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?”
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!
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
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I just made this cake for my husband. He’s a HUGE fan of Cracker Barrel’s Cola cake. Your recipe came out A W E S O M E. I did have a bit of an issue with the icing. Mine turned out so thick (like fudge thick) that I added some more Coke a Cola to loosen it up a bit. I used Walmart baking cocoa and real butter, so I don’t know if they could have affected how thick it came out? The extra 1/4 cup of Coke did the trick. Still delicious!!!!!!!
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 agree Abi, it’s yummy!!!
I grew up in NC and I’ve made my grandma’s coca cola cake for years. It’s a favorite of my Utah husband! However, I’ve never used a cake mix and my recipe calls for stove top cooking first.
Perhaps I need to make 2 to compare!….
Thank you for this recipe I’m literally walki to the kitchen right now to try it! I’ve been googling or 15 minutes looking for one like this! I live Mississippi and live off of coca cola and have never tried a coca cola cake or fried coke! I’m not sure how but I haven’t lol
I made this cake last week for someone’s birthday. I don’t know if she liked it but I loved it. The icing makes it! I am making it tonight for a bake sale at church tomorrow. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did.