Pineapple Easter Cupcakes

So my mom has recently become inspired to learn how to decorate cakes (psyched to have somebody to share this with!). In preparation, she bought a ton of different frosting tips and a ginormous amount of piping bags - Easter was the perfect excuse to try them out! (Although this post is super late, these cupcakes could be changed to fit any occasion!) For some reason, pineapple cupcakes made so much sense to us. We needed some fresh flavors to bring on the feeling of spring, especially since it was the first beautiful weekend of the season. Obviously they needed to be brightly colored and covered with excessive amounts of candy. 

First, I want to add that this recipe came from an awesome little cupcake book, 500 Cupcakes. It has TONS of recipes and gives little variations for each one, so you'll never run out of ideas. I especially like this one because it has vegan, lactose free and gluten free recipes that work for my friends with different diet needs!

These cakes turned out to be bright and delicious, while the cream cheese frosting was the perfect complement. Bonus: this cake would be a perfect pairing for tons of other frostings... piña colada cupcakes anyone?

Pineapple Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting 

Yield: 18 cupcakes Prep time: Bake time: 18-20 minutes

Ingredients

Pineapple Cupcakes (Recipe from 500 Cupcakes)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup drained crushed pineapple 

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (Recipe from 500 Cupcakes)

1 cup cream cheese, room temperature 

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

For the cupcakes...

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 cupcake tins with 18 liners. 

2. Combine all cupcake ingredients, except for the pineapple. Beat ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until combined, or for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the pineapple. 

3. Spoon batter into baking cups until they're about 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan then remove to finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the frosting...

1. Slowly beat cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl until creamy and soft using an electric mixer.

2. Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla until well combined. For these cupcakes, I divided the icing into two small bowls and added about 4 drops of neon food coloring to each. These cupcakes were frosted using a medium open star tip and a medium french tip. Decorate and enjoy! Side note: These cupcakes can be kept for up to 5 days. They should be refrigerated and tasted best after letting them sit out for about 20 minutes before serving.