Cherry Coca-Cola Cupcakes

Last time I made cupcakes for our school's bake sale for Free the Children, I made Oreo cupcakes, and they were awesome.

This time, I decided to make Cherry Coca Cola Cupcakes. They feel totally retro - like something you might eat if you lived in Pleasantville. Can't you just see the cupcake all in black and white, except with the bright red cherry?

I won't lie to you guys, they're pretty tasty. And I'm a dedicated Coca-Cola hater... so you know they've got to be good.

Just like the last batch of cupcakes, these ones came courtesy of Annie's Eats. I made two batches and a few adjustments to the original recipe - mostly adjusting amount of cherries and the glaze proportions(Yes, there's a glaze under that pillow of whipped cream) and the method.

I think it would be fun to try a batch with Coke and a batch with Pepsi and see if there's a difference.

Cherry Coca-Cola Cupcakes

(from Annie's Eats)

Ingredients

1½ cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

3/4 cup Coca-Cola

½ cup buttermilk
¼ tsp maraschino cherry juice
2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
1 large egg

16 maraschino cherries (in juice/syrup, not candied), halved

Glaze

1 cup icing sugar
¼ cup Coca Cola

To serve: whipped cream & maraschino cherry halves.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour through salt. Set aside. In a large measuring cup, mix together buttermilk, Coca-Cola, cherry juice and vanilla.

3. Cream together butter and sugar (either using your stand mixer or in a large bowl using a hand held mixer) until light and fluffy. Add in dry and wet ingredients, alternating between the two, beginning and ending with the dry (so, add ¼ of the dry ingredients followed by 1/3 of the wet).

4. Fill each muffin cup about ½ full. You will have batter left in the bowl. Place three maraschino cherry halves in the batter each muffin cup, pushing down slightly. Top with additional batter, until it reaches the 2/3 - 3/4 mark.

5. Bake in oven for 22 minutes. Cupcakes are done when tops spring back when touched lightly. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to rack to finish cooling.

6. While cupcakes are cooling, mix together the glaze ingredients. Pour 1 tbsp over each muffin, spreading to coat with the back of a spoon.

7. Just before serving, top with whipped cream and a cherry half.

My cupcakes bring all the boys to the yard...

The teacher in charge totally should have charged 2$ for these bad boys instead of 1$. They were awesome and sold out in 2 minutes. Literally.

Why?

Because they're Cookies'n'Cream Cupcakes.

You can't see it, but there's an oreo cookie half on the bottom!

Cream cheese frosting! Chopped oreos in the batter! Sweet vanilla cake! You can't go wrong.

I got the recipe off of Annie's Eats and adapted it to suit my purposes (did a half recipe, using 2 egg whites for the 3 called for and made 16 cupcakes instead of 12). My icing did NOT, in any way, shape or form, whip up as hers does in her pictures, but...meh! (I guess that means you could go wrong) They were still very tasty.

And 13 year olds don't have the most sophisticated palettes.

Mmm. Nom. Nom. Nom.

You know you want one!

Cupcake Update!

I went with Martha Stewart's brain cupcakes and, while I thought they were delicious, the alleged Swiss Meringue frosting had TWO POUNDS of butter in it. Two pounds! Sweet Jesus!

Really, it was a light (consistency) buttercream frosting. The recipe said it made enough for 28 cupcakes... but based on my leftovers, I'd say it frosts more like 36-40. I had more than two cups leftover.

Still. Delicious. My students told me it was too buttery though.

Whatever. They're a bunch of 13 year olds. What do they know except grocery store frosting?

Onward to my latest excitement - I've finally ordered bento boxes for my husband and I. Of all the things I really wish I'd brought from Japan, my steel panda bento box is one of the things I miss the most. That and my pig bowl. Oh! And my kiwi knife-spoon (it came with a package of golden kiwis). See the picture? That's exactly what it looked like.

I miss it.

Anyway, since we bring our lunches to work everyday, I've been meaning to buy us bento boxes for ages. I just couldn't commit to a design though. That, and the ones I've seen in Toronto go for 30$ for something I KNOW could be bought at a hyaku-en shop.

Thursday, I was voluntold to bake something for my school's bake sale. In the panic of the moment of pressure, I said I would bring cupcakes.

Cupcakes. Cup-a-cakes. Cüppencakes. Umlauts make everything more fun.

Anyway, have I mentioned that I don't really know what I'm doing? I can't remember the last time I made cupcakes. I'm debating between these two:

S'more Cupcakes from the very fun blog Annie Eats.

Or

Brain Cupcakes from Martha Stewart.

One of my friends suggested Guinness Cupcakes... but that might go down a little too well with the 14 year olds.