Skinny Hummingbird Cupcakes

For the pineapple flowers:
Preheat oven to 225°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Cut the top, bottom, and outer rind off the pineapple. With a pointed knife, cut out seeds. Use a very sharp knife to slice the pineapple, as thin as you can. Lay the slices on the baking sheet and bake 30 minutes. Flip the slices and continue baking another 30 minutes, or until slices look dried out. Once the slices are dried out and shrunken, remove from oven and transfer to a muffin pan. Let cool completely in the muffin pan so that they form a flower shape. It’s best to leave them over night, or at least 2 hours so that they hold their shape.

For the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cupcake pans by lining them with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, vanilla, and sugar. Whisk in eggs and mashed banana. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixing until just combined (be careful not to over-mix!). Gently fold in pineapple, shredded coconut, and walnuts.

Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ full and bake 20–22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the cream cheese frosting:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cream cheese and butter. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and fluffy. Slowly add in powdered sugar. Once all of the sugar is added, increase the speed to high and beat until smooth and fluffy.

Frost each cooled cupcake with the cream cheese frosting and top with a pineapple flower.

Note: I didn’t end up using all of the frosting, but if you are big on frosting, pile it on there!