Let Them Eat Coca Cola Cake!

The first time I had Coca Cola Cake, I was down in southwest Georgia in the little town of Lumpkin.  My daddy was born in Lumpkin in 1922, and in 1976, we carried his body back there to be buried, all the way from Miami, Florida, where I was raised.  The viewing was held in the parlor of my cousins' old Victorian on a lazy side street off the courthouse square, and it was there one of the town ladies who I did not know (in Lumpkin, everyone turns out for a funeral), brought a 9 x 13 pan of Coca Cola Cake.  I was sitting on the verandah in an antique white wicker chair (Daddy's family were all antique dealers), when the woman brought me a plate filled with cheese straws, snow white divinity, a small triangle of crust-removed pimiento cheese sandwich on white bread, and a big ol' piece of Coca Cola Cake.

Although I wasn't raised in Georgia, I was raised by Southern parents from Georgia and Alabama, so Coca Cola was as big a part of my life as the beach and The Beatles.  A Daddy's girl, I'd often sidekick with Daddy when he ran errands to the hardware store, the drugstore, the veterinarian (I was forever bringing home strays), and 7-Eleven, where he picked up wood cases of return-for-deposit 6-oz bottles of Coca Cola.  We may have run out of milk from time to time, but I don't think in my 18 years at home, we ever ran out of Coca Cola.

As for Coca Cola Cake, even today when I'm lucky enough to have a piece, I think of that time decades ago, sitting on that verandah in Lumpkin, GA, the day we buried my Daddy -- the sweetest, gentlest, and kindest man that ever lived.  

I'm chef-ing for Dr. Manfredi's group over at the Cancer Center in Blairsville on Friday, and I'll be serving Coca Cola Cake for dessert, so thought I'd share the recipe with you.  The unique flavor will dredge up the yummmm factor from the depths of even a yankee's soul.  This one's for you, Daddy.  So here we go...


COCA COLA CAKE

Preheat oven to 350, with rack in center. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.  You'll need 1 mixing bowl, one medium sauce pan, 1 wire whisk, and 1 mixing spoon. No electric mixer is used.

Place the following into a mixing bowl, then stir with a wire whisk to sift and combine:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

In a medium sauce pan, slowly bring to boil, stirring occasionally:
1 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup coca cola
1/2 cup buttermilk
When mixture boils, pour into bowl of dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Then mix in:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Pour into prepared pan.  Bake 30 minutes.  Toothpick should come out clean.

Near the end of the baking time, take the medium sauce pan again, and bring to a boil while occasionally stirring:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup coca cola

When it boils, remove from heat and carefully stir in
4 cups powdered sugar.

Stir in 1 cup chopped pecans if desired. 
Pour over cake hot from oven.

Allow to cool completely.  Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired. Cut into 16 portions.

Bon Apetit!