Totally Tropical

Yum yum my obbsession with pineapple is still going strong and I've discovered some delicious pineapple desserts for summer.  Del Monte do an ice lolly made from pure pineapple juice.  My word they are absolutely scrumptious and so refreshing!  According to the packaging one lolly counts as one of your "5 a Day" too, bonus! 

I love cake and one of my favourite pass times is baking and experimenting with different flavours.  I've been wanting to do some kind of pineapple cake for a while now so I bought a fresh pineapple this week and got in the kitchen.  I decided to do a variation on the traditional cupcake.  I wasn't sure how much of a flavour the fresh pineapple alone would give the sponge so I decided to use pineapple yogurt as well. 

So, after a bit of thought and Googling for inspiration, I decided to take my basic cupcake recipe but replace half the butter with a quarter pineapple yogurt, also leaving the milk out (there's enough dairy already).  Once I mixed everything together I crushed up the pineapple and folded it into the mixture. For the icing I used more of the yogurt just mixed with icing sugar. 

I really wasn't sure how they would turn out but they were delicious!  Really light and summery with a zingy kick, yum! 

These were only the first trial so they need prettying up a bit (yellow food colouring, jelly pineapple sweets maybe?) but the little brollies will definitley be staying!  I'll be making these again soon, look out for them on the Cakes by Crumb stall at the next Lickity Split event...