I have things that I really need to be doing this week but I’m putting it all off, I just have no motivation. Yesterday I needed to go buy my uniforms and books but I made cupcakes instead and today I had planned on cleaning out my closet but I’m washing some Shetland fleece. I know that I could do both, wash the fleece while I’m cleaning my closet but I don’t want to.

Anyway I made some really yummy cupcakes yesterday so if you would like to make them, too, here’s how.

This little jar is the secret to these cupcakes. I filled them with this coconut crème curd and it is so good, it’s all creamy and smooth and there are these tiny bits of coconut, yum. I found it at the grocery store with the jelly.

Here’s my finished cupcakes. I didn’t even try to frost them neatly, this frosting didn’t want to stick to the tops of the cupcakes so I just kind of piled it on and smoothed it out a little. They still taste good.

Pineapple Cupcakes with Coconut Curd Filling and Vanilla Frosting with Toasted Coconut

First, make the cupcakes. These are adapted from Who You Callin’ Cupcake? by Michelle Garcia

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 2/3 (that’s one and two thirds, it looks weird to me) cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk, divided
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• About a cup of pineapple tidbits or you could used crushed pineapple. Next time I make these, I’m going to use a little more pineapple.

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 350° and line a cupcake pan with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the butter and mix (I did this by hand, you can use a mixer) until the butter is completely mixed in and there is a mealy consistency. It’s going to be dry, like sand.
4. Add 1/4 cup of the milk and mix slowly to make a dough-like paste. This should break up any lumps that are forming.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs with the rest of the milk and the vanilla, and slowly pour this mixture into the batter. Mix for about ten seconds with a mixer or by hand until combined.
6. Fold in the pineapple.
7. Fill the cups in the cupcake pan about 3/4 full and bake for ten to fifteen minutes. The cupcake tops will slightly golden.
8. Let them cool.
9. This will make 12 cupcakes

Make the Frosting:

• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp.
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar)
• 2 Tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

1. Mix everything together until light and fluffy, easy.
2. I don’t know where I got this recipe, I found it on a post-it in a drawer in my kitchen. Yay, organization!

Toast the coconut:

1. Preheat your oven to 400°.
2. Spread out a handful of coconut and let it cook for about five minutes, then stir and let it cook for five more minutes. Repeat as necessary until your coconut is toasted.

Put it all together:

1. Fill the cupcakes with the coconut curd using whatever method works for you. I poked a hole in the top of my cupcakes with a spoon handle and used a Ziplock bag to pipe some of the coconut curd into the middle of the cupcakes. If you have a piping bag use that.
2. Plop some frosting on the tops of the cupcakes.
3. Top with toasted coconut.
4. Eat the extra toasted coconut because you made way too much. That could just be me, though.

And that is it. The coconut curd needs to be refrigerated so I would keep these cupcakes in the refrigerator, not that they’re going to last very long.