Last Halloween I overcame my fear and disgust and made beetroot cupcakes, which proved a great success. These are this year’s attempt at ‘cakes with a disgusting ingredient’. Yes, I hate coke, and in fact most fizzy drinks. Once in a blue moon I get an intense urge to drink CocaCola, but after two massive gulps my thirst is quenched and I’m done for another year. Just as when I made my beetroot cakes, I was extremely apprehensive at the start of this venture and didn’t even sample the batter. But yet again, the finished article bore no traces of its dreadful ingredient and was perfectly tasty. Hurray!
I’m already speculating over potential ‘disgusting’ ingredients for next Halloween. At the moment the strongest contenders are a drink even more revolting than coke (coffee, of course – though I am actually becoming a fan of the coffee aroma in Starbucks, oddly enough) and the most hideous, unspeakably awful abomination of a fruit known to mankind (the pear). At least I have a full year to build up the courage!
Cola Cupcakes
Makes 12-16, from How to Be a Domestic Goddess
Ingredients:
200g plain flour
250g sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
125ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
125g butter, softened
2 tbsp cocoa powder
175ml CocaCola
For the glaze:
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp CocaCola
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g icing sugar
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl or jug, beat together the egg, buttermilk and vanilla.
4. Gently heat the butter, cocoa and CocaCola in a pan, stirring them together.
5. Pour the cola mixture into the dry ingredients and mix together well.
6. Pour in the buttermilk mixture and combine again.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared cases, filling about two thirds full.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
8. To make a glaze: in a saucepan, heat the butter, CocaCola, cocoa powder and vanilla. Sift in the icing sugar and stir well. Pour over the cakes, decorate with Halloween shapes or jelly cola bottles, and leave to set.
