martha moments: bikini-friendly, diet coke cupcakes

cupcakes are among my 5 top favorite foods. ask my husband. he'll ask what i want for dinner some nights and my reply?  cupcakes. when we go to nyc, one of the tippy top things on my list is to go here.  sugary bliss.

i love cupcakes for many reasons...first off, because they're small.  and i like small, cute things. secondly, because you can make so many different kinds and can decorate them so many ways. third, they're beyond comforting and bring back memories of birthdays and skating rink parties.  and lastly, because they taste like heaven in a crimped paper wrapper.

in an effort to be healthier, i made cupcakes today using a new method that cuts out the eggs and the oil.  they are really easy to make (2 ingredients!) and invoke much, much less guilt.  :-)

you'll need:

first, pick a box of cake mix. any cake mix. for today, i used yellow.

second, add 1 can of diet soda, whatever flavor you want.  i used diet ginger ale today.

a general rule of thumb is to mix dark sodas with dark cake mixes and light sodas with light cake mixes.

to make:

combine the mix and soda.

(i feel so weird saying "soda," as we 

southerners call anything carbonated "coke...") 

it will look all weird and foamy, but it'll settle down.

pour into cupcake paper lined muffin tin and bake according to the directions on the back

of the cake mix box.

yum!

other variations i'm going to try:

yellow cake>>>diet orange crush

chocolate cake>>>diet cherry coke or diet cherry vanilla dr. pepper

yellow cake>>>diet cream soda

devil's food cake>>>diet cherry coke

strawberry cake mix...diet cream soda

now of course, the icing is another story.  i just topped mine with a little whipped cream on top and it looks perfect!  now time to cuddle up on the couch and watch new moon again!

i hope all of you have had a great weekend!  i got some good finds at the thrift stores yesterday that i'll have to share with you later this week. :-)