My Aunt Beth is cookbook collector like I am. She has just about every Junior League and church cookbook ever published. When I was visiting her recently, I was looking through a few of them and kept seeing recipes for “Coca-Cola Cake.” I vaguely remembered this chocolaty concoction from my childhood growing up in South Carolina and family reunions, etc., and it struck a nostalgic chord with me. The recipe calls for Coca-Cola in both the cake and icing. Coca-Cola in a cake?!? I wonder who the first person was that thought it would be good to give that a try? C-R-A-Z-Y B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T! Anyway, I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately so I thought I’d make and, of course, tweak it a little!
I call my version Old-Fashioned Coca-Cola Cake. Every recipe for Coca-Cola Cake that I read was basically the same but each had a few differences here and there. I didn’t change a lot in my version but I substituted half of the butter with olive oil and added some sea salt to the frosting. The cake is perfect right after it’s baked and remains moist for several days making it the perfect make-ahead treat. It’s chocolaty, moist, and, oddly, not too sweet. Also, it’s super easy to make and ready to eat in no time.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, and marshmallows.
In a medium saucepan, heat the Coca-Cola, butter, oil, cocoa powder, and salt over medium heat until it boils and then pour over flour mixture; stir to combine then add vanilla.
Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and baking soda and add to batter; stir to incorporate.
Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. While the cake is baking, make the frosting and pour over hot cake, spreading to evenly distribute.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup miniature marshmallows
- 1 cup Coca-Cola
- 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Frosting
- 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
- 3 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 6 tablespoons Coca-Cola
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 box (16-ounces) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with nonstick baking spray; set aside.
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, and marshmallows; set aside. In a medium saucepan, heat the Coca-Cola, butter, oil, cocoa powder, and salt over medium heat until it boils and then pour over flour mixture; stir to combine then add vanilla. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and baking soda and add to batter; stir to incorporate.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
- Meanwhile, combine butter, cocoa powder, Coca-Cola, and sea salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil and remove from heat. Add vanilla, confectioners’ sugar, and pecans and beat by hand until fully combined. Spread frosting over hot cake. Set aside to cool completely before cutting into 12-16 slices.
It looks beautiful! This seems like a perfect summer celebration cake.
Thanks so much Erin! That’s a perfect description: Celebration Cake! 😉
You had me til the pecans. No! lbvs!
Substitute the nuts for something else you like or leave them out completely!
I’ve seen this recipe a lot but you make everything look amazing! Your photos are always awesome too!
Thanks so much Lynne! It was really a fun recipe to make, photograph, and eat! 😉
Hello!
I saw your blog and thought it had great recipes and awesome pictures! I therefore would like to invite you to our new culinary website which has just started.
This is how it works in short. TastyQuery.com is a website for food bloggers and their fans allowing them to automatically collect recipes from your food blog. It’s a large database of links to recipes on food blogs. Everyone can join us for free.
For more please visit:
http://tastyquery.com
TastyQuery.com is an English version of our main website called “Mikser Kulinarny”, founded in Poland. “Mikser Kulinarny” has a large audience (over 2 mln unique visitors monthly) and with TastyQuery.com we want to repeat that success and drive thousands of new visitors to your food blog.
In case of any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Best regards
Agnieszka
Thanks–I will definitely check this out!
I so remember Coca Cola cake from my childhood in Mississippi. What a great trip down memory lane reading this post. There was always one of these cakes at church socials! Great post, Brett!
Thanks, Bill–I hoped you’d like this one! It actually got better the longer it sat!
Brett, I love that you still take the time to thumb through cookbooks–I desperately try to return to good old-fashioned printed recipes, but somehow the thought of doing things without a whole mass of user reviews daunts me now! This cake looks dangerously delicious, though. So glad I stumbled across it! A swell treat, so glad I’m getting to meet you here!
Thanks so much Ala–nice to meet you too! I’ve been a long time
lurkerfan of your most excellent site! 🙂 Glad you stumbled upon my little piece of the web!Checking back and reading your comment–wow! That just made my day…..though it’d be an awesome extra surprise if you say hello over yonder 😀 cheerios!!
I have been making this cake for a considerable length of time and its one of my top picks. I add slashed pecans to the icing. It’s yummy!
I see you don’t monetize your page, don’t waste your
traffic, you can earn additional cash every month because you’ve
got hi quality content. If you want to know how to make extra $$$,
search for: best adsense alternative Dracko’s tricks