Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake Recipe

Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake

Originally published 12/9/2014. Reposted and updated 8/16/2016.

One of my most popular videos on YouTube is my original video for my Coca-Cola chocolate cake recipe. However, that was also one of my first videos ever, and it’s pretty awful. So I made a new video, and decided to update my post a little to go along with my shiny new video.

One of my favorite things ever is the Double Fudge Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake at Cracker Barrel. Formerly a seasonal item, in 2009 Cracker Barrel made it a permanent fixture on their menu. After cross-referencing a few recipes, both the original and several blogger variations, I devised my own gluten-free version that’s possibly even better than at the restaurant. Moist, rich, and perfect to enjoy warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, you’ll be able to trace your diabetes diagnosis in twenty years back to your very first piece of this decadent cake.

Before we get started, we need to talk about cocoa. I haven’t noticed much difference in rise or texture despite that natural cocoa powder is acidic (with a pH of around 5.5), and the dark cocoa powder is a combination of natural and dutched cocoa powders (dutched cocoa powder has been alkalized to an approximately neutral pH). I would try it with regular dutched cocoa, but the only thing available in my local market is Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder which uses a combination. It’s probably available online, but I’m not paying $5-7 shipping on a $4-5 item, that’s insanity.

I did tweak a few of the traditional ingredients. Rather than mini-marshmallows, I swapped in starch and corn syrup. Also, I approximately doubled the original amount of cocoa to make it more like the Cracker Barrel version. I did retain a few of the original ingredients and steps, though, like including buttermilk and using the creaming method with butter and sugar. With that said, let’s get into MY version of Coca-Cola chocolate cake (which will hopefully soon be your version of Coca-Cola chocolate cake, too).

Ingredients:

Cake-
¼ c. + 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 ¾ c. gluten-free all-purpose flour
¼ c. corn starch
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 stick butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
½ c. vegetable, peanut, or light olive oil
½ c. buttermilk
½ c. light corn syrup
1 c. Coca-Cola

Icing-
1 stick butter
½ c. Coca-Cola
¼ tsp. salt
¼ c. + 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
3 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, combine the cocoa, flour, corn starch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum. Whisk out any lumps and combine thoroughly. Set aside.
In large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. (Creaming is a method of combining a solid fat and sugar using a mixer. The sugar cuts into the fat to begin the process of adding air to your mixture, which will add texture to the final baked product.)
Add eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, corn syrup, and Coca-Cola to creamed mixture, and mix on low until combined, being careful to not splash. Add dry ingredient mix to liquid, increase mixer speed to medium, and beat about 2 minutes.
Pour batter into greased 9×13 pan, and bake at 350° for 35 minutes. Remember to check about 20 minutes in to see if the pan needs to be turned. Cake is done when toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
For the icing, melt butter in large sauté pan on medium heat (5/10), and measure out powdered sugar into a bowl. Add Coke, cocoa, and salt to melted butter, whisking until all lumps are gone. Gradually add sugar, whisking constantly to keep from burning. Bring mixture to a rolling boil for about 3-5 minutes (240° if you have an instant-read thermometer handy). Remove from heat, add vanilla extract, then pour over cake.
Allow cake and icing to cool for at least 2 hours. Fudge icing may harden, cut through cake by holding knife at a 60-70° angle and slicing with a sawing motion. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream.

I’ve tried this recipe with both dark cocoa powder and regular, and despite the dark cocoa making the cake and icing appear black, I like the flavor a little better. The classic recipe does use regular cocoa powder. Depending on your tastes and what you have available, feel free to play with your cocoa for this recipe.

You may not be able to eat at Cracker Barrel anymore since you went gluten-free, but you can enjoy this delicious take on one of their best items. Enjoy! Please leave your thoughts in a comment below, or get in touch with me directly by filling out the form on the contact page.

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Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake Recipe

Jamie

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