Weekend Cooking: Coke Cake

Weekend Cooking is hosted each week by Beth Fish Reads.  It is a fun meme that provides great new recipes, cookbooks, and other foodie finds.  Follow the link to discover the new posts for this week.

Well, summer has arrived in the Midwest with a vengeance.  The weather forecast for the next seven days sounds like a broken record: excessive heat warnings with temperatures in the 90s and heat indexes hovering around 105 degrees!  It is the kind of weather that zaps the energy out of everyone.  Fortunately, I have central air conditioning and lots of books to help me through this difficult weather pattern.

While it is too hot to even think about cooking, I do often select one weekend day to grill chicken and steak on the barbie (well, I don't actually do the grilling...I delegate that responsibility to my hubby) and I always plan for extras to have on hand for salads for the rest of  the week.  I currently have chicken breasts marinating in  the refrigerator, and I will head out later today to purchase some steaks that happen to be on sale (the only time we ever eat steak, really, is when it is on sale).   We will also have corn on the cob, homemade ice cream (again - I just LOVE the stuff), and possibly Coke Cake.

I mentioned this family favorite a few weeks ago and there was some interest in the recipe, so I thought I would feature that today.  I really don't know the origins of this dessert, I just know that my mom has made it ever since I was little and it has remained a favorite for nearly five decades.  Some say that it is reminiscent of a Texas sheet cake, although I have not tried one of those to make the comparison.

Now this cake is loaded - I mean loaded - with sugar, so it is guaranteed to appease any sweet tooth you may have.  The high levels of sugar, coupled with the three sticks of butter, makes this a rich, decadent cake where a small piece can really go a long way.  However....somehow the cake never seems to last more than a couple of days around our household.

While the cake is fabulously rich, moist, and deletable on its own - you can really kick it up a notch and serve it warm with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream melting over the top.  Now that is heaven on a plate!

Coke Cake

(with a couple of adaptations from me)

Ingredients for cake:

• 1 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 jar marshmallow fluff (original recipe called for 1.5 cups chopped marshmallows)
• 1 cup Coke
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs - beaten
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions for cake:

1. In a large saucepan, add the butter, cocoa, marshmallow fluff, and coke.  Bring to a boil and set aside to cool slightly.
2. In a large bowl, add the sugar and flour and toss together.
3. Pour the warm mixture over the dry ingredients and blend together.
4. Stir in the eggs, buttermilk, and soda until just incorporated into the batter (don't over mix)
5. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or so
6. Once cake is taken from the oven.....immediately prepare the icing.

Directions for icing:

1. In a saucepan, bring 1/2 cup butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, and 6 tablespoons Coke to a boil.
2. Boil for one minute and remove saucepan from burner.
3. Add a box of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
4. Pour icing over hot cake and let cool.