Teaching Katy to Bake

I confessed to a friend this week that I was feeling a bit emotional.  It's not really like me.  I'm quite self contained.  I don't hug, or weep or get overly excited or angry.  This week, though, the reality that my daughter will soon be leaving home began to hit.  There seemed to be a long list of 'lasts' she has to attend and her emotion started to rub off.  My friend said, "Can I give you some advice? -  Laundry Basket!"  She told me to go and get a lovely laundry bag for my daughter as a present so that in her 3rd or 4th week of Uni, when she realised that the laundry fairy didn't exist, she would have a starting point for conversation.  "That's a lovely laundry bag! Where did you get it?"

The idea that she wouldn't be able to talk to people and make friends hadn't even crossed my mind but she had asked me to teach her to bake Nigella Lawson's Coca Cola Cake because although it is the ugliest cake in the world it is also the most delicious and she is sure it would help her to make friends at Uni.

This week was also her last school concert and she wanted a present for her music teacher but couldn't decide what to get.  Her teacher loves diet coke, reads this blog with her daughter (also a Katy!) and can't understand how we sometimes have cake left in this house.  So we decided make the cake as a present and put the instructions on the blog.

Nigella Lawson's Coca Cola Cake


Weigh out 200g plain flour, 250g golden caster sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of bicarb of soda and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and put to one side.

"Where have those orange spoons gone? How do you measure  1/2 a teaspoon without them?"

In a jug beat an egg, 125ml of buttermilk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and put to the other side.

"I know it's my favourite cake but this smells like off yoghurt!"

In a heavy based saucepan melt 125g ("Oh, that's clever it's exactly half a block.  Does all butter have the markings on the packet?") of unsalted butter, with 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and 175ml of Coca Cola (and it has to be full fat - diet is not for cakes).

"Ooo.  This is so much fun it's all bubbly."

Pour the melted stuff onto the dry ingredients and stir well with a wooden spoon then add the egg mixture and beat until it is well blended.

Line a 22cm Springform tin with tin foil and grease it.  The tin foil stops the batter leaking and it's really easy to use and peel off when the cake is cooked.

"Tin foil. Can't we use those cake tin liners?"

Pour in the batter and bake on a warm oven sheet at 180C for 40 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.

Ugly cake

While the cake cools for about 15 minutes make the icing.  Sieve 225g of icing sugar into a bowl.  Katy probably learnt more about baking in this step as she was shaking the sieve and the icing sugar was flying all over the kitchen.  When I suggested pushing the icing sugar through the sieve she said, "That's not sieving it's mashing it through holes!"  In the heavy based saucepan melt 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 3 tablespoons of coke, 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and pour onto the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

"Yummy, muddy snow!"

Take the cake out of the tin and remove the tin foil and put the cake on a cooling rack with tin foil underneath to catch the drips.  While the cake is still warm pour over the icing and leave cake to cool.

"What happens to the icing on the tin foil?" - Cooks Perks!