Strawberry Cupcakes With Cheese Cake Icing (made with Sierra Mist)

While searching for healthy dessert recipes I came across dozens of cake/cupcake recipes that are made using diet soda. I have never heard of this before and thought they would be horrible. This is now my new favorite thing to bake. You can pick any cake batter, any soda, any icing and create so many tasty goodies! It is so simple and cuts out almost all the fat and calories! You can make this dessert as a cake or pour in a muffin pan. I like to make desserts as muffins (if possible) so I can control my portions, otherwise I think I might have eaten the whole cake! The cake mix will make 24 cupcakes. Since I am just cooking for my boyfriend and I, I cut the ingredients listed below in half.

 Makes 24 Cupcakes.

1 box Duncan Hines Moist Supreme Strawberry Cake mix
12 oz Sierra Mist (I couldn't find diet)
1 package sugar free/fat free Cheesecake Instant Pudding
1 package fat free cool whip

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Place cupcake liners in muffin tin.

Pour cake mix into a bowl and add 12 oz of Sierra Mist. Whisk together until blended.

Bake cupcakes for 18-22 minutes.

While cupcakes are cooking, make your icing.

Make instant pudding according to package. Then whisk in cool whip. Refridgerate for an hour.

When ready to serve, spoon 1 Tbsp of icing on top of cupcake.

ENJOY!

A friend told me a trick to the diet soda cake recipes...if using dark cake mix use diet coke or diet cherry coke. If using white cake mix or flavored cake mix (like strawberry) then use diet Sprite, Sierra Mist, etc. If using a plain white cake mix you can get creative and use diet Sunkist or a flavored soda.