When I was a kid my mom was given a cake recipe that became a staple of my childhood. One of my dad’s cousins managed a Pepsi plant in Colorado and his wife gave my mom a recipe for a chocolate Pepsi Cake. I have no idea how many of these cakes my mom has made over the years. And I made several myself as a teenager.
It’s been years since I’ve had Pepsi cake so I decided to make one and share the recipe here on the blog.
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Pepsi Cake - A 70s Throwback Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 5 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup Pepsi
- 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except Pepsi and marshmallows.
- Mix at low speed.
- Add Pepsi and blend well.
- Stir in marshmallows.
- Pour batter into greased 9x13 cake pan.
- Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool and ice with Pepsi Icing.
Icing:
1. Combine 1/2 cup softened butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder and 1/3 cup of Pepsi.
2. Beat until smooth.
3. Add 4 cups of powdered sugar, a little at a time, beating well until icing is smooth.
In later years my mom would sometimes do a shortcut version. She would use a Duncan Heinz chocolate cake mix and add marshmallows to it then frost with Pepsi Icing. But obviously the made-from-scratch version is better.
What is your favorite chocolate cake recipe? While I do like Pepsi Cake, my favorite is:
Interestingly, fizzy drinks – like Pepsi or lemonade – are recommended options for egg substitutes for making vegan cakes. Just thought you’d be interested in knowing that.
I actually don’t like chocolate cake, though Kelly says my chocolate brownies are really good (with how quickly they dsdispear, they obviously must be). If I’m making chocolate cake or brownies, I always make something else for myself, since I’d rather lemon cake, carrot cake, fruit cake, etc.
That’s interesting about using them as egg substitutes. I love chocolate in general but as a kid I always asked for cherry cake for my birthday and in fact, our wedding cake was cherry (with white icing, though). I also really love a good spice cake.
This one is my cheap fast and easy go-to when asked to make a cake:
https://www.hersheys.com/kitchens/en_us/recipes/hersheys-perfectly-chocolate-chocolate-cake.html
Sounds good! The one I like best that I linked is neither cheap nor fast and it makes a lot. I don’t make it often for those reasons. I should try this one.
The marshmallows popped up and made the cake look like weird so that was a surprise
I never thought to mention that – probably because I grew up eating it. Ha! Hope you enjoyed the taste.
I thought that about marshmallows myself I may just put them on top after baking while it’s still hot
I tried swapping marshmallow fluff for the min marshmallows and clearly put in too much (if I try it again, I will do closer to 1cup instead of the 1.5 and see how it goes. Supper taste just fell apart too easily for what I was doing ????
I don’t think marshmallow fluff will work like actual marshmallows do. As you experienced, it would likely affect the texture.