It's Like I'm in Hawaii!

In my house, we have a borderline-creepy obsession with Psych, an awesome-sauce show

about a fake psychic, Shawn and his best friend/business partner, Gus (who we all know is the

real star). To try to soothe our pain over the lack of a new episode this week, I made these

cupcakes to get some pineapple goodness out of our weekend:Pineapple Macadamia Nut

Cupcakes with Momma's Spoonful Frosting!

These were thought of by my mom, who love-love-loves Hawaii and anything pineapple. I went for a more muffin-ish cupcake (I know, I know, the horror!) and they came out exactly the way I wanted them! Yay! The texture was nice and chewy, and the nuts added just the slightest crunch. These are a diabetic-friendly cupcake, as there is only 2 tablespoons in the entire recipe, but the frosting is what'll get you on the sugar overload! Anywho, here is the brand-spankin'-new recipe:

(Makes 12 regular cupcakes)

1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil

2 TBS granulated sugar(optional)

1 cup pureed pineapple

1/2 cup pineapple juice

2 tsp apple-cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

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1- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit; line a 12-cup cupcakes pan with liners.

2- Mix your wet ingredients in a small bowl.

3- Mix your dry ingredients in the mixer bowl. Add the liquid to the dry in two batches, and mix thoroughly. Gently beat in the macadamia-nuts.

4- Fill your cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5- Cool your cupcakes on a rack completely while you make your frosting!

Momma's Spoonful Frosting:

(A warning - this doesn't pipe well so spread,aq so just scoop it on.)

1/3 cup margarine(I used Earth Balance)

2/3 cup butter-flavored Crisco

1-1/3 cups confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 tsp soy-milk (optional)

3 TBS malted milk powder (I used Carnations original)

Dash coconut extract (optional, but that's what I did this time)

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1- Cream your margarine and shortening in a mixer.

2- Beat in the confectioners sugar, vanilla, and soy-milk.

3- Add in the malted milk powder(and coconut extract, if you're using it) and beat until the frosting is smooth and creamy.

4- Frost your cupcakes and enjoy!

This is the frosting that I use in my little fake vegan Twinkie-like cream canoes, and it is soooo good. It really sucks if you want to pipe it though....I usually just smear it on a cupcake right before I eat it, or I scoop some on top with a cookie scoop if I want it to look fancy-schmancy. Ha-ha! Okie-dokie then, I think I'm done with the blogging for today because my eyes hurt! Until next time, I hope you enjoy these!

Desperation!!

Okay, in our house we have no self control when it comes to tasty baked goodness.  So when we crave something, we have to have it.  This week, my mom was craving cherry pie, but we didn't have everything to make it.  Nor did my dad and I receive her text message telling us to pick some up for her when we were at the store.  So I had to remedy the situation as soon as I found out.  With the encouragement of my mom and her friend, Tori Sunshine, I whipped up a pie out of what we had.  

  I made a pie crust out of nowhere, since we didn't have everything to make my regular recipe.  I used a pinch of salt, 2-1/4 cups of all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup of Earth Balance, and some water, and whirled it up in the food processor.  I couldn't believe it, but it rolled out better than any pie crust I've ever made before(I had an incident with butter-flavored Crisco one time...).  We didn't have any of the Comstock cherry pie filling that my mom loves, with the unnaturally colored gel.  We did have a can of Oregon dark cherries in heavy syrup though, so I drained the cherries into a cup, and made a gel on the stove.  I used the leftover syrup, added about a 1/3 cup of sugar and 2-1/2 tablespoons of arrowroot powder, then cooked it until it thickened.  I folded in the cherries and set the pan aside.  I placed my bottom crust in a 9-inch glass pie plate and then added the cherry filling.  This was were I did something stupid.  There wasn't enough filling, so I added a jar of maraschino cherries that we had in the fridge.  I thought that they would be fine, and be like the cherries in the cherry pie filling. Boy, was I wrong. 

 Anyway, I topped it with the crust, but I ripped it a little bit on one side as I was pulling the parchment paper off.  I added some scraps of pie crust over it in an eight-pointed star shape and some leftover strusel topping that I had in the freezer.  I baked it in a 375 degree oven for twenty minutes with foil covering the edges.  I removed the foil and baked it for another 15 minutes.  I took it out of the oven, and then we descended on it like starving wolves (hehe).  It was pretty good, until my sister ran across a maraschino cherry.  It was kinda hard, and a little discolored...Ew.  But other than that horrible lapse of good judgement, it came out pretty good.