Stupidly Simple Coke Zero Cup Cakes

OK! Not a lot of pics on this one. If you don't know how to make cupcakes...get outta here! LOL Mix em, stick papers in a pan, bake em. The frosting was the hardest part of this, and it's nothing. I wanted something snacky but didn't want to spend a lot of time. These things could NOT be faster to make! Great for when you need a bunch of cupcakes without notice! Start to finish on these is about an 20 minutes of work with some cooling time in between!

I LOVE this frosting. It's one my mom used to make, it goes perfectly on chocolate cake. It is like the old Suzie Q filling from when we were kids. I believe the recipe goes back to the depression and wars, when sugar was not cheap. This uses one cup of sugar.

For an extra special treat, fill cupcakes with this cream frosting. Cut a cone out of the top, fill with a spoon of frosting, place the cone back onto the cupcake. Frost these with a thick chocolate frosting and you've made your own filled cupcakes!

So, lets make stupidly simple and rather low fat cupcakes!

Cupcakes
1 box cake mix (Devils Food, White, Cherry Chip...)
1 1/4 cup Coke Zero (or Sprite Zero, Cherry Coke Zero)
2 egg whites

Put all in a bowl and beat until there are no more lumps. 3-5 minutes. Place liners in cup cake pan. Fill wells 1/2 full and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Makes 24 cup cakes.

Frosting
1 cup milk
4 Tbls flour
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp Vanilla

Mix milk and flour in sauce pan. Whisk constantly over medium heat until it becomes a thick paste. This takes 5-7 minutes. It happens pretty quickly, just whisk so it doesn't stick to the bottom and get lumpy. Once it has become very thick (when you pull the whisk out, it doesn't level out any longer) push it through a mesh sieve into a bowl if you wish to remove any lumps of flour. If you whisked the whole time, this is less likely, but it you weren't diligent...LOL

Let the milk/flour mixture cool. Place butter and sugar into mixing bowl and cream. Add cooled flour/milk mixture and beat well until no grains of sugar can be felt. This can take up to 10 minutes, let it take what it takes. It beats up fluffy! Add the vanilla and beat in.

Frost your cup cakes. Either dip the tops of the cakes into the frosting, twist as you remove it for nice swirls, or slip a star tip into a pastry bag and be done with it in about 3 minutes like I did!

Try this! It is seriously good and if you look, other than the butter and milk in the frosting, there is almost NO FAT here!

Try different flavors, these are Diet Cherry Coke Zero and Devils Food. Or maybe white cake and Cherry Coke Zero, or White Cake and Sprite Zero, or...