Why Coca Cola?

Why, the kids at co-op wanted to know, did someone come up with Coca Cola cake?

I explained that some people say it is because during the war, sugar was rationed and Coke was not. So it was used as part of the sweetener. I really don't believe that, and told the children so.

The more likely explanation is that the company came up with these recipes to increase desire for the product.

Since they wanted to try it, we made my mother-in-law's recipe for Coca Cola cake, and for the most part they liked it. Some thought it was too sweet.

Mix together 2 cups flour and 2 cups sugar.

Boil together two sticks of butter, 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, and one cup Coke. Pour over the flour/sugar mix.

Add a teaspoon each of baking soda and vanilla, 2 beaten eggs, and a half cup of buttermilk.

Mix well and add 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows, then pour into a 9x13 pan and bake at 350* for about 30-35 minutes.

Some recipes say to wait until it cools to ice it, but this recipe says to ice hot, so we did.

Melt together a stick of butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, and 6 tablespoons of Coke. Bring to a boil and pour over a pound of powdered sugar. Add chopped pecans if you want, and pour over the cake.

Today is:

Day of National Revival and Feast of Sacrifice -- Azerbaijan

Electronic Greeting Card Day

Homemade Bread Day

International Students Day -- International (meant to celebrate all students around the world, not specifically students studying in countries other than their own)

National Baklava Day

National Community Education Day

National Prematurity and Infant Loss Awareness Day -- United States

Polytechneio -- Greece

Shogi Day -- Japan (a chess-like game)

St. Elizabeth of Hungary's Day (patron of nursing, bakers; against plague)

St. Gregory of Tours' Day (aka Gregory Wonderworker; patron of desperate situations; against floods, earthquakes)

St. Hilda's Day (patron of business women)

St. Hugh of Lincoln's Day (patron of sick children)

Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day -- Czech Republic; Slovakia

Take A Hike Day

Winter Welcome Quadrilles and Dainty-Sixes -- Fairy Calendar

World Maritime Days -- through tomorrow



Birthdays Today:

Laura Wilkinson, 1977
Daisy Fuentes, 1966
Danny DeVito, 1944
Lorne Michaels, 1944
Tom Seaver, 1944
Lauren Hutton, 1943
Martin Scorsese, 1942
Gordon Lightfoot, 1938
Rock Hudson, 1925
Lee Strassberg, 1901
Atahualpa, last Emperor of the Inca, 1502
Flavius Claudius Julianus, Roman Emperor, 331
Vespian, Roman Emperor, 9


Today in History:

Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers, 284
England and Spain sign an anti-French covenant/treaty, 1511
Elizabeth I ascends the English throne, 1558
France and Spain sign the Peace of the Pyrenees treaty, 1659
The Church of England organizes in New England, 1785
Congress holds its first session in the still incomplete Capitol Building of Washington, D.C., 1800
The Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, is founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York, 1827
Ecuador and Venezuela separate from Greater Colombia, 1831
Street signs are first authorized at San Francisco intersections, 1853
David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, 1855
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March is given its première performance in Moscow, 1876
Japan and Korea sign The Eulsa Treaty, 1905
The first US dental hygienist course is formed, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1913
US declares the Panama Canal Zone to be neutral, 1914
Lenin defends the "temporary" removal of freedom of the press, 1917
American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th Century, 1947
Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse, 1970