Strawberry-Cherry Soda Cupcakes

I've been seeing things all around the web about making cake mixes with soda, so I figured I'd give it a try and put my own twist on it.  This was one of those times when adding things by impulse worked out oh-so-right.  These cupcakes are Wookie-approved.  They are the best cupcakes I've made to date and trust me - I've made a metric fuckton of cupcakes in the 5 years we've been together.   These things are delicious, super-easy, and a good example of how you can tweak boxed and packaged mixes to get a different taste when you're too tired/too lazy/too broke/don't have enough space to cook from scratch.

First, just get a cheap box of cake mix.  Doesn't matter what brand.  I picked strawberry because it is my favorite.  I picked off-brand because it is the cheapest.

Next, add 12 ounces of diet lemon-lime soda.

Once you get to the end of the soda, it becomes delightfully frothy and bubbly!  Mix it all up.  I tried to get the big clumps out, but wasn't concerned with the little ones.

Then, I added an entire jar of maraschino cherries.  Because I am evil.  Save the juice they are in, too.  More evil is about to be up in here, guys, so cross yourselves, or whatever it is you do to prepare.

Add them to your cupcake tin.  Either grease that baby up or line it with cupcake liners, whatever.  I used leftover cupcake liners I bought on clearance after Halloween.  I think it may be time to hit another clearance sale.

I am not a clean cook at all.  Usually, when I finish cooking it looks like no fewer than twelve things exploded with violent force in the kitchen.

Bake them at 350 or until a toothpick comes out clean, and then let them cool.

After that, its time to get started on the icing.

Dump one container of cheap, store-bought vanilla icing into a mixing bowl.  Whip it at a high speed until it starts to get fluffy.

Now, add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of the syrup reserved in the cherry jar and mix that in.

Mix until it is all uniform and until you reach your desired shade of pink.  I basically used the juice as a food coloring and as an added bonus it adds a slight cherry-flavored twang to the icing.

Ice them, sprinkle them, sugar them, eat them.

I'm going to go ahead and sign off here and leave you alone with delicious, sweet, sweet cupcake porn.

<3
The Wookie Wifey