If you like Piña Coladas

Sometimes when you look outside your window and all you see is grey skies and rain (which actually happens quite a lot where I live) and there is no way you want to celebrate autumn  or the beginning of the weekend now – you just have to remember that there are countries where summer is just around the corner. With blue skies, beaches and palm trees with coconuts. And pineapples on bushes. Did you know pineapples grow on bushes? I totally didn’t. I feel kind of guilty about not knowing where one of my favorite fruits comes from.
So back to summer memories, sipping Piña Coladas on white sandy beaches. Bring that memory back to your kitchen on rainy autumn day with these little treats!
Also, here is the perfect soundtrack for making these.

Ingredients

120g shredded coconut
220g pineapple, cut into chunks

225g caster  sugar               
115g butter
180g plain white flour                                          
½ tsp. baking powder (or soda)
3 large eggs                                     
100 ml of yoghurt
50 ml of cream
½ tsp. vanilla extract                                            
and a good splosh of white rum

Start with roasting sliced chunks of pineapple with some sugar sprinkled on them 15 minutes in a 175 degree oven. Afterward do the same with the shredded coconut for 5 minutes. Stay near and stir it once, because it scorches quickly. The roasting helps the pineapple to lose some of its wateriness, but makes it lusciously sweet, perfect for baking. And the toasted coconut gets all its nuttiness out in the open. Set aside and let cool.

Mix the butter (at room temperature), vanilla and sugar together until fluffy and smelling heavenly. Seriously, nothing smells better than this mixture. Then add the eggs (room temperature) one by one. Slowly stir in the flour and baking powder by turns with the yoghurt and cream and at last the splosh of rum. I know, you are probably thinking, again with alcohol? What can I say, I just love the taste of booze in my cakes. Finally fold in 2/3 of the coconut and all of the pineapple chunks.
Fill the mixture in a cupcake/muffin baking pan into little paper forms. I got 16 out of the dough. Sprinkle the rest of the coconut on and let bake for 25 minutes at a 175° C oven.
Weekend can start! So if you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain…