Chocolate Cola Bundt Cake

Chocolate and Cola Bundt Cake

My regular attendance at Clandestine Cake Club meetings provides me with a constant source of inspiration for making different kinds of cake. This Chocolate Cola Bundt Cake was made for the theme of 'Cocktails and Mocktails'. My daughter often attends the meetings with me and she always likes to do some kind of chocolate cake. Since we weren't going down the alcoholic route we required something different to mix our chocolate with. For a treat my daughter likes a drink of cola so this became our cocktail combination.

There are several recipes for Chocolate Cola Cake on the internet and this is probably a combination of all of them. The actual cola used in the cake was the famous brand one but I used their caffeine-free version. I have seen reports of different cola giving different results but as you can see this one worked fine. The icing topping I used is one I have put together myself. It's very light and not big on quantity as I don't like icing to overwhelm a cake.

I've used a Bundt tin to cook it in as I think Bundt tins are the cocktail glass of the baking world – anything looks good in them. If you want to know how good it tastes I was left with just the one slice at the end of the afternoon and a request for the recipe. In the middle there are six giant cola bottle sweets (Wilkinson's pic'n'mix if you're asking) – 2 each of plain cola, fizzy cola and cherry cola. If fancy turning it it into more of a 'Cola Float' try using marshmallows instead.

Equipment: 10 cup or 26cm Bundt tin/pan.

Ingredients

7 fl oz (200ml) Cola

4½ oz (125g) Unsalted butter, diced

¾ tsp (3.75ml) Bicarbonate of soda

9oz (250g) Self raising flour

½ oz (10g) Cocoa

10½ oz (300g) Golden caster sugar

2 Large eggs

4½ fl oz (125ml) Low fat natural yoghurt

1 tsp (5ml) Vanilla extract

Topping

2½ oz (70g) Icing sugar

1 tbsp (15ml) Cocoa

1 tbsp (15ml) Cola

Method

1. Prepare the tin by greasing it and then shaking flour round it. Tap out the excess flour.

2. In a saucepan pour the cola in and then add the butter. Gently heat it until the butter has melted. 
3. Bring the mixture to the boil and then add the bicarbonate of soda. This will fizz up. Stir it together and then leave to cool.

4. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Gas mark 5.

5. In a large bowl sift together the flour and cocoa. Add the sugar and then the cola mixture and beat well.

6. In a small bowl beat together the eggs, yoghurt and vanilla extract. Add this to the other mixture beat well until it is all combined.

7. Spoon the cake batter into the tin. To get rid of any air bubbles from the bicarbonate of soda or cola tap the tin a couple of times.

8. Bake for 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

9. For the icing put the icing sugar, cocoa and cola in a bowl and beat well. Add extra icing sugar if it is too runny or a little bit more cola if it is too thick.

10. Drizzle over the cooled cake and leave to set. Add any other decorations.