Piña Colada Cupcakes

With the weather heating up, we’re nearly officially into Summer, which makes me crave all things tropical.

And what’s more tropical than a classic piña colada cocktail?

This recipe combines that sweet cocktail with fluffy cupcakes, and is made even easier by being semi-homemade (meaning it uses a jazzed up cake mix and even store-bought frosting!).

However, I’ve detailed down below how you can make your own frosting if you’d like.

What do I need to make this recipe?

• Eggs – this recipe was developed with large eggs, so I don’t recommend using eggs of a different size.
• Vanilla frosting – to make this recipe easy and beginner-friendly, I use store-bought frosting.
• Pineapple juice – this can be either the juice from a can, or drained from a can of pineapple. I typically have the small cans of pineapple juice on hand, so that’s what I use.
• Rum extract – this adds a hint of rum flavor, without adding alcohol.
• Cake mix – to make this recipe easy and beginner-friendly, I use store-bought cake mix. I like to use yellow cake mix.
• Crushed pineapple – not only does this enhance the pineapple flavor of the cupcakes, it adds a nice subtle texture and little bursts of tangy sweetness.
• Vegetable oil – if you don’t have vegetable oil, make sure you’re using a flavorless neutral oil.
• Vanilla extract – I highly recommend using a real vanilla extract as opposed to an imitation.
• Coconut extract – this adds the sweet coconut flavor that’s classic for a piña colada.
• Cherries – I prefer to use maraschino cherries, and like to pat them dry before adding them to the top of the frosting (so they don’t bleed).
• Coconut – adding some toasted shredded coconut adds great texture and more coconut flavor.

How to make piña colada cupcakes?

This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.

1. Make batter. You can use a hand mixer or whisk for this.
2. Fill liners. They should be about 2/3 of the way full.
3. Bake. Follow the box of cake mix’s directions on baking time.
4. Make frosting. Combine the frosting with coconut and rum extracts, then pipe onto cooled cupcakes.
5. Garnish and serve. Top cupcakes with cherries and toasted coconut if desired.

Variations of this recipe

• Cake mix – this recipe is super easy thanks to boxed cake mix (yellow cake). You can use any brand you’d like, you just want it to be about 15.25 oz in size. If you have a homemade yellow cake recipe you’d like to try, please know that I can’t guarantee it’ll work, as this recipe was developed (in terms of the amounts of liquid), with a cake mix in mind.
• Pineapple – since this recipe only uses 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple, you may be wondering what to do with the rest. It’ll freeze really well, or you could try something like Preacher Cake or Tropical Coconut Pineapple Rice!
• Extracts – everyone has their own tastes and preferences with regard to how strong of a coconut and rum flavor they’d prefer. I suggest starting with the amounts listed, and you can slowly increase from there if you’d like.
• Frosting – if you’d prefer not to use store-bought frosting, you can make a batch (I recommend 1.5x all the ingredients so you have enough frosting) of my Vanilla Bean Frosting. I’d also recommend cutting the vanilla bean paste back to 1 tsp, and still adding the 1 tsp coconut extract and 1/2 tsp rum extract to the frosting you’re making.

Making cupcakes ahead of time

Cupcakes are great to make ahead of time, because when stored properly, they can last a couple of days before frosting.

Although, for the best moist texture and fluffiness, I don’t usually like to make mine more than a day ahead of time.

Storage

Leftover, frosted cupcakes can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days, in an airtight container.

Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days, in an airtight container.

Unfrosted cupcakes can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

Freezing

To freeze unfrosted cupcakes, add cupcakes to a baking sheet and place the whole thing in the freezer for about 2 hours, or until hard.

Wrap frozen cupcakes individually in plastic wrap, then transfer to an airtight freezer-safe container, label it with the date, then freeze.

Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before frosting.