Let Her Eat Cake: Cherry Cola Cupcakes

What could be more kitsch than Cherry Cola? It's like Rockabilly and Americana hooked up one night by the soda dispenser and produced a love child called Chichi. Fruit is cute, as we've seen with one of our favourite sites, Now That's Pretty, and cola is vintage as hell, so what are we waiting for, eh? Let's bake some cakes that taste just like cherry cola, C.O.L.A Colaaaaaa.

Cherry Cola Cupcakes (Makes 12)

You will need:

For the cupcakes:

• 200g self-raising flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt 
• 1 egg
• 120ml milk
• 2 tbsp greek yoghurt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 125g butter
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 175ml coca cola
• 100g ripe cherries

For the froth frosting:

• 200g icing sugar
• 125g butter, softened
• 2 tbsp coca cola
• 20ml milk
• Fizzy cherry cola bottles and cherry sweets to decorate

Make it!

The cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Lightly grease and line a 12 hole cupcake tin. 
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 
3. Beat the egg in a separate bowl, along with the milk, yoghurt and vanilla. Set aside. 
4. In a saucepan over a low heat, melt the butter together with the cocoa powder and coca cola. 
5. Allow to cool for a minute or two, then pour over the flour mixture, stirring until just combined and there are no streaks of flour showing.  
6. Stir in the egg mixture until the batter is completely blended. 
7. Core the cherries and quarter them. Stir gently into the mixture. 
8. Pour into the cupcakes cases, filling 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and a skewer comes out completely clean. 
9. Leave to cool on a wire rack until ready to frost. 

The frosting:

1. Beat the butter and sugar together until no lumps remain.
2. Beat in the coca cola and milk until light and fluffy. (Don't skimp on this bit: a good beating will make the icing look like coca cola froth!)
3. Fill a piping bag with the frosting and pipe a swirl onto the top of each cake, decorating with whatever sweets you haven't already eaten.