I got to thinking today: "If one cannot afford to go to the tropics in this economy, ought one not at least have a taste of said tropics?"

"Yes," I decided, "one ought."

Hummingbird Cupcakes

with cream cheese frosting

adapted from marthastewart.com recipes

(if I changed something, that ingredient is marked with *)

For cake:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Sift together in a medium bowl:

*1 1/2 c. cake flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

Beat together in a large bowl:

*3/4 c. Smart Balance Light butter substitute, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

*1/2 c. Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

Add and whisk until fluffy:

1 large egg plus one white or yolk

Combine in a large bowl, then stir into egg mixture:

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 c. unsweetened, drained, crushed pineapple (canned in pineapple juice)

*1/2 c. sliced almonds

Stir flour mixture into egg mixture. Divide into cupcake cups, and bake about 26-28 minutes, rotating from the top rack to bottom rack about halfway through.

For the frosting:

All ingredients should be room temperature.

Cream together until well-blended:

*6 oz. reduced fat plain cream cheese

3/4 stick of butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Gradually add:

3/4 lb. confectioner's sugar

Notes on some of the changes:

I used almonds instead of walnuts or pecans because we already had them, and because they pack a little better nutritional punch than pecans do. I'd wager a guess, though, that macadamia nuts would be awesome.

I omitted coconut from the recipe because the only coconut I could find was already sweetened, which would make each one of these cupcakes face-scrunchingly sweet, even if you rinse off the pineapple, cut the sugar content, and use unripe bananas. We still got the coconut kick, though: instead of topping with a pretty pineapple blossom (though I do intend to do that one day, since it's so cute), I sprinkled some coconut on top of the iced cupcakes.

Finally, the reduced fat cream cheese works just. fine. From some recipes I've seen around teh Interwebs, you can probably even use fat free and get away with it with extra time for mixing out the lumps.

Voilà! Tropical tastes even if you're stuck in a moderate climate. Le yum yum!