Malibu Bay Breeze Cupcakes

This weekend I decided to turn the Malibu Bay Breeze drink into a cupcake!

Ingredients:
1 box Duncan Hines Pineapple Supreme cake mix
3 Eggs
1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup + 2 TbspsCranberry Juice
1/3 cup + 2 Tbsps Coconut Rum*
Red food coloring
3 cups confectioner's sugar
1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
1 Tbsp Pineapple Juice
Flaked coconut  for garnish

*For non-alcoholic cupcakes:
Replace coconut rum in the cupcake batter with ~2 tsp coconut extract and 1/3 cup water.
For the frosting replace the coconut rum with ~1 tsp coconut extract


Cake
 Preheat oven to 350F.  Place cupcake liners into two 12-cup cupcake pans.  Mix Cake Mix, eggs, vegetable oil, water, 1/3 cup coconut rum, and a little more than 1/2 cup Cranberry Juice until blended.  Beat for ~2 min on medium speed until smooth.  Split batter in half in two bowls, in one bowl add a few drops of red food coloring.

Pour one color batter into bottom of the cupcake liners to less than half full.  Then fill the cupcake liners with the other color batter until it is almost filled.   Bake for ~22 min, until you insert a toothpick and it comes out mostly clean. Completely cool cupcakes before frosting.

Frosting
Combine confectioner's sugar, unsalted butter, pineapple juice, 2 Tbsps cranberry juice and 2 Tbsps coconut rum in a medium bowl.  Beat until smooth.  Use a frosting knife to frost cooled cupcakes.  Sprinkle the flaked coconut on the edge of the frosted cupcakes.

For decoration cut colored straws so that they are ~1in tall and stick into each cupcake.  And for more color use drink umbrellas.

Enjoy these cupcakes as you celebrate the summer!