[Photo: Caroline Russock]
Cooking and baking with cola is a fairly common practice in the South. It’s used as a glaze for ham, a braise for brisket, and a not-so-secret ingredient in cola cake. But with a title like The Boozy Baker, it’s not a surprise that Lucy Baker adds a little bit of rum to make these Cuba Libre Brownies.
The richess of the cola and rum works exceptionally well with the moist chocolate brownies, which fall on the side of cakey brownies rather than dense, chewy ones. Instead of the white rum called for in the recipe, I used dark rum, since I thought that the richer more caramel flavors would be even better with the cola.
The brownies came out of the oven moist and springy with plenty of rum and cola flavors to compliment the chocolate. But it was the frosting that finished the brownies that really won me over. It was the perfect birthday cake icing kicked up with the heady aroma of rum. Once spread over the brownies, the frosting is finished with lime zest—just like a cuba libre isn’t complete without a slice of lime for garnish.
Win The Boozy Baker
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of The Boozy Baker to give away this week.
