Kate Blumm Try this at home: Etwin Gordon’s recipe makes for yummy cupcakes.

It seems Clinton Hill’s sweet tooth just can’t be sated. Over the July 4 weekend, a red awning went up on 886 Fulton Street near Washington, framing the squeaky-clean windows of the neighborhood’s newest storefront and its third bakery: Essential Cakes.

Proprietor Etwin Gordon, a graduate of the American Institute of Culinary Arts, hails from Canarsie but chose to open up shop in Clinton Hill because “it’s an up-and-coming neighborhood.”

The soft-spoken Ms. Gordon bakes small batches of cakes and cupcakes in the back of the bakery each day, rotating between tempting flavors like pistachio, lemon, red velvet and the ubiquitous chocolate and vanilla. She plans to eventually offer a permanent range of flavors, but for the time being is feeling out the tastes of the neighborhood.

Kate Blumm

Perhaps unsurprisingly, her mostly local customers have so far exhibited an overwhelming preference for red velvet, Ms. Gordon says.

When Oral Fixation stopped into Essential Cakes on a recent clement evening, cupcakes of the carrot, red velvet, chocolate and vanilla persuasions were beckoning from the pastry cases. Your seasonally affected Oral Fixation team gravitated toward the pineapple-coconut flavor instead, immensely curious to learn how a combination usually reserved for hot-weather tropical drinks would translate into a sugary confection.

Kate Blumm Nice crumb!

Upon first bite, Oral Fixation was surprised at the delicacy with which Ms. Gordon’s cupcake toed the fine line between kitchen table and patisserie. The cake has a fruity, subtle sweetness and delicate crumb; the icing is sugary, suffused with coconut and almost toothy in texture, triggering memories of grade-school birthdays past.

Oral Fixation has adapted Ms. Gordon’s recipe to offer even more of a pineapple punch; while it’s hot and sticky, shall we not embrace the tropics wholeheartedly?

Pineapple-Coconut Cupcakes

Adapted from Essential Cakes

Makes 2 dozen cupcakes or one standard two-layer 8” cake

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon pineapple extract
1 cup of milk

Sift all dry ingredients together. In a mixer, combine all liquids and gradually add sifted dry ingredients. Mix on medium speed until all ingredients are evenly combined, scrape sides and mix on high for 30 seconds. Grease an 8″ baking pan or two 12-cup cupcake trays and pour batter evenly. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool before icing with …

Coconut Icing

1 lb butter
1 lb cream cheese
6 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup shredded coconut

Cream butter and confectioner’s sugar together in a mixer. Add cream cheese and vanilla and mix until just combined before adding 1/2 cup coconut flakes. Mix until smooth. Ice cupcakes before topping with remaining coconut.

Note: Consider crushed pineapple as a filling between layers. Once cake is iced, cover with sweetened coconut flakes. For cupcakes, top with icing and sprinkle coconut flakes.