Pineapple cupcakes made with fresh cream and yogurt are decadently delicious. The thick yogurt lightens up a traditional favorite, enhancing the nutrition, and is absolutely lip smacking.
Mash the banana very well and warm it up in the microwave or stove top and set it aside.
In a deep mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the hot water at full speed until foamy.
Add sugar, vanilla and whisk it further for couple more minutes to achieve a fine foamy mixture that becomes more stable after addition of sugar. Also it will become pale in color and increase in volume.
Mix the baking powder into the flour.
Sift half of the flour into the egg mixture and fold it in carefully. Add rest of the flour and repeat.
With the help of a ice cream scoop, transfer the cake mixture into a muffin pan that has been lined with paper cups.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 15 to 20 minutes, until a tooth pick or cake tester inserted comes out clean.
Allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
FILLING
Take a deep, dry and cool mixing bowl. Add the Greek yogurt, cream, honey and vanilla and whip it up. Start at low speed and gradually increase it to full speed and whip the mixture until stiff.
Drain the crushed pineapple and squeeze out the juices as well as possible. Mix the drained pineapple into half of the whipped cream. Save the rest of the cream for icing.
DECORATION
Drain the pineapple slices very well. Pat dry with a paper towel if necessary.
Cut each pineapple slice into four. You may cut out couple of notches on the circular side of the quartered pineapple slices to create a winged appearance. These will be used for making the wings of the butterflies.
Snip off the green tops from the strawberries. Cut strawberries into halves. Take each strawberry half and slice it into approximately three long pieces, and these will be used for the center body of the butterfly.
Using a sharp paring knife shave off thick and long portions of the lime peel. Cut the shaved peel into thin long strips and these will be used for the antennae of the butterflies.
ASSEMBLE CUPCAKES
Carefully peel the paper off the bottom of the cupcakes. Cut each cupcake into two layers.
Spread the pineapple cream filling over the bottom layer of the cupcake. The filling should be a thick layer of about ½ inch. Place the top layer of cupcake over the filling and press it down gently.
Spread a thick layer of the plain cream evenly over top of the cupcakes.
Decorate with pineapple butterflies, by placing the quartered pineapple slices on either side of a strawberry wedge and sticking thin strips of lime peel as antennae.
Randomly place some mint leaves over the icing and sprinkle the crushed pistachios. Alternatively you may sprinkle the pistachios before placing the butterflies.
The cupcakes taste best after refrigerating overnight. This allows the juices and flavors to nicely meld together.
Video
Notes
Be sure to check out the preparation tips in the blog post above.
I prefer to use vanilla sugar for white whipped cream. I use Dr. Oetker brand.
The amount of hot water needed will differ with the size of eggs. More water for small eggs and less water for jumbo eggs.