Hello, my Friends! And Welcome to the Twelve Days of Pound Cake 2022! You’re in for a treat over the next twelve days (pun totally intended). And we’re starting this year’s festivities with this Coca-Cola Chocolate Pound Cake!

This is a photo of a Coca-Cola Chocolate Pound Cake, sliced.

About this Coca-Cola Chocolate Pound Cake

What can I say about this cake…it’s fudgy and chocolaty and it was my daughter’s new favorite since before the recipe was even done. The Coca-Cola negates the need for any leavening, so you can bake this right now even if your baking soda is a little…stale. ???? (This is your reminder to go out and update your leavening before you have to elbow folks out of the way for the last box on Thanksgiving Eve. But if that’s your jam…)

The Coca-Cola actually does double duty in this cake. In addition to providing most of the leavening power, it imparts just enough of that classic Coca-Cola flavor to take you back to those childhood trips to the corner store for candy and soda (btw…what a combo. What were we doing and where were our parents?).

Yeah. It’s kinda great.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

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The Cake Ingredients

All-Purpose Flour: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…I love the pleasantly plump texture of a good pound cake. In my experience (and with my cakes), that beautiful texture comes from all-purpose flour. Cake flour is a wondrous ingredient, to be sure. But to get that dense pound cake texture that I was looking for in this cake, I needed all-purpose.

Dutch Process Cocoa Powder: Friends, I went back and forth with this cake, trying to figure out whether to use natural cocoa powder or Dutch-processed cocoa powder. In the end, I found that the Coca-Cola played better with the Dutch-processed cocoa powder.

Kosher Salt: Chocolate cake (or really, any sweet thing) needs salt to balance the sugar. Without a tiny bit of salt, the cake becomes too sweet very quickly.

Vegetable Oil: Surprise! I played with this recipe and ended up wanting to use vegetable oil instead of butter! First of all, that means this cake comes together lickety-split (and yes, that is a technical term). But I eventually chose vegetable oil because I found that butter covered the Coca-Cola flavor a bit too much.

This is a photo of a Coca-Cola Chocolate Pound Cake, whole.

Granulated Sugar: As always, granulated sugar adds sweetness to this cake and helps with caramelization.

Eggs: The protein in the eggs adds structure to the cake, while the fatty yolk adds delicious flavor.

Pure Vanilla Extract: Chocolate and vanilla seem like polar opposites, but they go together oh-so-well. Make sure to use pure vanilla extract and not the imitation stuff that’s so prevalent on store shelves this time of year. (I see you, retailers.)

Coca-Cola: The star of the show! Yes, you get a punch of the soda flavor in the cake, but it is also there do to double duty as your leavening! And how cool is that!

Sorry. I will always take opportunities to nerd out about ingredients when there’s an opportunity to do so. ????

Beginners Start Here

If you’re new to baking, or if you want to brush up on pound cake basics ???? , here are a couple of super helpful articles from the BwB site that will help you get set up for success with this Coca-Cola Chocolate Pound Cake.

These resources are super helpful to help you build consistency and confidence on your baking journey. Happy Reading!

Important Tools Used in this Coca-Cola Chocolate Pound Cake

Below, you’ll find some tools that I used for this pound cake. These are the tools that I use in my kitchen for just about everything that I bake.

**I get paid a small commission if you purchase directly from some of these links, but they are truly amazing products that you’ll find in my kitchen.**

This is a photo of chocolate and glitter-covered acorns.

If you have them already, great! Think of this as a checklist to help you build the confidence that you’ll need to execute this recipe!

This Coca-Cola Chocolate Pound Cake stole my dear daughter’s whole heart. And how could I not start the Twelve Days of Pound Cake with such an amazing cake? I hope you all love it as much as we do!

See you tomorrow, friends!

Coca-Cola Chocolate Pound Cake

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Print Recipe

This incredible Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake is fudgy and moist and…absolutely perfect for any occasion. It’s so simple too!

Total Time: ~5 hours (with cooling time)
Yield: 14 servings 1x

Ingredients

Units Scale

For the Cake:

288 g (2.25 c) all-purpose flour
63 g (2/3 c) Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp kosher salt
500 g (2.5 c) granulated sugar
5 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
250 g (1 c) Coca-Cola
227 g (1 c)vegetable oil

For the Chocolate Simple Syrup:

83 g (1/3 c) water
67 g (1/3 c) granulated sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder (can be natural or Dutch process)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

For the Chocolate Ganache:

170 g (1 c) semi-sweet chocolate chips
125 g (1/2 c) heavy cream, well shaken

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Instructions

To Make the Cake:

Pre-heat your oven to a true 325°F. This temperature is super important! An oven thermometer will help you determine if your oven runs hot or cold.
Sift together the all-purpose flour, Dutch process cocoa powder, and kosher salt in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
QUICK NOTE: *Sifting is incredibly important! Cocoa powder tends to clump, and the only way to avoid those clumps in your cake is to sift. So…DON’T SKIP THE SIFT!*
Thoroughly combine the granulated sugar, eggs, pure vanilla extract, and Coca-Cola with a ballon whisk.
Add vegetable oil to liquid mixture and combine with the whisk until everything is thoroughly combined. The oil will take a minute or two to combine with the rest of the mixture, but it will combine!
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir with the balloon whisk until no lumps of flour remain.
Prepare your bundt pan (my favorite way is the butter/flour method that you can find right here!) and add the batter to the prepared bundt pan.
Bake for 55-70 minutes in a 325°F oven, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 210°F-215°F. My Goldilocks temp is 212°F.
Remove from the oven and allow to place on a cooling rack, in its pan, for ten minutes.
After ten minutes, invert the cake onto the cooling rack.

To Make the Simple Syrup:

Add the water, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, and salt to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil just until all of the solids are dissolved. Remove from the heat.
Add the vanilla extract and stir to combine.
Brush on the cake after inverting it onto the cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool completely. Like, 3-5 hours “completely”.

To Make the Chocolate Ganache:

Place the chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
Place the heavy cream in a heat-proof measuring cup (like this one!) and heat in a microwave until just before it starts to boil (45-75 seconds, depending on the microwave).
Pour the heavy cream over the chocolate chips and cover with plastic wrap. Do not stir yet!
Allow the heavy cream to melt the chocolate for 5 minutes. Stir with a small whisk or spoon to combine. If the chocolate does not melt, place in the microwave at 10-second intervals, stirring in between intervals, until the mixture is completely smooth.
Allow the ganache to cool slightly (3-5 minutes) before using. If you wait too long, the ganache will thicken and will not pour easily over the cake.
Pour the ganache over the cake using a spouted measuring cup, a squeeze bottle, or a spoon.
Enjoy!