Have you ever made Coca-Cola^® cupcakes before? This was the first time for me, and I was VERY pleasantly surprised at how they turned out! Not that I didn’t expect them to be good, but they were seriously incredibly moist and kind of that perfect level of sweet. This is the kind of chocolate cake that would pair well with so many different frostings… but it’s even good by itself! And I’m a huge fan of frosting, so that’s a pretty bold statement coming from me.

This is also the 5th and final game day inspired recipe we’ll be sharing for the Coca-Cola “Home Bowl” campaign, and even though we’ve been super happy with how all of the recipes tasted, I kinda think we may have saved the best for last with this one. Of course, as a certifiable sweet tooth, I might be a little biased to the dessert recipe too! ;)

Free Printables – for Game Day Cupcakes (or Drink Stations)

I also designed some “Thirsty for a WIN” printable flag toppers, which you can download for free right here (+ check out the DIY info below). I loved the play on the type of cupcakes they actually are, paired with the football-watching-party occasion!

COCA-COLA CUPCAKES RECIPE

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Ingredients:

• 2 cups Coca-Cola^®
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 -1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1-1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• foil cupcake liners
• cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325º and spray the inside of your foil cupcake liners with cooking spray. (Foil liners are recommended to further prevent sticking.)

2. First, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl, and set aside.

3. Next, in a small saucepan over medium heat, add the butter, Coca-Cola (regular, not Diet!), and dark cocoa powder. Stir until the butter is melted.

4. Add the white and brown sugars and whisk until dissolved.

5. Once the sugars have dissolved, remove the cocoa mixture from the heat and let it cool. (Note – Sonny & I were a little impatient and transferred the mixture to a mixing bowl to help speed the cooling process a bit!)

6. In a small separate bowl, whisk the eggs together. Pour them into the cooled cocoa mixture, and whisk until combined.

7. Next, fold the dry flour mixture into the cocoa mixture and whisk together gently, being careful not to overbeat. The finished batter should actually be slightly lumpy.

8. Pour the finished batter into your prepared cupcake liners. Ours were filled about 3/4 of the way up.

9. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, and rotate the pans halfway through the baking time. Here’s how our cupcakes looked after they came out of the oven, Sonny cleverly arranged 12 of them into a football shape for this shot. ;)

10. The finished cupcakes are SO moist and incredibly tasty! In fact, they disappeared from our house way too quickly, if you know what I mean. You can frost them however you like, but we simply used store-bought vanilla frosting to keep things easy this game day party post, and everyone knows that vanilla goes great with Coke!

Free Printable “Thirsty” Cupcake Toppers

To make these toppers, just download the party flags PDF, then print and cut them out at home. (A paper cutter will definitely make cutting easier!)

Once the flags are cut out, fold them in half and hot glue them to your drink straws of choice. You’ll need to trim the straws to a height that works well with your cupcakes. (Of course, you can also just use these as themed regular drink straws too!)

Since I had so many of those cute little Coke bottle caps on hand, I decided hot glue these to the straws as well for a little extra Coke “flair”. ;) This is totally optional of course, but I think it makes the finished cupcakes look especially fun, and helps to play up the fact that they’re actually made with Coca-Cola.

P.S. Visit HomeBowl.com for more game day party tips like this, and make sure to check out my other Coca-Cola Home Bowl recipes for more tasty ideas, including BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders and Mac-and-Cheese Bites with Cracker Crust!

You can also visit MyCokeRewards to download product coupons for Coca-Cola and Ritz Crackers.

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Coca-Cola^® for this post. As always, the content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the companies that make it possible for us to keep the creative content coming!