With apologies to Lisa Boykin Batts, The Wilson Times’ resident cooking guru, my wife Elizabeth made a Coca-Cola cake for the third time ever. This cake for was for our son-in-law Darrin’s birthday. The others were for Elizabeth’s brother, Richard. It was his favorite.

I wasn’t certain what was going on this past weekend in our home as the French doors into the kitchen were closed and I could hear Elizabeth talking very loudly to someone with a bit of screaming and now and again an unprintable epithet. For a senior couple from Wilson, the man of the family who can only scramble eggs knows the signs that say “keep out” of the kitchen.

I did see five cookbooks opened, on the counter and stove. Her laptop computer was also open sitting on top of a bar stool facing the site preparation area, which was the entire kitchen counter plus one small table. No room for error, or me.

There was a problem, though. She’d lost her original recipe. She has notebooks full of such great delights cut out of magazines and newspapers and handwritten notes from friends. She has a bookshelf with more than 30 such books, plus about 50 other real cookbooks purchased over the decades, as well as my mom’s and her mom’s.

The ingredients seem similar, but the instructions vary. One big thing is that the glaze is made on the stovetop and poured over the cake while it’s hot out of the oven. She told me she took a bamboo skewer and poked holes all over the top, then poured the hot glaze onto the cake. That way, some of the glaze seeps down inside the cake.

The list Elizabeth used is published here.

If you have a recipe for Coca-Cola cake, please send me an email. My sweetie is hungry to find a replacement for the one she lost.

Oh, Darrin and his family ate the cake up right away. And it was good. She made a small one for us! By the way, we’ve learned you can substitute any carbonated beverage that suits you. We just haven’t tried that yet!

Oliver Hedgepeth, a native Wilsonian, is a professor of logistics teaching online at The American Military University. Email him at blh4835@gmail.com.

Coca-Cola Cake

Cake 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup Coca-Cola

1 ¾ cup granulated sugar

½ cup buttermilk

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 large eggs

1 ½ cups mini marshmallows

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar and the baking soda. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat on the stovetop the Coke, the cocoa powder, the softened butter and the mini marshmallows. When it begins to boil, immediately pour it into the flour-sugar mixture. Add the eggs, the vanilla and the buttermilk. Stir all until smooth. Pour into 9-by-13-inch buttered and floured baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of baking time, prepare the glaze.

Glaze 

⅓ cup Coca-Cola

½ cup salted butter, softened

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 16-ounce box powdered sugar

On the stovetop in a small saucepan, heat the Coke, butter and cocoa powder. Mix the powdered sugar and the vanilla in a small mixing bowl. When the Coke mixture begins to boil, pour it into the powdered sugar and vanilla mixture. Stir until smooth.

By now, your cake should be ready to remove from the oven. As it rests, poke holes all over the top, about ¾ inch apart. When that’s done, pour your hot glaze mixture over the top, paying attention that some of the mixture goes down the sides and into the corners.