Easy Pineapple Banana Easter Cupcakes

I just had to share this super easy recipe with you guys for the upcoming holiday.  The Mr's co-workers went b-a-n-a-n-a-s for them.  (Channeling my inner Gwen Stefani)  It ended up being a happy accident for the banana frosting.  I made the buttercream and then realized my frosting had that slight flavor de fridge to it.  I think a few curse words slipped out.  Then I remembered I had banana flavoring and it saved the day and actually made what would've been a good cupcake on it's own even better.

Here's what you'll need for 24 delectable celebration of spring cuppy cakes.

1 box of Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix
1 can of pineapple tidbits (in juice, not syrup)
3 eggs

For frosting:
1 stick butter, room temperature
2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp banana flavoring
Favorite food color (I used Wilton Kelly Green gel)

Garnish:
Cadbury Mini Chocolate Eggs
1/2 cup of shredded coconut, toasted until brown
Sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350.  Toast coconut for 4-7 minutes giving an occasional stir until they're light brown.  Mine were a little overly done but apparently no one complained while shoving them down their gullet.

In a big bowl or stand up mixer add the cake mix, the can of pineapple and 3 eggs.  Mix until well combined.  Batter will be fluffyish.  (Yes, I made a new word)

Using a medium sized ice cream scoop, scoop batter into lined or well greased muffin tins.

Bake for 18-19 minutes.

While the 2nd batch of cupcakes are baking, wash out the stand mixer bowl and make sure you finish it with cold water so hot water doesn't melt the butter.

Add butter and powdered sugar and mix until combined.  Add 1/2 tsp of banana flavoring, mix it well and taste it to see if it needs more or not.  Then add your food coloring and make it the desired color.  Keeping with a pastel color palette would probably work best for these.

Add about 1- 1 1/2 tbsp of frosting to the top of cooled cupcakes.

Add the toasted coconut around the edges of the cupcake and press it in so it stays on with half the batch.  Do sprinkles around the edges of the other half for people who don't like coconut.  Top with 3 mini Cadbury chocolate eggs.  I made these the night before and they were just fine the next morning.  The eggs soaked up a little of the butter but only the bottom so they didn't ruin the eggs or run in color.

They tasted light and fluffy and you could certainly use jelly beans for these too if you prefer!

Nutritional information is hard to calculate on this one since the garnishes of sprinkles and coconut aren't precise but 210 calories for sprinkle version and 225 calories for the coconut version is what I came up with when I ran it through the calculator.

What is usually on your Easter menu for dessert?

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