Baker Faker: Coke Float Cupcakes

I've recently started baking. Now, normally I'm not a baker. I'm a cook. I'm horrible at baking and always have been. I once baked cookies that were burnt and undercooked at the same time. AND I used a box mix! I can not bake to save my life...until I discovered cupcakes. And when I say cupcakes, I really mean cake mix from a box used to make cupcakes. I know it's cheating. I know it's not real baking, but like I said, I'm not a baker. And one day I'm sure I'll have children that I will have to produce emmaculate looking baked goods for at last minute bake sales and school events.

Enter Coke a Cola Float Cupcakes. Coke a Cola has an assortment of summer recipes out right now, all of which make use of, you guessed it, Coke a Cola! I wasn't really attracted to any of them and some of them sounded a little off, until I noticed this beauty of a recipe. I thought I'd give it a whirl since it used a cake mix as the main ingredient. I figured how hard could it be! And if I failed, well, then I've only wasted a box cake mix and not a whole lot of my time.

I dumbed down the recipe a lot! Again, I'm not a baker! If you want to find the full version recipe it's on the icoke.ca website. Good luck and kudos! For myself, I simply mixed the cake mix as directed, subsituting Coke a Cola for the water in the recipe and baked the cakes according to the directions on the box. The modification is in the icing section of the recipe. They have a recipe to make Coke a Cola butter cream icing, but I thought "Hey! I've got some icing in the fridge, I have some leftover Coke a Cola, let's just mix 'em together". Voila! Quick and easy Coke a Cola icing!

Now, I found this recipe to be all about the presentation. You have to put the whip cream and cherry on top! It's nothing without it. I did this for a group of kids and added the whip and cherry right before I served it. They were drooling as I "whipped" (had to use the pun) them up. And they loved them! I mean, who wouldn't love a cupcake with icing AND whip cream AND a cherry ontop. And I did make them all say "pretty please with whip cream and a cherry ontop" before they got a cupcake!

This recipe got me thinking too. You could use pretty much any flavor of pop and do a variation on these. I think I'll try a cream soda or root beer float next. Or maybe use an orange Crush and make some kind of vanilla creamsicle cupcake....