Chocolate Cola Cake and BakedByH’s first birthday

Okay so I’m sliiiightly late with the whole blogiversary thing, but I can’t believe it’s been a year since BBH started – it’s gone so quickly! I still remember the early days, desperately trying to learn basic code and having no idea how to use a camera. I used to sit for HOURS on end with my computer scientist housemate trying to figure it all out (his answer to most of my questions was “I don’t know let’s google it.”) Some of you may remember that BBH didn’t look quite as polished as it does now and although there’s still a long way to go, I’m proud of my little corner of cyberspace and very grateful to all those who read and bake from my blog 🙂

So the cake. That’s why we’re all here really, isn’t it? This cake has a bit of a special place in my repertoire actually. I first made it on a cold Christmas day for dessert after a Christmas dinner that my brother made. My parents were on holiday so we were fending for ourselves. We STILL haven’t let it go, and relish all opportunities to bring up that one lonely Christmas… (All jokes aside, it was quite a fun Christmas – we spent ALL day in our pyjamas with no disapproving looks = success). It’s a James Martin recipe, and yes, it actually has coca cola inside it. It’s a lovely cake on it’s own but is made even more special by the addition of mars bar chocolate sauce. It’s literally a tuck shop in a cake – mars bar and coke!

I have to say, my favourite thing about this cake is the frosting. NO FROSTING COMPARES OMG. It’s sweet, but has a zingy, uplifting lightness about it from the fizzy cola. Add the deep flavour of caramel from the mars bar sauce and you have a match made in corner shop heaven.

Serves 12

For the cake:

250g salted butter, cubed (plus a little extra for greasing the tin)

200ml cola drink

1 tbsp golden syrup

250g self-raising flour

300g caster sugar

3 heaped tbsp cocoa powder

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

75ml milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

70g butter, softened

200g icing sugar

3 tbsp cocoa powder

2-3 tbsp cola drink

For the sauce:

2 mars bars

20g butter

splash of double cream

Recipe adapted from James Martin

1) First, grease and line an 8” round tin. Heat the oven to 160FAN.

2) In a saucepan, heat the butter, cola drink and golden syrup until melted. Allow to cool slightly.

3) Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and bicarb into a large bowl and add the butter and cola mixture, stirring with a spatula.

4) Whisk the eggs into the milk and vanilla and add this to the cake batter. There should be bubbles! This is the neutralisation of carbon dioxide with the bicarbonate of soda (knew chemistry A-Level would come in useful some day).

5) Pour in to the tin and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in to the centre comes out clean.

6) For the frosting, whip the butter on high speed for about 6 minutes. Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix. Add the cola drink, a tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired frosting consistency.

7) Decorate the cake however you like, I used mini cola bottle sweets to amp up the cute factor!

8) For the sauce, cut the mars bar in to small pieces and add it to a small saucepan along with the butter and double cream. Heat over a low heat until pouring consistency, adding more cream if you need it.