The lovely people at All Things Cupcakes featured this pineapple hibiscus cupcake on their Weekly Roundup of Cupcakes. Woohoo! How exciting is that? 
I don’t know if its something to be proud of but I can eat a whole baby Bethonga by myself. Bethonga Pineapples are in season now which means that I have squirreled three Baby Bethongas away in my fridge which I will then attempt to eat by my greedy self. I refuse to eat the normal acidic, tongue burning pineapple, it gives me the same react as sour lollies, that of gagging and wanting to rip my tongue out. By the time that my husband reads this post, the Bethongas will be long gone. I can be ruthless this way.
I did put half an pineapple aside for the decorations which are an interesting way of making these gorgeous yellow “flowers”. The cake itself is easiness personified, no beaters or creaming, just stirring in one bowl. The fussy bit are the hibiscus flowers although this requires exacting knifework (being able to very thinly slice thin pieces of pineapple) and patience (waiting for it to dry in a low oven for over an hour). Neither of which I possess.
I made these pineapple hibiscus cakes for Tropfest, the outdoor film festival at the Domain in Sydney. I confess that I was too lazy to make a batch of the lemon cream cheese frosting, instead using some sour cream icing that I had leftover. The consequence of my laziness was that the sour cream icing was too runny to sufficiently hold the flowers properly. I just hate it when laziness isn’t rewarded…
Pineapple Hibiscus cupcakes
Pineapple carrot cake
- ½ cup (125ml) vegetable oil
- 3 eggs, beaten lightly
- 1 ½ cups (225g) self-raising flour
- ¾ cup (165g) caster sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups (440g) firmly packed coarsely grated carrot
- ¾ cup (160g) drained crushed pineapple (make sure to drain this well)
Pineapple flowers
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 12 wafer thin slices fresh pineapple (I used 3 slices per cupcakes for the effect that you see pictured. WW use two but I suggest that do cut some extra just in case)
Lemon cream cheese frosting
- 30g butter, softened
- 80g cream cheese, softened
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
- 1 ½cups (240g) icing sugar
Pineapple Carrot cake
1. Make Pineapple flowers
2. Preheat oven to moderate (180°c/160°c fan forced). Line a 6 hole texas or 12 hole standard muffin pan with paper cases
3. Combine oil, eggs, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl, and stir until combined. Stir in carrot and pineapple
4. Divide mixture among cases
5. Bake large cakes about 40 minutes, small cakes about 30 minutes (I found mine done closer to 20 minutes). Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool
6. Make lemon cream cheese frosting, spread on top of cakes. Decorate with pineapple flowers.
Pineapple Flowers
Preheat oven to very slow (120°c/100°c fan forced). Stir sugar and water together in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar has dissolved; boil 1 minute. Brush both sides of pineapple slices with sugar syrup. Place slices in a single layer on wire racks over oven trays. Dry pineapple in oven for about 1 hour. Immediately remove slices from rack, and carefully shape into flowers. Dry over an egg carton.
Lemon cream cheese frosting
Beat butter, cream cheese and rind in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
gradually beat in sifted icing sugar
Recipe from Australian Womens Weekly Cupcakes book
