Chocolate Coca Cola Cake

I saw this recipe in a book I borrowed from the Library - "Sue Lawrence's Book of Baking", and just had to try it.....it turned out well - a deliciously moist chocolate cake.... (co-incidentally, we got home today after buying a new dvd player, and I popped in the "Nigella" dvd, which wouldn't play on our other dvd player, and Nigella made a version of this same cake....)

Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake from "Sue Lawrences Book of Baking"

250g Self Raising Flour

3 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda

280g caster sugar (recipe actually calls for golden caster sugar, but I haven't seen that anywhere)

250g Butter
250ml Coca-Cola

100ml milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the icing
150g butter
50ml Coca-Cola
3 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder
400g icing sugar (again recipe calls for golden icing sugar)

Preheat oven to 180 c, and prepare a 24cm springform cake tin (I lined it with baking paper)

Sift flour, cocoa and bicarb into a large bowl.

Slowly melt butter and cola in a saucepan, then slowly add this to the dry ingredients along with the milk, eggs and vanilla, stirring all the time.

Once thoroughly but gently combined, pour mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean (it took a little longer than 40 minutes in my oven).  Leave in tin on a wirewrack for about 10 minutes, then remove from tin.  Allow to cool completely.

To make the icing : melt butter along with cola and cocoa in a saucepan.  Pour this mixture into the icing sugar and beat until smooth.  Ice the cooled cake.  I decorated the cake with coke bottle lollies.