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Mr. T's Dr. Pepper Birthday Cake

Mr. T asked for something different for his birthday this year.  Something different from the Perfect Chocolate Cake.  *GASP*  This is the cake that our whole relationship is based upon.  The first time I made this cake for him nearly sixteen years ago that sealed the deal for him.  He was never letting me go.  So, when he asked for something different I was rather shocked.  Mr. T doesn't ask for much, so I got over it pretty quickly and set out looking for something new and different.

Dr Pepper is his favourite pop and I stumbled upon lots of recipes for the cake and icing.  I mixed up various different ones to get a combination that I thought worked best and for ingredients that I had on hand.


I made a lot of icing.  I reduced 6 cups of Dr Pepper to about 1/3 of a cup even.  I was just shy of being able to decorate the entire top of the cake with the "kisses".  If we weren't already late I would have pulled it off and started again.


As you can see he was happy with the cake and with the angle I took the shot at you don't see that the entire top isn't covered.  All in all, it was good to try something different, to kick it up a notch.

Here's my adaptation recipe of what I found on the web.  I can't find the link that I used for the cake.  The icing is from The Pioneer Woman Cooks - A Year of Holidays cookbook.

Dr. Pepper Texas Chocolate Cake

Cake:
2 cups  sifted flour
1 cup   sugar
1 cup  dark brown sugar
1 cup  unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ t    baking soda
1 cup  Dr. Pepper
½ cup chocolate chips
2          eggs
1 cup  buttermilk
1 cup  vegetable oil
1 ½ t    vanilla

Icing:
4 cups    Dr. Pepper
1.5 cup  butter, softened
2 ½ cup icing sugar
1 tsp       vanilla
·
         Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.
·         Sift together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, and baking soda into a bowl and set aside.
·         Pour the Dr. Pepper into a small saucepan and add the chocolate chips. Heat on low, stirring often, until the chips are just melted. Pull off the heat and set aside.
·         Combine the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla in a mixer bowl and mix on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running, slowly pour in the Dr. Pepper-chocolate mixture and continue beating until combined, about 1 minute.
·         Drop the mixer speed back to low and gradually add the dry ingredients. Pop the speed back up to medium and beat 2 minutes more.
·         Divide the batter between the 2 pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Cool the layers in the pans for 10 minutes.
·      Boil 4 cups of Dr. Pepper in a small saucepan over medium heat until it has reduced to about 1/2 cup. 20 to 25 minutes. (I actually had my temp on medium high and reduced the soda for about 1 hour) Set aside to cool completely.
·      Add butter to mixer and then add in icing sugar, and vanilla.
·      Mix on medium high speed for 3-5 minutes, scraping bowl as needed.

·      With mixer on low, add in Dr. Pepper reduction and blend completely. Spread over cooled cake.

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