Hawaiian Lava Flow inspired Cupcakes

Michael and I were finally able to take our honeymoon on our 6th month anniversary. We had a romantic tropical getaway to Oahu, Hawaii. Needless to say we had a fantastic time and can't wait to go back. We stayed at the Sheration Waikiki, and one of our favorite drinks (other than Mai Tais, of course) were the Lava Flows.

 

I couldn't wait to get home and try to capture all that yummy-ness into a cupcake. This was also my first time making my own cupcake recipe.

Lava Flow Cupcakes

Since Lava Flows have a strong banana coconut smoothie flavor I started with a banana and coconut rum cake.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe bananas ( 2-3 bananas)

1/4 buttermilk

2 cups  all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3-4 tablespoon of Malibu coconut rum

To add that classic red lava flow....I added 1/3 cup fresh strawberry puree. This turned the batter pink, but in the end wasn't seen.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend strawberry in a small blender until pureed, set aside.
3. In a large bowl, blend butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs, vanilla, bananas and buttermilk.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; and add to banana mixture.
5. Mix in rum and strawberry puree.
6. Fill lined cupcake holders about 3/4 full and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I was really happy with result! It was delicious, and all intended flavors were present.

For the frosting I used  pineapple buttercream as inspiration:

1/2 butter
4 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoons drained crushed pineapple
1 tablespoon strawberry puree
1 tablespoon pineapple juice
1 tablespoon Malibu rum

Cream butter and gradually beat in sugar until well combined. Stir in crushed pineapple, pineapple juice and rum. Beat to blend thoroughly.

I was not happy with the result. One thing was that I was getting tired and forgot to cream the butter before adding the powdered sugar and it started getting clumpy. Very sweet, too. It was okay, but I am working on perfecting it. It did, however, have the frothy look just like the actual drink. I served them for my mom's birthday :) Nobody seemed to be disappointed!