{plenty of} pineapple

Today I am going to visit some friends that I haven't seen in months at their new apartment. They're going to BBQ hamburgers for lunch so I said I was going to bring something....as if I needed an *excuse* to bake!

I still don't know what went off in my head that gave me cooking/baking "fever" - but I'm loving it!!!

I wasn't sure what I wanted to bring with me but I do remember comments about a Pineapple Upside Down Cake I had made in the past......

I was going to make a Pineapple Upside Down Cake but have been on such a cupcake craze lately that I really wanted to make the cake into cupcakes instead. I found a blog with a recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes!! This is exactly what I was looking for....the recipe for the cake I usually use is a boxed mix, but this recipe was homemade!

These cupcakes were so easy to make and the only real difference between making the cake and the cupcakes is that in order to make the pineapple slices to fit in the cups you have to cut about 1/3 of the slice and make it a smaller ring. The rest of the process was the same:

first: spoon an even amount of the butter & brown sugar mixture amongst the 12 cups

second: put one pineapple slice (with 1/3 of each slice removed) on top of the mixture & place a maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple slice

third: when batter is made pour some into each cup until about 2/3 full 

When these little beauties came out of the oven I was super excited!

They are so CUTE

& they are delish

BUT.....I didn't stop there.....!

Recently I came across a recipe on the skinnytaste blog for Pineapple Bliss Cupcakes and they are the only other thing that keeps popping into my mind aside from anything pumpkin!

Since the weather is about to start cooling down soon (I hope) I wanted to make these now... since I will be the queen of pumpkin pretty soon these will not make the cut for a while if it doesn't happen now. I figure bringing two desserts wouldn't hurt anyone, and there won't be a bunch of extras sitting around our apartment tempting me. This recipe is a "skinny" one though which is a big plus!

These were probably, hands down, the simplest cupcakes I have EVER made!

To make the cake all you need is:

(dump both of them into a bowl & mix together...then fill cupcake pans!)

While the cupcakes were cooking I made the frosting:

(drain the can of crushed pineapple, mix with the cream cheese, and 3/4 cup of the marshmallow creme & mix...I didn't frost all of the cupcakes yet and put the frosting in the refrigerator. The recipe says that they recommend eating the cupcakes within a few hours of being frosted so I will do that before I leave.)

so tasty & refreshing

great guilt-free, "skinny" treat