Root Beer Cake (GF/DF):
This post is dedicated to all the southerners out there! Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Coca Cola Cake!! If you haven’t, it’s basically a super rich chocolate cake that has one can of Cola in both the batter AND the frosting. It’s rich, it’s delicious, it’s a sugar high in its truest form. We decided to make a Root Beer version of this delicious confection, as well as cut back on some of the sugar content by using our syrups instead of bottles sodas.
PREP: 35 MINS // YIELD: 1 Pan
INGREDIENTS
|2/3 C vegetable oil
|1 1/3 C soda water
|3 oz Root Beer Syrup
DIRECTIONS
For the cake, combine the soda water and Root Beer Syrup to use in place of the water, then follow the directions on the box.
Once the cake has about 10 more minutes of cook time, begin making your frosting. Bring the soda water and Root Beer Syrup to a boil, reducing until there is about 1/2 of liquid remaining. Once liquid has reduced, add in the cocoa powder and butter. Once butter is melted, remove frosting from the heat. Add in one cup of powdered sugar and whisk to combine. Continue adding powdered sugar until you reach desired consistency. The frosting is pretty fool proof, you can add more or less sugar depending on how thick you’d like it (I did roughly 2 cups). Once all the sugar is whisked in and you have a warm, thick frosting, pour it over the cooked, hot from the oven cake. You read that right- put the frosting on the hot cake- trust me. Spread frosting around to evenly coat the top then practice self control and wait for cake to cool before slicing.
For serving, you can eat the cake straight out of the pan (no judgement) or take things up a notch and put your slice on top of some vanilla ice cream and top with a drizzle of Root Beer Syrup. As always, let us know if you recreate this recipe and tag us in any photos!
Portland Syrup brews exquisitely flavored lower-sugar mixers using whole botanical ingredients. Each 16 oz. bottle will make nearly a gallon of finished soda, or 16-32 cocktails, depending on your palate.
Ingredients: Water, cane sugar, brown sugar, Indian sarsaparilla root, molasses, star anise, clove, other whole spices, real vanilla extract (alcohol, whole bean extractives).