Tiki Beach Cupcakes

Little Chef is always asking to try new things. On Saturday, he made up a smoothie with apples, chocolate syrup, milk, and a blueberry muffin!! It was...ummm...well...at least he liked it!

Anyway, last week Mr. Picky and Little Chef had beach day in the school cafeteria, and they had Tiki Beach Cupcakes for dessert. Little Chef wanted to re-create them, but all he told me was that they had orange and yellow frosting on cooked pancake batter. Uh-huh. So, I combined three different recipes and came up with these. They're so so yummy!

Tiki Beach Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups butter, softened
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add flour; beat just until blended. Stir in extracts. Pour into paper lined muffin tins. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Yield: 32 cupcakes.


Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
4-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
5 to 6 tablespoons 2% milk
pinch of salt

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar, vanilla, salt and enough milk to achieve desired consistency.
Yield: About 3 cups.

Easy Lemon Buttercream Frosting: Prepare as directed above, except use 5-6 tablespoons lemon juice instead of the milk and 1 teaspoon grated peel. Yield: about 3 cups.

Easy Orange Buttercream Frosting: Prepare as directed above, except use 5-6 tablespoons orange juice instead of the milk and add 1 teaspoon grated orange peel. Yield: about 3 cups.


I mixed up a batch of Buttercream Frosting and divided it into two bowls. I halved the recipe for Lemon frosting in one bowl and added a few drops of yellow food coloring. I halved the recipe for Orange frosting in the other bowl and added a few drops of orange food coloring. Then I combined both of the bowls and stirred it twice so it wasn't completely mixed and looked like a bowl of orangey-yellowey-swirley-goodness. I used my big star tip and piped the frosting on top of the cupcakes. It was divine! I won a taste-off with these bad boys! I also think strawberry frosting would be yummy with the lemon.