Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes

Well, it happened again. Last night, it struck again.
I am, of course, talking about my baking bug, it bit me again after I found a delish recipe for cupcakes. I got this recipe about a week ago, and *finally* last night, I was able to make them. These are Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes.
A fancy name, right? But luckily for us all, they’re not that hard to make! I was setting out all of my ingredients, making sure I had everything, and I was really surprised to find that I didn’t actually have any baking soda in the house! It’s just one of those things that I never thought about buying. I mean, before I married, I lived with my parents, and since they took care of the groceries, we had simple things like that around all the time, but since I rarely use it, I guess it never occurred to me to get. When I discovered I didn’t have any, I didn’t really want to go to the store, so I called up (and by called, I mean, texted) my sister, and asked if she had some she could share. She said yes, and she was on the way. Huzzah! So I got to work on doing all the parts I could until I got to the part that required the baking soda. Finally she arrived, and I finished the batter. I poured the batter into the pans, and I was so careful about how much I put into each cup. After last times debacle regarding the overflowing, I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.
I baked them, and when I took them out, they were small-ish. I guess with this recipe, I can afford to fill the cups up a little, but no matter, a small cupcake is still a delish cupcake. After I let them cool, I set to work on putting the cherries inside, the glaze on top, and finishing with the whipped cream frosting.

I really liked this recipe, it was really easy to make, and really good. Sadly, it doesn’t taste as much like coke as I’d like it too, but it’s still delish. And in case anyone was going to make it themselves (though I’m not really sure who does from my blog) I’d make probably a half a cup more of the frosting. The amount of whipped cream this recipe calls for barely managed to frost the cupcakes I had, and that was with me being really stingy on the frosting. So in the future, I’d make more of that. But anyway, here is my finished product:

And for those of you who would like it, here is the recipe:

Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes
For the Cupcakes:

1½ cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking soda¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup granulated sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 egg

½ cup buttermilk

¾ cup Coke (don’t use diet)

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling

For the Glaze:

¾ cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons Coke

For the Icing:

1 cup heavy whipped cream

4 tablespoons powdered sugar

Maraschino Cherries, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a standard muffin pan with paper liners; set aside. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar and butter and beat on medium-high until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat for an additional minute. In a large mixing cup or small bowl, combine the buttermilk, Coke and vanilla extract. (Make sure you wait for the foam to go down when measuring the Coke and don’t worry if your mixture looks curdled when you add the buttermilk.) Beginning with the flour mixture, add in 4 parts to the butter mixture, alternating with the Coke mixture. Beat each addition just until incorporated. Give the final mixture a good mix with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Divide the batter evenly between the muffins tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when touched lightly and a toothpick inserted in the center cupcake comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, use a paring knife to cut out a cone shape in the middle of each cupcake. Add a spoonful of cherry mixture (2 to 3 cherries) to the well. In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and coke. Let sit 5 to 10 minutes to thicken. It should drip off of a soon very slowly. Using a small offset spatula, drizzle a little of the glaze onto the middle of each cupcake and then gently spread it over the top. Beat the heavy whipping cream in a chilled bowl with whisk attachment (or hand mixer), beginning on low speed. Once the cream gets frothy begin adding the powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, increasing speed as the cream comes together until you reach medium-high speed. Whip the cream until it holds stiff peaks (if you dip a spoon in it, the whipped cream should stay on the spoon when you turn it upside down). Pipe the whipped cream onto cupcakes as desired and top with maraschino cherries for garnish.