Pineapple Flower Cupcakes

    Yesterday I spent the bulk of my energy on making some beautiful cupcakes. I love doing domestic things-especially if cake is involved-and I enjoy taking on a challenge from time to time. There was also a Relief Society garden party happening last night, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to give this particular little project a whirl.
   I got my project from Martha Stewart.  I think that Martha Stewart is amazing, not only in her own abilities, but also in her knack for collecting other talented people who come up with fantastic ideas. She's a super savvy businesswoman, and despite the 5-month prison stay, has come out on top and possibly stronger than ever. I used to subscribe to the Martha Stewart Living magazine, but after a year I realized that twelve issues of MSL had more ideas than I could tackle in 3-5 years, so I decided to wait until I had tried everything I could from those twelve issues before I got more. I love looking through her magazines at all of the beautiful things she has compiled, and I often get the urge to make some of those things for myself. It can be hard to choose because the things she and her colleagues create often require an expert level of sewing, baking, and papercrafting skills that I haven't yet attained. Some can also be very time-consuming and expensive, which make them restrictive in a different way.  So basically I have to choose carefully when I decide to tackle a Martha Stewart project. There's been one in particular that I've wanted to do for over a year now, and yesterday I finally tackled it: Pineapple Flower Cupcakes. In her book, Martha Stewart Cupcakes, they're called "Mother's Day Hummingbird Cupcakes", but since the only thing I used from that recipe was the pineapple flowers, I thought "I'll call 'em whatever I want-how about Pineapple Flower Cupcakes?"

   Anyway, the first thing I did was cut the rind off of the pineapple and slice it really thinly with the mandoline Jeff got me for my birthday last year. Then I baked them in the oven at 225 degrees for about 30 minutes on each side until they looked dry and a little brownish around the edges.

   After their time in the oven I put them in muffin pans to give them the flower shape that I wanted them to have.

    According to the directions, I was just supposed to let them sit in the muffin cups for a little while until they dried out completely. I left them drying on the counter for about an hour before I noticed that they weren't getting any drier; I then took them outside and set them on top of my car to get the sun involved. They ended up having to sun-dry for about 2 hours before they were able to hold their flower-y shape, and even then, there were still a few that didn't want to stay curved!

   After letting them sit for as long as I could, I took them out and stuck them in a small dish while I baked cupcakes in the muffin pan. Since I was already putting so much effort into the pineapple flowers, I didn't feel like going to the extra effort of making an untested type of cupcake or frosting, so I just stuck with my tried and true chocolate cupcake recipe (which is absolutely delicious, by the way-I'll give it to you at the end of this post) and a basic cream cheese frosting recipe. Also, since the pineapple flowers took so stinkin' long, I didn't get the cupcakes done and ready to go until long after the garden party started. But at least they ended up looking pretty nice! I even mixed some granulated sugar with some red food coloring to stick in the middle-just in case it wasn't obvious that they were supposed to be flowers.

  Anyway, here's what they looked like after I was done:

Part-way through the red sugar process.

   .....and I just realized that I didn't take a picture of all of them with their red sugar centers. Oh, Kimberly. Well, you still get the effect, right? I hope so.

   So I showed up 30 minutes late to the garden party, but everyone really appreciated how pretty the cupcakes looked, so I don't think anyone was upset. I got lots of nice compliments on them, and they were snatched up really quickly (I don't even know if everyone got one), so I feel like all in all it was a success. In the future, I don't think that I'd dry them with this method because it was so time-consuming. I'll probably borrow my friend Jenny's dehydrator (if that's cool, Jenny) and then form them into flowers. But-I'm glad I tried it out and that it was a success!

And the recipe I promised:

Chocolate Cupcakes (I cut the original recipe into thirds and made some slight alterations. It makes about 12-15 cupcakes)

1/4 c. butter (at room temperature)
2/3 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

2/3 c. flour
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1/3 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/6 tsp. salt

1/2 c. milk (I use almond milk and it works out really well)
aprox. 1/3 c. sour cream (I just spoon out a huge dollop and call it good)

1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2-In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. 
3-In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add in sugar, beating on medium speed until well combined. Add the egg and vanilla; beat well.
4-Alternately add flour mixture and milk to the sugar/egg mixture, beating on low speed until combined after each addition. Add in sour cream and beat until well combined. 
5-Spoon the batter into cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes.

I hope that if you try the cupcakes, you like them a lot! I've made tons of these cupcakes and small, round cakes for various birthdays. Everyone I've given it to has really liked it, so I think you will, too!
So what do you think? Did the pineapples look like flowers? What projects would be worth several hours of your time?