Soda Cake

As much as I like sticking with the familiar, I like to try new things when it comes to baking. Like macarons (still working on perfecting those things. Almost got it though). So when my mom asked me to bake the dessert for her and Dad's night while in Chelan, I decided what better time to bake a soda cake than vacation?

Yup, that's right. A cake baked with soda.

I've seen them throughout the internet, specifically Pinterest. All you do is take a boxed cake mix and a 12-oz. can of soda in a complementary flavor (like chocolate mix and pretty much any dark-colored soda), mix the two together in a bowl, pour the batter in a pan, and bake. Simple, right?

Well, let's find out:

Root Beer Cookies

In the 15 years she's been around, there are a few things I've learned about my cousin Carly when it comes to food: she's allergic to peanuts, she'll eat almost everything non-Italian with ketchup, and her soda of choice is root beer. So when I was pinning all my bookmarked recipes I was reminded of a root beer float cookies recipe I made sure to remember for Carly's birthday. However, when I looked at the recipe, I realized that not only was it too simple but it required an ingredient that's mainly available online: root beer concentrate. Since I was looking up the recipe with not a whole lot of time to get the concentrate shipped, I started searching for a recipe that used actual root beer. I finally found these Root Beer Cookies on Simply Bakings.

Old-Fashioned Cola Cake

I'm addicted to a lot of foods and drinks that are bad for me. Soda is one of them. So when I offered to bake dessert for the BBQ my parents were having for Mother's Day, I was intrigued by the Old-Fashioned Cola Cake I found in The Cake Mix Doctor during my search (because of the lemon bars for my mom I figured I should find a quick recipe). To keep things simple I stuck with just the cake and decorated with a can (or two) of frosting.