dogwood topped coca-cola cupcakes

I went back to an old recipe (well, relatively) for these cupcakes. A recipe out of the first Baked cookbook for a root beer bundt cake. I've made it many times over the years: as a bundt cake, as a layer cake, as cupcakes. With root beer, with coke, with hot chocolate, with coffee. It's a sturdy cake, with a really moist crumb, a nice dome and excellent flavor and texture. I had forgotten how good it really was!

The cake batter is made by boiling coke, butter and cocoa. White and dark brown sugar are then whisked in the mixture until dissolved, then left to cool. In the past, when I made this recipe, I sometimes got little bits of baking soda that were not incorporated in the batter properly. An embarrassing situation. So this time around, I whisked the baking soda with the eggs before incorporating them in the butter/cocoa/coke/sugar mixture. Then flour and salt get folded in. In the end, I added a splash of vanilla, just because.

The cupcakes get baked for 20 minutes at 325 degrees F. This recipe gave me 2 dozen cupcakes.

Coca-Cola Cupcakesadapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

2 cups coke
1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two cupcake tins with paper liners. 

In a small saucepan, heat the coke, cocoa powder, and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with the baking soda then whisk the eggs into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined. Gently fold the flour and salt into the cocoa mixture. The batter will be slightly lumpy--do not overmix, as it could cause the cake to be tough. Portion out the batter in the cupcake tins and bake for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. 

Too lazy to make frosting from scratch, I went with canned chocolate frosting, which everyone likes. Swirled it with a 1M tip, and topped it with a fondant dogwood flower, these cupcakes were as pretty as can be! It was my first time making these flowers, and I really had a blast making them. They are quite simple, and since I made them with fondant instead of gumpaste, the process was much quicker, as I had more time to work before the sugarpaste dried! 


Oh, and the cupcakes don't really taste like coke... The flavor intensifies after a few days, but even at that, you can't really tell what the secret ingredient is! Also, they stay moist forever, and freeze beautifully. They don't get rock hard, so you can actually eat them while still frozen! I'm thinking an excellent base for an ice cream cake!