Amaretto Rum Cupcakes

I made these for my uncle's birthday since he's been mentioning I haven't given him a taste test yet!

This is a simple yellow cake that I added about 1/4 cup Capt Morgan to before baking and 1 1/2 teaspoon rum extract.

After I baked the cupcakes I soaked them with about 3 tablespoons of the rum.  The buttercream has about 1/4 cup DiSaronno in it.

I also created an amaretto syrup to top the cupcake but it was way too potent.  I think next time I will make the syrup and mix in the buttercream.

Syrup:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup amaretto

cook until sugar is dissolved

I also toasted some almonds and tossed them with butter and sugar and put them on top of the cupcake.

They were really really good!  Definitely would make again and could make non-alcoholic.

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

I had a bit of fun with this and realized I can make a whole lot of different ones (chocolate covered cherries and blueberries and raspberries OH MY!).  The cupcakes is a strawberry cheesecake with a whipped cream buttercream topped with a chocolate covered strawberry.  I am not happy nor fond of the whipped cream buttercream.  In Florida it is not a good idea as it melts fast.  It wasn't stiff enough for what I was looking for in presentation.  So will either go back to a regular meringue buttercream or just a fondant disk on top with the strawberry.

This is my first time piping chocolate like this, well at least in this manner.  I think the heart came out nicely!  I definitely want to play with piping chocolate some more.

I let my daughter decorate the bottom two.  LOL she didn't do badly with the small bag.  She calls the one in the lower right the "spaghetti" design.

The cupcake also has a graham cracker / almond crust which I have to say really tastes well together.  If it weren't for the fact I lost power, the crust would have held together better so needless to say there are no photos of the crust but I promise it was yummy.  Oh I also added a little bit of Disaronno to the pink chocolate....mmmm...I think I will be adding it to the milk chocolate next time too.  LOL!

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

Ok so I think these would have been better as jumbo cupcakes but they were really good nonetheless.  At least with the jumbo tins the entire pineapple circle would have fit whereas with the standards I had to break them up. 

I literally cooked the entire thing in a cupcake tin.  Most recipes have you make the cupcake first and then add the topping afterwards.  But I wanted to try it like a true pineapple upside down.  The recipe below is for standard (which gives you a small cake) and in parenthesis is the conversion if you want to make this a jumbo cupcake.  I'm sure the jumbo will yield more cake than the standards.  If I did these as minis I'd have to add the topping afterwards.  Oh, I also added some Amaretto to the cake and topping after it had cooled....yummy!

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

I'm going to give you the box version so you're not spending as much time on them as I did.

Ingredients:

1 box spice cake mix or vanilla cake mix (I used spice, was yummy)

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil (or applesauce)

4 eggs

1 sm can crushed pineapple

2 large can pineapple rings

1 jar maraschino cherries

1 cup shredded coconut

Brown Sugar

butter (for greasing the tin)

Amaretto (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the cake as instructed.  Add 1 can of crushed pineapples, along with the juice.  Mix on low for 10 seconds.

Mix about 1 cup brown sugar with melted butter (about 1/2 stick).  If mixture is watery, add more brown sugar.  You want it to be firm but not dry.  Wet but not watery.

Grease the cupcake tins - whether it be standard or jumbo.  Grease the inside and along the top.  Place 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar mix in the bottom of each standard cupcake tin (2 tblspn for jumbo tins).  Using a spoon, spread evenly along bottom of tin.  Sprinkle about 1 tspn of coconut on top of the brown sugar mix.  Take the pineapple and break it up to fit in the standard tins (can place a whole ring intact in the jumbo tins).  Take a maraschino cherry and cut in half, place one half in the middle of each pineapple "ring" (can put a whole cherry for the jumbo cupcakes).   Now fill the tins about 3/4 way with the cupcake filling for both standard and jumbo.

Place in oven and cook for about 15 minutes (18 - 20 for jumbo) or until toothpick inserted comes out clean of cake.  You might get some of the brown sugar topping but that's ok.  Allow cupcakes to cook in tins for about 5 minutes.  Take about 1 tspn of Amaretto and drizzle over each cake.  Afterwards use a flat cookie sheet and place on top of the cupcake tins, holding them together flip them over.  Give the cupcake tin a few good hits and they should slide out.  Take about 1/2 tspn of Amaretto (if you want) and drizzle over the top of each cake.

Enjoy!