COLA CAKE.
This recipe originates from southern USA and it seemed like an odd addition to a chocolate cake at first but boy does it work! The cola makes the cake dense in texture and adds extra fullness to the flavour. Its also an extremely easy cake to make that doesn't require any fancy equipment or skills - the most difficult part is waiting for the cake to cool enough to cut yourself a slice!
Ingredients...
225g Plain flour
400g caster sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
225g butter
35g cocoa powder
2/3 can cola
120ml buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the icing,,,
80g butter
20g cocoa powder
1/3 can cola
350g icing sugar
Method...
Preheat the oven to 160 degree (gas 5). Grease and line a 9" x 13" tin.
Mix together in a big bowl - flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon (you can omit the cinnamon if you don't like the taste). In a saucepan, heat together the butter, cocoa powder, cola and buttermilk until bubbling (keep stirring so the mixture doesn't burn).
Add this chocolatey liquid to the dry ingredients and stir together until completely combined. and then add in the eggs and vanilla and stir again.
Pour all this gooey mix into the lined tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. When the cake is cooked - the top will change from a glossy shine to a matt texture and be slightly cracked (a skewer will also come out clean when inserted into the centre).
To make the icing - melt together in a saucepan the butter, cocoa powder and cola until bubbling (as before). Take it off the heat and stir through the icing sugar until glossy.
For best results, pour the icing over the cake as soon as the cake is taken out of the oven. The icing melts into the top of the cake ... delicious!
Cuts into about 18 pieces.
