Bake of the Week logoIn honor of Black History Month, baker and cookbook author Cheryl Day is highlighting bakers and recipes that celebrate the legacy of Black baking all month long, including this week's Bake of the Week: Root Beer Cake with Chocolate Root Beer Ganache.

* * *

I’m thrilled to share a recipe for Root Beer Cake from my dear friend Carla Hall. We’ve been swapping recipes and stories about our ancestors for many years, especially those in celebration of our Southern roots.

I’ve loved hearing about how Carla’s love of food first started with baking her grandmother Freddie Mae’s recipes, which have been passed down for generations like treasured family heirlooms. Conversations about our baking legacy and food memories have always connected us — including talking about cake.

Root Beer Cake with Chocolate Root Beer Ganache Rick Holbrook
Moist, rich slices are made even better with a chocolatey glaze.

“Cakes made with soda pop like 7 Up, Coca-Cola, and root beer were so popular in the South, and I just always assumed it was a thing everywhere,” says Carla. Though soda cakes aren’t always well known outside the South, love for an ice-cold soda seems to cross all social, ethnic, and economic boundaries.

In the 1960s Coca-Cola found its way into a cake, and it became one of the most popular cakes on the Southern community table. This moist root beer cake is a spin on Carla’s grandmother’s classic Coca-Cola Cake, using fresh ginger, smoked cinnamon, and star anise to spice it up. It’s topped off with a Chocolate Root Beer Ganache — yum!

Carla believes that food connects us all, and when she cooks, she always cooks with love. This recipe is the perfect one to showcase her enthusiasm for life and the bubbly personality that has graced our TV screens to make her a household name we all know and love. You’re going to enjoy baking this cake too, and you’ll be able to taste the love in every bite.

Check out my full collection of Black History Month recipes, and share your own baking legacy stories in the comments, below!

Cover photo by Rick Holbrook.

Jump to Comments
Recipe in this post
Tagged:
Filed Under: Recipes
The Author

About Cheryl Day

Cheryl Day is a self-taught artisan baker who established Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia in 2002. Back in the Day Bakery has been recognized nationally and locally for its handcrafted Southern-inspired desserts, artisan breads, as well as the warm and friendly atmosphere that has made t...
View all by Cheryl Day

Comments

Donyella Hutton

April 16, 2022 at 10:29pm

I see your cakes for, Black History Month, but, it is, Holy Saturday, for me here in, April, the day before, Easter Sunday! I found a, Holy Bible quote about, cake, but, it isn't the most flattering one, I dreaded using it, but, will today! Job's Complaint, Job Longs for Death, Job 7:5, (NKJV). Okay, I love cakes, and, was surprised when this revelation was given to me about them! Thank god, anyway!

JMA_C

February 21, 2022 at 2:07pm

Sorry, but this was a huge failure. I used my simplest bundt pan, and it stuck beyond usability. I could never serve this as is. Perhaps if you used a springform pan, although the texture is such that I suspect it will stick horribly and crumble no matter what. Perhaps less butter would help the texture or less sugar. The sugar content is almost the same as the flour. I waited 30 minutes to remove the pan, and while it was warm, it stuck horribly. Also the ganache is rather bitter, and while I wouldn't make this receipt again, less spices might help someone else judge for themselves. I refuse to believe the photo is showing this recipe.

Alexander at King Arthur

February 23, 2022 at 2:43pm

Sorry for the cake troubles, JMA_C! Bundt cakes can be tricky to release involving any batter but we do have a great blog post discussing stuck bundt tips here. My main advice for ensuring a clean release would be to use a newer Bundt pan that hasn't been put through the dishwasher and has the coating still in tact, use a non-stick baking spray, and to only spray the pan just before adding the batter. Additionally, I would recommend inverting the bundt 10 minutes after it is removed from the oven next time. One reason cakes like to stick is that they are slightly underbaked and all of the moisture has not yet evaporated so if you don't see the sides of the cake beginning to peel away from the pan, so that you can get a flat edge in between the cake and the pan, you may want to put the bundt back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

As for the ganache, if you find that it is quite bitter, you can add more confectioners sugar. With 1.5 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa and 2 cups of confectioner's sugar, there should be a nice sweetness to the ganache but you are always welcome add more. I hope this helps!

Doug

February 18, 2022 at 7:02pm

I just baked the Root Beer cake. The taste is really unique. I gave samples to some neighbors to get their reaction and they all loved it.

I am going to buy a new bundt pan; the cake did not come out clean but ugly tastes as good as pretty! I think next time I'll let the cake cool off completely before I invert the bundt pan to see if the cake holds together when flipped. Because the cake was below the top of the pan, gravity just ripped the still warm cake in half. It was a very old bundt pan, no longer 'non-stick', and spray on oil didn't help.

I also had to tweak the ganache on the fly. The butter never really incorporated into the cocoa and root beer so I had free butter as well as the creamy chocolate. Additionally, the 1/4 cup of root beer and 4 tbs of butter were not enough liquid to produce a ganache. At that liquid to sugar ratio, what I got was a giant ball of sorta chocolate. I didn't have an cream on had so I just heated up some buttermilk and added about 1/2 cup to get the texture right. The flavor was probably off from what it should have been but mirrored the cake ingredients so it all worked.

I'll be making it again later this week in a 9x13 pan for a pot luck and am looking forward to everyone's reaction. Thanks for putting this out for the world to try!

Karen

January 28, 2023 at 6:30pm

Hi all, I just finished baking this cake. Cake turned out fine. The ganache was a different story..root beer, cocoa and butter mixed just fine, but one I added the confectionery sugar it became a big mess…didn’t have any cream to add. I reheated over water bath and was at least able to cover the cake…good flavor, but thick cake cover…does the liquid amount need to be increased and/or comf. Sugar be decreased? Asking for a friend😡

Barb at King Arthur

February 4, 2023 at 11:08am

Hi Karen, we're sorry to hear you had difficulty with the ganache, but glad you were able to make it work! We think the liquid/confectioner's sugar amounts are correct, but if you have a scale I would recommend weighing your ingredients, sifting the confectioner's sugar, and then whisking this (along with the spices and salt) into the chocolate mixture gradually. 

Alexander at King Arthur

February 23, 2022 at 12:17pm

Hi Sonya! While root beer brings the real character to the recipe, you could replace it with another liquid such as water with up to a teaspoon of extract to gain some root beer flavoring. You may notice a slight lack of sweetness with this substitution. Happy baking!

Heather Mullett

February 17, 2022 at 12:08pm

I'm confused about the introductory reference to "smoked" cinnamon, since the recipe just calls for cinnamon and there is nothing in the directions about smoking it.

MaryJane at King Arthur

February 23, 2022 at 10:31am

Hi Heather,
Smoked cinnamon is made from cinnamon sticks that are smoked before grinding adding an amazing depth of flavor. This article has wonderful information on it: https://www.saveur.com/smoked-cinnamon/. Happy baking!

Post A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Blog

Recommended Posts