Chocolate Pepsi Cake

I can't take full credit for this recipe, it comes from James Martin's 'Desserts' book, however I slightly adapted it to suit as a dessert when working as head chef.

It sounds odd at first but the Pepsi enhances the flavour of the Chocolate, making it deliciously rich and almost gives the cake a little 'fizz' to it. It's got to be full fat pepsi too- I tried with diet and max but just doesnt work!

Its fantastic served as it is with cream poured over it or warmed up in the microwave so the icing goes all gooey and served with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream

For The Cake

250g Butter

250g Self-raising flour

300g Caster sugar

3tbsp Cocoa powder

1tsp Vanila extract

1tsp Baking powder

200ml Full fat pepsi

75ml Whole milk

2 Eggs

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease a 24cm cake tin and line with baking parchment

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. In a jug have the pepsi, milk and vanilla extract ready to add to the mix. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and beat well.

On a low heat melt the butter. Don't melt in the microwave as you want to clarify the butter-  this means that you will see a clear layer on top of a milky layer. 

Once the butter has reached this stage, add it into the dry ingredients, pour in the milk/vanilla/pepsi mix and beaten eggs. Mix gently but thoroughly.

It will look very runny at this point but don't worry as it will solidify during cooking. Pour into the baking tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack before turning out- if you turn out too early it will just fall apart.

For the icing:

60g Softened butter

200g Icing sugar

2-3tbsp Cocoa powder

2tbsp Pepsi

1tbsp Whole milk

Sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly until it reaches a smooth "paste" using a palate knife or silicone spatula spread the icing over the top of the cake. Enjoy!