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...

Crazy in the Coconut for Pineapples!

We've had a bit of sunshine recently, but not much and its still blimmin' freezing! (despite the people I've seen round and about wearing flip flops tyring to convince people otherwise!) I'm urging spring to get sprung and there's loads of cute little green shoots popping up all around, from the daffodils and crocuses in Sheffield's beautiful Botanical Gardens to the Dragon Snaps starting to grow again in my own little garden.

The promise of warmer and sunnier weather has crept into my subconscious too and I seem to have suddenly gone crazy for all things pineapple!  I was out for Sunday lunch a couple of weeks ago and had the urge to order a pineapple juice and lemonade, never had it before just suddenly fancied some fizzy pineapple action.  It was beaut and I've had to stock up at home!  The next pineapple related desire came in the form of this pefect pineapple print sun dress from River Island -

I love it!  I'm thinking the next step in the pineapple obbsession must be cake related....Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake anyone?!

I'll leave you with this tune by the Avalanches from which the first part of this post title is taken