Coca-Cola Cake | Imamother

Amarante

Sun, Nov 15 2020, 10:36 am

This was a simple cake to make. One bowl - one layer - easy frosting. It was a hit. Not a sophisticated cake but no one gobbling it up seemed to mind. LOL

You do have to use regular Coke because artificial sweeteners degrade when heated.

Coca-Cola Cake

Excerpt From: Kelly Alexander - Southern Living No Taste Like Home: A Celebration of Regional Southern Cooking and Hometown Flavor

This is simply one of the best sheet cakes on earth. The magical brew of carbonated cola is the secret to its tender texture.

1 cup Coca-Cola
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Coca-Cola Frosting
3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Combine Coca-Cola and buttermilk; set aside.

2. Beat butter at low speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar; beat until blended. Add eggs and vanilla; beat at low speed until blended.

3. Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with cola mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended.

4. Stir in marshmallows. Pour batter into a greased and floured 13- x 9-inch pan. Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes. Pour Coca-Cola Frosting over warm cake. Sprinkle with pecans.

Note: Don’t make the frosting ahead—you need to pour it over the cake shortly after baking.

Coca-Cola Frosting

Makes 2 1/4 cupsHands-On Time 5 min.Total Time 5 min.

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup Coca-Cola
3 Tbsp. cocoa
1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1. Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring until butter melts. Remove from heat; whisk in sugar and vanilla.

Amarante

Sun, Nov 15 2020, 10:50 am

WitchKitty wrote:

what can be substituted for buttermilk?

You need a soured milk product in order to create the tender crumb and taste. It is the same reason that sour cream is often used for baking.

You can make a great substitute for buttermilk using cream and lemon. I recommend cream or half and half because buttermilk is thicker than ordinary milk even though it is low fat.

HOW TO MAKE BUTTERMILK

Prep time: 1 min Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 11 mins
Serves: 1 cup
.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup milk, heavy cream, or half and half
1-2 tablespoon vinegar (white distilled vinegar) or lemon juice

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix vinegar into milk and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, I do find 10 minutes does quite better.
It will curdle a little bit, that is the vinegar doing its magic on the milk.
The result will be tangy tasting milk, just like buttermilk.
I've been adding more vinegar than 1 tablespoon and it's been great, and if the milk is room temperature or heated in the microwave for 15 seconds it's thicker. Great for a real substitute in recipes.

Amarante

Sun, Nov 15 2020, 10:56 am

MiracleMama wrote:

Is the coke just substituting for sweetener or does the cake actually taste like cola?

I wouldn't say it tastes like Coke but then what does Coke taste like exactly anyway? Smile

I have made the classic Atlanta Brisket which uses Coke as one of the ingredients and it doesn't taste like meat with soda.

But Coke definitely adds something to the overall flavor of the cake that wouldn't be achieved if you just used sugar to sweeten.

Chocolate is such a strong flavor so I don't think someone who was given a piece of cake would say AHA - Coca Cola unless they had an incredible sense of taste. I watch Top Chef and sometimes they have the chefs compete to see how many ingredients they can name when they taste blindfolded and most of them can't identify many of the ingredients.

At any rate, I don't think someone who hates Coke wouldn't like the cake.

Amarante

Sun, Nov 15 2020, 10:59 am

WitchKitty wrote:

Oh, great!

There are a lot of ways to sub for buttermilk so you can google if you want more background or additional instructions.

I think many people need to sub because unless you are baking a large quantity of stuff it is hard to use up a quart of buttermilk. Although oddly I do like the taste of buttermilk on its own as it can be refreshing.

MiracleMama

Sun, Nov 15 2020, 10:59 am

Amarante wrote:

I wouldn't say it tastes like Coke but then what does Coke taste like exactly anyway? Smile

Haven't heard of this but my aunt used to marinate her turkeys in coke - it seemed to both sweeten (just slightly) and tenderize. It was delicious.

I haven't actually had a soda to drink (unless you count seltzer) in many years. I'm not sure how I would describe what coke tastes like but you know it when you taste it.

Amarante

Sun, Nov 15 2020, 11:02 am

MiracleMama wrote:

The Atlanta Brisket is really delicious. It is an iconic recipe and there are a zillion recipe variations.

Definitely Coke has a distinctive taste - what I meant is that in this recipe it is part of a lot of other flavors so it is not replicating the taste of a Coke per se.

The Coke flavor was probably more pronounced in the frosting than the cake itself since there were fewer flavors in the frosting and flavored frostings generally have distinctive flavors.