Coca Cola Cake ~Oh So Good!~

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If you’re familiar with Coca Cola cake, just seeing the title had you scrolling down to make sure you had the ingredients to make it today. If you’re not familiar with Coca Cola cake, allow me to offer a brief introduction (because you need to hurry up and make this cake!).

We love our Coca Cola. After all, Coke is a southern product! It was invented in Atlanta, just a few hours from where I live, and the extremely large World Of Coke museum is located in downtown Atlanta today.

If you’ve never been to Atlanta, you simply must put World Of Coke on your list of things to see should you ever get to visit. My kids love it so much that I can’t even tell you how often we have been. With in-laws living just outside of Atlanta, every time we go to visit I hear “Are we going to the Coke Museum?”

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They especially love the tasting room where you can drink all the different beverages Coke makes around the world. Some of them are amazingly delicious – and some are downright strange – but all of them are fun to try!

The museum also hosts an interactive movie theater, complete with 3-d, smell-o-vision, vibrating seats, and even special effects like water sprays and such (all minor). There are coke relics from around the world and several floors of interesting and interactive exhibits. Kids love this place!

Oh, back to my cake….Coca Cola does wonderful things to baked goods. The sugar in it caramelizes, the carbonation tenderizes, the flavor is so amazing that it enhances everything. I have a few Coke recipes up my sleeve to share with you but we shall start with this wondrous cake!

Oh, and yes, in the south, if it is a carbonated beverage, it is a “Coke”. No one ever says “soda” or “pop”. All carbonated beverages are “cokes”.

“You want a coke?”

“Sure!”

“What kind?”

“Dr. Pepper”

That is generally how it goes. We really do love our Coke!

Alrighty then, on to our cake! Did you know that Coca Cola cake is so popular in the south that our beloved Cracker Barrel Restaurants even have it on their menu as a seasonal special? Yup, see how much you learn with me? You N’ me, we’z smart folks!

You’ll need: White cake mix, cocoa, coca cola, eggs, margarine, vanilla, marshmallows, and buttermilk (Or substitute whole milk with a bit of lemon juice mixed in like I do).
*Now don’t y’all start in on wanting to substitute “Diet” or “Splenda” coke for Coca Cola. This is good, don’t mess up a good thing!
Just fix it how the recipe says and munch on some celery after you lick the bowl!
Dump cake mix into a mixing bowl.
Melt butter in microwave
Add cocoa powder and melted butter to cake mix.
Pour in Coca Cola
Add eggs.
Add 1 Tablespoon lemon juice to milk. If you have buttermilk there is no need to add lemon juice.
Drop your digital camera into cake batter. Fish out as quickly as possible.
Add milk and check to see if your digital camera will still take a photograph, continually wiping more chocolaty batter from the sliding cover as it drips out from beneath the areas that you can’t possibly clean under because the idiots nice people who invented the thing didn’t have the good sense to fix it so little parts and such could pop off conveniently when someone was stupid enough became distracted by the excitement of baking for her family and accidentally dropped the camera into the batter. I mean, what are folks supposed to do in situations like this? Shouldn’t the camera manufacturers have thought ahead a little here?
*Add vanilla but get frustrated trying to take a picture of it and just give up, making a note to put a little asterisk beside the tutorial instructions reminding folks to add it.
*Make another note reminding folks to wear that little camera strap on their wrist next time they happen to be baking and photographing each and every step like an obsessive bake-a-holic even though you actually took your strap off just last week and stuffed it in a drawer because it kept dipping down and showing up in photographs of your food and you decided it was completely useless. I mean, what kind of idiot can’t even hold on to their camera, right?
Mix your batter and scrape down the sides.
Turn the mixer on low and go dampen a dishcloth and try to wipe some of the dripping chocolate goo off your camera after taking one more picture. Don’t forget to open the battery compartment because it got in there, too….and also that little slot that holds the now chocolate covered SD card. Yeah, clean that also. Hurry up, its starting to get sticky holding that thing.
Toss in your marshmallows and turn the mixer on just so they are all dunked down into the batter – much like your camera was – only this time it is intentional with the marshmallows. What the heck were you thinking? I mean, how does someone drop a camera into cake batter? Have fun explaining that one!
Spray your pan with cooking spray and take another picture. Try not to think about the fact that the camera is actually sticking to your hand and feels really gross. Just be glad you are still able to take pics.
That really was stupid of you to drop it in there, you know.
Spread your batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350.
Give up on the sticky camera for now and switch to using your iPhone for the rest of the photographs.

 

While that is baking, prepare your icing.
You’ll need: Cocoa, Margarine, more Coca Cola, and Confectioner’s Sugar
Put your margarine in a pot as you begin to wonder why Apple made iPhone pics such a wierd proportion. Or is it in your head? Does this look like a normal size for a photograph to you?
Pour in Coca Cola.
Bring this to a boil, then remove from heat.
Add Confectioner’s Sugar. Stir well until there are no lumps. I use a wire whisk for this.
Remove cake from oven. Pour hot icing over hot cake.
 
Get ready for some happy kids!
Mine both ate two slices of this for dessert! My husband had two also.
This is NOT a cake that will go to waste!
Now go fret over your camera a little more.
Maybe some q-tips and rubbing alcohol might help you clean it again….
 

Coca Cola Cake

Coca Cola Cake: The sugar in it caramelizes, the carbonation tenderizes, the flavor is so amazing that it enhances everything.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cake
Servings: 4
Calories: 454kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 package plain white cake mix
  • 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 8 Tablespoons 1 stick butter or margarine, melted
  • 1 cup coca cola
  • ½ cup buttermilk Or substitute 1/2 C whole milk with a T of lemon juice stirred in
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups of marshmallows
  • Icing:
  • 8 Tablespoons 1 stick butter or margarine
  • 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/3 Cup coca cola
  • 4 Cups confectioners’ sugar sifted
  • 1 Cup chopped pecans I left these out because my kids prefer this cake with no nuts, but pecans are GREAT in this!

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 13x9-inch baking pan with vegetable oil spray. Set the pan aside.
  • Place the cake mix, cocoa powder, melted butter, cola, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides with a spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes.
  • The batter should be well blended. Fold in the marshmallows. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place the pan it the oven.
  • Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, 40 to 42 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, prepare frosting while cake is still hot.
  • Place the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. As the butter melts, stir in the cocoa powder and cola. Let the mixture come to just a boil, stirring constantly, and then remove it from the heat. Stir in the confectioners’ sugar until the frosting is thick and smooth. Fold in the pecans.
  • Pour the frosting over the top of the cake, spreading it out with a rubber spatula so that it reaches the edges of the cake. Cool the cake for 20 minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 454kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!
 

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90 Comments

  1. I have heard of this, but haven’t tasted it. I did try Deep Fried Coke at the fair last year… didn’t like it at all! LOL
    Your recipes sound so yummy!
    I was just stopping by to say “Hi.”
    Pinky sent me 🙂

    Reply

  2. Greetings….am a regular follower of Pinky’s website and getting to be a regular reader here. Can you make the Coca Cola cake with Diet? I know I know…always one in every crowd….
    just printed the raisin muffin recipe to keep in the fridge as I seem to be the ONLY one in the house that likes em and I like the idea of keeping them in the fridge….
    I love you site…but it doesn’t do much for my waist-line

    Reply

  3. I was laughing out loud as I read your post – that poor camera! Were you ever able to get it cleaned up? That totally sounds like something I would do (haven’t yet, but I wouldn’t put it past me).

    It’s probably blasphemy to ask this, but can this be made with something besides coca-cola? We don’t buy or drink cola drinks, only non-caffeinated beverages here. Would root beer or cream soda work?

    Reply

  5. Now i Have heard of this but NEVER had it yet! I need to try this one too!. *fingers crossed for tomorrow* excited to see who wins!
    Now off to see what I need to buy for that cake lOL The last one was so successful!

    Reply

  7. Pinky sent me over to say hello! I love cocoa cake–we made it all the time at a place I worked in KY!!!

    Reply

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