Aloha Cupcakes — Something Warm for the Week Ethan Wrote About Manila

The week began with a list, as most weeks do, and the list got shorter, as most lists do. The week was a fall week, the kind where the light through the kitchen window arrives at a particular angle and the freezer hums in a different register depending on the temperature in the garage. I made notes in my prep notebook on Sunday afternoon, the way I always do: meal name, ingredient list, cost per serving, prep time, freezer instructions. Twenty-eight bags. Two hours and eleven minutes. A little slow this week, by my standards, but Brandon was helping and the conversation was good, and I have learned, slowly and against my own grain, that the conversation is sometimes the point and the time is sometimes a courtesy I extend to my husband for being willing to chop onions on a Sunday afternoon.

The recipe of the week was marinated chicken thighs in bulk, which I have made some specific number of times in my life and have refined to a system that I now hand to other people in printed form. The version I made this week fed eight, cost under fifteen dollars, and required twenty-six minutes of active prep, which is within my requirements and not a coincidence. The vacuum sealer is the most important small appliance in this house and I will die on this hill. I have stopped explaining the freezer-meal philosophy to people who already follow my work, and I have stopped apologizing for it to people who do not. The philosophy is simple: tomorrow is coming whether you are ready or not. You can either be ready or not. I pick ready.

The children are doing what they do, which is the central report of every week of my adult life. Ethan is 21, in Manila on his mission, and his last email mentioned a chicken adobo so good he is going to make me make it when he comes home. Olivia is 19, at BYU studying elementary education — the path she chose at age seven and has not deviated from once. Mason, 16, is in Brazil on his mission. His weekly emails are short and full of jokes. He does not write much about the work. He writes about the food. Lily is 15, in high school, asking the kind of questions in Sunday School that make the teachers uncomfortable, which I find difficult and also, secretly, admirable. Noah is 12, the comedian, the performer — the kid who does an impression of my disappointed face in front of company, and gets away with it. That is the family report. I do not have a system for these reports. I just listen and remember and call back when I said I would call back, which is most of the time and not all of the time, and the difference between most and all is the territory of motherhood.

Grace would have been 10. I do not let myself imagine the alternate version. I keep her in the facts. I do not write about her every week. I do not avoid her either. She is in the kitchen the way the kitchen is in the kitchen — woven into the structure, not announcing herself, present. The photograph above the stove is the only one of her smiling, and it has watched me batch-prep more freezer meals than I can count, and I have stopped feeling strange about the parasocial relationship I have with a four-month-old who has been gone for years. She is my daughter. The photograph is what I have. I look. I keep cooking.

Brandon is asleep on the couch. The dishwasher is running. The kitchen is clean. That is what counts as victory in a long marriage.

When Ethan’s email came through and he mentioned that chicken adobo — the one so good he’s already planning what to ask me to make when he gets home — I sat with that for a while. I can’t make him the adobo yet, but I found myself wanting something that carried a little of that same warm, tropical pull, the kind of flavor that reminds you a world exists beyond the garage freezer and the prep notebook. These Aloha Cupcakes are not a freezer-meal and they are not efficient, but Noah ate two and did not do an impression of anyone while he did it, and that is a category of victory I also count.

Aloha Cupcakes

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 24

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp coconut extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 cup crushed pineapple, well drained
• 3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• Frosting: 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted, for garnish
• 24 maraschino cherries, patted dry, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape the bowl as needed.
4. Add eggs and extracts. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and coconut extracts until combined.
5. Alternate dry and wet. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until combined — do not overmix.
6. Fold in pineapple and coconut. Using a spatula, gently fold in the drained crushed pineapple and shredded coconut until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
7. Fill and bake. Divide batter evenly among prepared liners, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake 18–20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops are just set.
8. Cool completely. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting. Do not rush this step.
9. Make the frosting. Beat cream cheese and butter together on medium-high speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Add sifted powdered sugar and coconut extract; beat on low until incorporated, then increase to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 more minutes.
10. Frost and garnish. Pipe or spread frosting onto cooled cupcakes. Press a small pinch of toasted coconut onto each, and top with one maraschino cherry. Serve same day or refrigerate up to 3 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 288 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 39g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 148mg