Mom’s Pepsi Cola Cake

paula

9 years ago

There is quite a bit of irony that nearly every year of my early life I asked for a Coca-Cola Cake for my birthday. First, it is a chocolate cake and I am not the biggest fan of chocolate. Second, I really preferred Sprite or other non-cola drinks when I was young. Last, my mom’s recipe was called a “Pepsi Cola Cake.”

What exactly was the appeal then? My mom’s cola cake was very tender, moist, and not overwhelmingly chocolaty, but I think the biggest draw was that I loved the icing.

I still love cola cake and I still get it for my birthday. This year, my daughter made it (with a little help from me as I did not want her pouring boiling hot liquid into a mixer bowl). She did a great job.

My daughter will not be asking for a cola cake for her birthday in a few weeks. She actually does not care that much for chocolate either and she thinks the cake is too sweet and rich. The icing is her least favorite part….(sigh). I will admit that I can no longer eat as much of the cake as I did when I was young…it is richly filling and the icing is very sweet.

Recipe: Mom’s Pepsi Cola Cake

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp. cocoa
1 c. Pepsi (or other) Cola
2 sticks butter or oleo
2 c. sugar
2 c. unsifted all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place cocoa, cola and the butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
In a mixer bowl, combine sugar, flour, and salt.
Pour boiling cola mixture over the flour mixture and beat until very smooth. Be sure to start the mixture on low!
Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Remove bowl from mixer (or mixer from bowl) and stir in buttermilk and soda by hand.
Pour into a greased and floured 13 X 9 X 2 baking pan.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until a tester is inserted in the middle and comes out clean.
Remove from oven, make hot cola icing, and pour over still warm/hot cake.

Notes:

Using sour milk works just as well as buttermilk. For sour milk, add 1/2 Tbsp. cider vinegar to 1/2 c. of regular milk.

Recipe: Pepsi Cola Icing

Ingredients:

1 stick butter or oleo
3 Tbsp. cocoa
6 Tbsp. Pepsi Cola
1 lb. confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. chopped nuts, pecans or walnuts (optional)

Instructions:

In a saucepan, bring oleo, cocoa, and Pepsi Cola to a boil.
Remover from heat and beat in confectioner’s sugar (or beat the boiling mixture into a bowl of confectioner’s sugar) until smooth.
Add vanilla and nuts (optional).
Pour over warm cake.
“Good and easy.”

There is one other irony, of sorts, about me asking for a Coke birthday cake: my birthday is in the middle of July and my parent’s never had air conditioning in the kitchen. It was not until I became an adult that I realized that I should have asked for an “icebox” cake instead.