Monday's Menu

The Dude turned 13 yesterday (YIKES!!!) and we had a quiet family celebration.

Do you see that in his hand? Do you know what it is?

It is a Dr. Pepper 2 liter soda. Dr. Pepper unwittingly became the theme for this year's birthday. It is his favorite soda by far.

So, in addition to buying the soda for him to drink (something I don't often do) here at home, we also got some of this for his ice cream:


And I even made him a Dr. Pepper cake...


complete with Dr. Pepper ad themed birthday wish!

The cake actually turned out very moist and dense -- quite good, in fact. So I thought I'd share the recipe with you today. I found it here originally (kind of funny I discover a South Carolina blog after I move away from there). There is a recipe for a cooked chocolate frosting that is poured over the cake there as well. I just used chocolate buttercream though since I wasn't sure how I might be decorating it. Also that type of frosting is usually just too sweet for us.



Dr. Pepper Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups Dr. Pepper soda
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a pan by oiling and flouring it.

Combine Dr. Pepper, oil, butter/margarine, and cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, mix well, and remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, flour and baking soda. Mix in Dr. Pepper mixture. Do NOT over beat. Batter will probably be lumpy but be sure not to over beat it.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs with buttermilk. Add to the batter and combine being sure NOT to over beat it.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 23- 28 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.