Cherry Coca Cola Cupcakes

For my Pinterest Party tonight I wanted to make something special.  I have been craving cherry chocolates lately and I'm not quite ready to dig out my Grandma's recipe to make the real thing so I thought I would just make something using the flavors I was craving!  I happened to have a can of Coke in the fridge, this would be great with Cherry Coke or even Dr. Pepper.

Cherry Coca Cola Cupcakes

1 box Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
1 small box Instant Chocolate Pudding
Egg and oil to make the cake from the directions on the back of the box
Instead of water use the the Coke as the liquid mine was 1 1/4 cups

Chocolate sauce
1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
3 Tbsp milk, cream, or evaporated milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cherry Frosting
1 cup pureed cherries (I had some frozen from the summer, so I just defrosted those)
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
red gel food coloring
approximately 6 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Put liners in 2 cupcake pans.

For the cake.  In a mixing bowl mix the cake mix, pudding, eggs, oil, and soda.  Mix with beaters following the directions on the box.  Using a large scoop, fill each liner 2/3 full of batter. Bake 18-25 minutes until puffed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.  Remove from the pan and let cool completely.

In a small sauce pan melt the butter.  Add cocoa powder and milk, stirring until dissolved.  Vigorously whisk in the powdered sugar and remove from heat.  Keep whisking until all the clumps disappear.  Add the vanilla.  Transfer to a bowl and partially cool.

Dip the top of each cupcake into the chocolate sauce and return to the wire rack to let set up completely.

Add the butter to a clean mixing bowl.  Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar and mix with electric beaters.  Add in the cherry puree and another cup or two of the powdered sugar.  Add in the extracts and red gel food coloring if desired.  Add more sugar a little at a time until the frosting reaches your desired consistency. I used my Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator for the frosting.  Mine ended up being a little softer that I had hoped I should have put in a little more sugar...