Piña Colada Confetti Cake recipe:
“I adapted Molly Yeh’s Sprinkle Cake recipe with decidedly ideal results, after some choice modifications. She bans naturally-colored sprinkles in this recipe. Bish, please. Challenge accepted.
My holy grail recommendation of plant-based colored sprinkles that hold up to baking heat while maintaining vibrancy: Supernatural Rainbow Crunchies! They also taste delicious, unlike artificially-dyed, waxy-tasting sprinkles.“
For my Piña Colada sprinkle cupcake recipe, I also opted to use coconut oil as opposed to vegetable oil to further complement and amplify the tropical vibes.
“I’ll also give a well-deserved shout out to a couple other ingredients I incorporated into this recipe:
McCormick’s Clear Imitation Vanilla
This really does keep your cake white and gives you all the nostalgic Funfetti-cake flavor notes without all of the sickening additives and preservatives. It tastes “cheap” in a good, intentional way when you’re vying for a very specific flavor. And it’s also a lot less expensive than the real thing.
Mauna Loa’s Premium Roasted Macadamia Nuts
Decadently-rich, lightly-salted… Who doesn’t love a good macadamia nut? Perfect for complementing the tropical vibes for which I was aiming, these were absolutely delicious paired with sweet, toasty coconut, coconut cookies, and sea salt.
Tate’s Bake Shop Coconut Crisp Cookies
Buttery, coconutty, crispy. These cookies are laudable. Especially when blitzed up with toasted coconut, macadamia nuts, sea salt, and coating this delicious Piña Colada sprinkle cupcake batch. Little insider tip here: you can make killer snack-wiches by spreading a little leftover pineapple curd in between two of these cookies. Mmm-mmm-mmm. Tropical treat yo’self.“
TL;DR?
So, the ingredients linked and listed above really can pump up the jam on your next sprinkle cupcake batch. However, the biggest takeaways here are to use dye-free sprinkles, coconut oil, and well-balanced libations that you can enjoy in and out of your sprinkle cupcake.
Enjoy responsibly.
Piña Colada Sprinkle Cupcakes
Equipment
- 1 Kitchenaid Stand Mixer with whisk and paddle attachments
- 1 Food Processor
- 2 Piping Bags fitted with an open star tip
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 2½ cups Cake Flour
- ¼ cup Corn Starch
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 2 sticks Unsalted Butter room temp
- 1½ cups Granulated Sugar
- 4 Large Egg Whites
- ¼ cup Coconut Oil melted
- 1 tbsp Clear Imitation Vanilla
- ½ tsp Almond Extract
- ¾ cup Whole Milk
- ½ cup Supernatural Rainbow Crunchie Sprinkles
Pineapple Curd
- 2 cups Pineapple Juice
- 2 tbsp Lime Juice
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar
- 1½ tbsp Corn Starch
- 6 Egg Yolks
- 6 tbsp Unsalted Butter cubed
Coconut-Mascarpone Whipped Cream
- 8 oz Mascarpone Cheese
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2 tbsp Cream of Coconut
- ½ tsp Coconut Extract
- 1 cup Confectioner's Sugar
- ¼ tsp Cream of Tartar
- ½ tsp Kosher Salt
Coconut-Crumble Coating
- 2 cups Sweetened Coconut Flakes
- 3 Tate's Coconut Crisp Cookies
- ½ cup Mauna Loa Dry-Roasted Macadamia Nuts Sea Salted
- ½ tsp Kosher Salt
(Optional) Boozy Flair
- ¼ cup Coconut Rum Island Getaway
- ¼ cup Pineapple Vodka Deep Eddy's
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and prep two muffin tins. I use reusable, silicone, muffin-tin liners like these.
- Sift together cake flour, corn starch, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. Gently whisk, then set aside.
- Cream together unsalted butter and granulated sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.
- With the mixer running, slowly add the egg whites, mixing after each one until incorporated. Add the coconut oil and extracts.
- Reduce speed on mixer to low. Then, alternate adding dry ingredients and whole milk, about ⅓ of each at a time. Mix until just barely combined.
- Gently fold in the Supernatural Rainbow Crunchies, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- Divide the batter evenly between muffin tins. I like to use a cookie-dough scoop. Bake until an internal temperature reads between 205-210℉ or once it passes the toothpick test, about 20 minutes.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in the tins for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
For the Curd
- Bring two cups of pineapple juice to a boil over medium-high heat. Allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes, until roughly 1 cup of concentrated pineapple juice is left.
- Mix lime juice, granulated sugar, corn starch, and egg yolks together in a medium saucepan. Whisk until smooth and even.
- While constantly whisking, slowly pour in the concentrated pineapple juice to avoid cooking the yolks. Once smooth, add the butter, a bit at a time, and whisk after each addition to ensure smooth incorporation.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking constantly.
- Once it begins to boil, reduce to medium heat. When the pineapple curd becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, allow it to cook for about 5 more minutes. Cook until internal temp check is 180-190℉.
- Remove from heat, then blend thoroughly with an immersion blender. Strain through a mesh sieve into a heat-proof bowl to ensure a velvety smooth curd. Cover bowl with cling wrap, and make sure it's touching the curd to prevent a skin from forming.
- Chill in the fridge until completely set and ready to use. Best to refrigerate overnight.
- Once ready to use, transfer to a piping bag with a med-large open-star piping tip.
For the Coconut-Mascarpone Whipped Cream
- Chill stand mixer mixing bowl and wire whisk attachment in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
- In chilled bowl, beat mascarpone on medium-high speed for about a minute. Reduce speed to low. Slowly stream in heavy whipping cream.
- Increase mixer speed to high and whisk until medium peaks form.
- Add coconut extract, cream of coconut, confectioner's sugar, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat on low speed until frosting resembles a lightly-fluffy, pipeable buttercream.
- Transfer coconut-mascarpone whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with a large, open-star tip.
For the Coconut-Crumble Coating
- Toast the sweetened coconut flakes on a cookie sheet in the oven, 350℉ for about 12 minutes. Stir every few minutes. Turn the oven off, leave the flakes in for 4-5 more minutes, until golden brown and crispy.
- Combine 1 cup of the toasted coconut flakes and about 3 coconut cookies together in a food processor, and pulse until sandy. Empty into a bowl with the remaining toasted coconut.
- Carefully blitz Macadamia Nuts with salt. Just a few pulses, or it'll start to turn into nut butter. Add to bowl and gently mix.
For Boozy Flair (Optional)
- Fill pipettes with coconut rum and pineapple vodka. One of each flavor for each adult cupcake.
For Cupcake Assembly
- Once cupcakes are completely cool (I chilled them in the fridge overnight in an airtight container), use a large, open-star tip to carefully core each cupcake. Make sure you don't go all the way through the cupcake. Ideally, the depth should be about 2/3 of the cupcake. Gently twist the tip into the center of the cupcake, then carefully remove the core.
- Fill the center of each cupcake with pineapple curd, slowly retracting the piping tip as it fills. Allow the pineapple curd to overfill slightly.
- Once each cupcake core is filled, pipe the coconut-mascarpone whipped cream on top of the cupcakes. If you don't have the neatest piping skills and would rather spread it on top, that's okay, too. It'll mostly be covered up!
- Once each cupcake is frosted, generously spoon the coconut-crumble mixture over the top of each one.
- For optional, boozy flair, add two pipettes to the top of each cupcake: one containing coconut rum and one with pineapple vodka.
- Serve, squeeze, and enjoy!
Notes
- I consider it a bonus having leftover curd and/or coconut crumble. I store leftover curd in one of our Rubbermaid Brilliance glass storage containers for a yogurt mix-in. I store the coconut crumble in one of our Stashers; it’s amazing in yogurt or as an ice cream topping!
- If you’re a stickler for dye-free, but really want to find a plant-based, colorful sprinkle that stands up to baking temperatures, Supernatural Rainbow Crunchies are the only way to go! Pricey, but well-worth the peace of mind and vibrant color pop!