Pineapple Orange Rum Raisin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Rum Icing

Happy Friday night! Here is Fred. He wanted to say hello today.

For breakfast this morning, I made some pancakes! These had:

• 1/2 cup of oats and oat bran combined
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 sliced banana
• 1/4 cup chocolate almond milk

I topped them with some peanut butter (homemade) and some greek yogurt. Very good!

I have been experimenting with tofu the past couple of days. Today I made a baked tofu sandwich for lunch. The tofu was marinated in cinnamon, ginger, and orange pineapple juice. The sandwich has the tofu, tomato, and cheese. It's on raisin Ezekiel bread. It was actually quite good.

For dinner tonight, I made sirloin burgers! They were amazing! I decided to buy some corn at the store yesterday. Wow, I forgot how much I adore corn on the cob. Absolutely amazing. Seriously, I have been missing out!

Very simple, but burgers are always one of my favorite things to make and eat.

I had a little accident with the fries today. Instead of turning the oven off, I pressed broil. I was finishing up the meal, and smelled something burning. I had almost burned the fries completely!! They were salvaged, though, and still edible. But it was a bit dissapointing, because they did not taste as good as usual. I guess having a nice coat of burnt will do that to potatoes.

I created a cupcake today!! They have rum soaked raisins, orange pineapple juice, and a brown butter rum icing. They came out amazing!!

Pineapple Orange Rum Raisin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Rum Icing

Cupcake Batter

Wet Ingredients

1 large egg separated. Whites beaten until peaks are stiff

½ stick unsalted butter softened

½ cup light brown sugar packed

2 tsp rum used in soaking raisins*

¼ cup orange pineapple juice

Dry Ingredients

1 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp sea salt

Mix-in

½ cup rum soaked raisins*

*For the rum soaked raisins, place ½ cup dark raisins in a small bowl. Cover the raisins in dark rum. Place in the microwave for 1 minute. Allow the raisins to sit on the counter, covered in plastic wrap overnight.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease and flour a muffin tin.

Cream together the egg yolk, butter, sugar, and rum.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Gradually, alternated between adding the orange pineapple juice and the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.

Fold in the egg whites.

Fold in the raisins.

Spoon into prepared muffin tin, filling the cups ¾ full.

Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tins, and then remove.

Icing

1 ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar

¼ stick unsalted butter

1 tsp rum from soaked raisins

2-3 tbsp orange pineapple juice

Directions:

Brown the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Allow to cool slightly.

Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, rum, and orange pineapple juice in a bowl and mix until desired consistency for spreading. If you want it thicker, add more sugar. If you want it thinner, add more juice.

Frost the cupcakes when they are completely cooled. Top with a few rum soaked raisins if desired.

Yields 6 cupcakes. Recipe is easily doubled.

These are so good! I need to experiment with cupcakes more often, because the possibilities are seriously endless. Too many combinations of flavors out there. What will be next? Mint and Bailey's? Basil and Strawberry? Dark chocolate almond? Who knows!

I hope you had a great night!