Hivemind moment

[femkes_follies]

So, "everybody knows" that CocaCola Cake was invented during WWII right?

Hmmmm, was it? I can't find the smoking gun.

My 1943 Baker's Chocolate cookbook has a section on substitutions and includes a "no sugar" cake that has corn syrup instead. It also has advice on adapting most of the other recipes to replace part of the sugar with corn syrup or honey. Nothing about cola. Or even beet juice, which is supposedly the origin of Red Velvet.

Any thoughts/hints/places I should look? (Heck, anybody have an old CocaCola ad with the original purported recipe?)

Comments

[pearl]

I have never heard of CocaCola cake... it sounds horrifying!

The only thing I can think of, is this guy: http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html

[femkes_follies]

*lol* Actually, they're moderately fabulous. Every version I've seen is a chocolate cake, with chocolate icing. You don't REALLY taste the cola.

Urban Legend has it that during WWII, it was a way to make a cake in spite of sugar rationing. The earliest recipe I can find is 1952.

It's sort of a Southern "thang" - so it's not likely to turn up in any of the family stuff that I have at my disposal. Maybe Jerusha has it in an old church cookbook or some such.

[pearl]

Is the 1952 recipe the same as this one?
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#colacake

And this encyclopedia apparently includes them:
Foodways: The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Volume 7
(University of North Carolina Press)
http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1185&context=glq&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com.au%2Fscholar%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%2522coca%2Bcola%2Bcake%2522%2Bhistory%26btnG%3DSearch%26as_sdt%3D0%252C5%26as_ylo%3D%26as_vis%3D0#search=%22coca%20cola%20cake%22

[femkes_follies]

Yep, that's the same 1952 one. I'll use that for my base recipe if nobody in LJ land has an older version. ;-)

(Reall, it tastes better than it sounds. Much of the acid is neutralized in the leavening of the cake and the cola flavors meld into the cocoa.)

[pearl]

I found a 1959 mention?..
http://bakingvintage.com/?p=76

[femkes_follies]

Thanks! I hadn't seen that one. I bet Mom HAS that cookbook at home. I'm not sure there are many of the Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbooks that she missed. ;-)

[mmcnealy]

I'd try emailing the Coca-cola archivist for the dating, since it looks like the original recipe was created and publised in an Atlanta junior cook league book.

http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/recipes.html