Iron Cupcake Earth : Raspberry Creaming Soda Cupcakes

This is my first ever entry into the Iron Cupcake Earth challenge!!

I loved the soda ingredient idea, and kept thinking of my favourite childhood drink...raspberry ice cream soda or 'spiders' as I have always known them as.
I knew I wanted to use raspberry creaming soda soft drink in my cupcakes, and I wanted to decorate them so they looked like the fizzy creaminess on the top of the spider drink.

I had a bit of trouble finding a good recipe using soda that didn't involve using a packet cake mix! But I found one online eventually, and I have to say the raspberry taste isn't very strong, as I have noticed many people saying.

I slightly altered this Orange Juice Fizzy Cake recipe. I halved it, and used raspberry soda instead of orange, I added a little raspberry cordial in an effort to make the flavour stronger. The cakes rose beautifully.

The butter cream frosting consists of butter, icing sugar, raspberry creaming soda, strawberry essence, red colouring. I made it in three different shades of pink and put them together in the piping bag. I topped it all off with a squirt of whipped cream and a cherry!

Raspberry Creaming Soda Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
70mls Raspberry Creaming Soda
1 tablespoon Raspberry cordial
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method
Mix sugar and oil together, add egg and beat for 1 min. Add sifted flour and baking powder alternately with raspberry creaming soda and cordial. Beat for 2 mins. Divide batter evenly among liners and bake for 15-20 mins.

Our April ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=16748
• a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .