First of all, you may use any kind of cola-flavored soda, the original recipe from pastry chef Pooja Dhingra uses Thums Up, a popular cola drink in India. It's important that it's a carbonated drink, because this will serve as a leavening agent in the cake. Use it with your favorite, whether it's Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or even Dr Pepper! Varying levels of sweetness of the drink may affect the cake, in my case I used a cola-flavored soda that had 5 gr of sugar per 100 ml, so not too sweet! I also used 100% pure unsweetened cocoa powder, so the cake wasn't very sweet, it had a very deep chocolate taste that you have to savor to get that hint of sweetness.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 125 gr all purpose flour
- 30 gr cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 60 gr butter (melted)
- 200 gr sweetened condensed milk
- 125 ml cola-flavored soda
For the glaze:
- 120 gr of bittersweet chocolate
- 200 ml sweetened condensed milk
- 40 ml cola-flavored soda
Procedure:
1. Pour out 165 ml of the cola drink and set aside, you'll need 40 ml to be completely flat for the glaze.
2. Preheat the oven at 180ºC (with top and bottom heat, and fan function).
3. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda with a whisk and set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, mix melted butter and condensed milk.
5. Add half of the dry ingredients into de butter and condensed milk mixture and mix.
6. Add 125 ml of the cola drink into the batter and whisk until well-combined.
7. Add in the rest of the dry ingredients into the batter and mix until there are no lumps.
8. Pour the batter into a lined 18 cm diameter cake pan and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
9. For the glaze, melt bittersweet chocolate (either in a waterbath on the stove, or in the microwave) in a heat-proof bowl.
10. Mix condensed milk into the chocolate with a spatula, and finally add in the 40 ml of flat cola drink, and mix well until everything is combined.
11. Once the cake is done, let it cool off at room temperature and then cut off any bumps off the surface.
12. Put the cake on a wire rack, and place a large plate under it, pour the glaze until everything is covered.
13. Let it sit in the frige until the glaze sets, add any toppings you like (I added some star-shaped sprinkles) and enjoy!
As I said, the cake doesn't taste like cola, but the chocolate taste is so deep, and the texture is spongy and fluffy. I don't know if anyone would like to make it taste more of cola, but I would think that brushing some of the drink on the cake before glazing it could do the trick, it would also help moisten it.
Hope you can try this recipe out, and let me know how it goes, I'm tempted to try it with Dr Pepper!
