Subway Series Super-Simple Cupcakes!

All you need to make a delicious, easy, not-too-bad-for-you cake (or cupcakes) are two ingredients:

12 ounces diet cola

1 box cake mix

That's it. If you've never heard of this or tried it, I bet it sounds weird. The first time I did this was about a year ago and I was really doubtful. At the time I used Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper and devil's food cake mix. (This time I used Diet Cherry-Vanilla Pepsi and devil's food cake, as you can see above.)

 I mean... look at that! It looks so weird! But, when you mix it up a little and the carbonation dies down...

...it looks like regular [cup]cake batter. Go figure! 

Give it a try and be creative with it! I've heard using diet cream soda with french vanilla cake mix tastes delicious. And that diet orange soda with vanilla cake mix tastes like a Creamsicle. Just beware of any potential color changes - don't use dark cola with a white cake mix unless you want a confusingly brown cake!

The full nutrition information for a 16-serving batch of this wonderful recipe can be found here.

Subway Series Cupcakes

Makes 16 Cupcakes

12 oz diet cola

1 box devil's food cake mix

1 batch Creamy Vanilla Almond Icing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pan with 16 paper liners.

Combine both ingredients until combined. Distribute batter evenly into liners (about 3/4 full) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from center. Let cool completely before frosting.

I used the above mentioned Almond Icing recipe but colored 1/4 of it orange (for the Amazin' Mets), left 1/4 of it white (for the stupid Yankees), and the remaining half was dyed blue (because both teams have blue as their color). Because I used liquid food coloring, it needed a bit more powdered sugar to hold the shape when the stars were piped on them; otherwise, the frosting recipe was followed completely and yielded great results! I've had horrible luck with frostings, but I think this will be my go-to recipe as it is easy to remember (equal parts cream cheese and butter, then powdered sugar until desired consistency... so simple!) and tastes great.

Oh, by the way: the Mets won the series 2-1. I'd like to think my cupcakes helped. :)