Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes

Instructions

1. Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350°F and line cupcake pans with paper liners. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa in a bowl and set aside.
2. With a hand mixer or stand mixer, combine sugar and butter and beat until light and creamy. Mix in the eggs one at a time.
3. In a large mixing cup or small bowl, combine buttermilk, Coke and vanilla extract. (Make sure you wait for the foam to go down when measuring the Coke and don't worry if your mixture looks curdled when you add the buttermilk.)
4. Add half the dry flour mixture followed by half of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat, making sure to beat well after each addition just mixed.
5. Fill each cupcake tin 3/4 of the way full and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool about 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Once cooled, use a paring knife to cut out a cone shape in the middle of each cupcake. Add a spoonful of cherry mixture (2-3 cherries) to the well.
7. Glaze: Mix together with a whisk in a small bowl. The mixture should run slowly off a spoon so you can drizzle the cupcakes but it won't run all over the place.
8. Whipped Cream: Beat cream in a chilled bowl with whisk attachment or hand mixer on low speed. Begin adding sugar, 1 spoonful at a time, increasing speed as the cream comes together. Whip the cream until it holds stiff peaks, if you dip a spoon in it, the whipped cream should stay on the spoon when you turn it upside down. Pipe the whipped cream onto cupcakes as desired and top with maraschino cherries for garnish.