Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake Roll Penguins and a Coke Bottle Penguin Craft

Celebrate winter by throwing a penguin themed party and serve some adorable
Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake Roll Penguins alongside cute Coke Bottle Penguins.
This post is sponsored by Collective Bias, Inc. and Coca-Cola. #ShareHolidayJoy #CollectiveBias

The holiday season is such a special time of year and although I am usually crazy busy, like many of you, I do my best to carve out time to spend with friends and family. It's funny how blogging about holiday treats has actually made that easier than ever.

For almost 30 years I spent the months of November and December working from morning till night making chocolate for customers. I fell onto the couch on Christmas eve exhausted and barely awake enough to enjoy our celebration.

Now that I'm blogging full time and have really cut back on the chocolate orders I take, I have a little more time. I'm still frantically working in my kitchen to create fun treats to share with you and to develop recipes for sponsors, but now those treats don't have homes. No one has ordered them. So, I get to share them with family and friends.

Over the weekend, I invited some guests to stop over to enjoy some of my homemade holiday treats. When the guests walked in the door they were greeted by the cutest colony of Coca-Cola penguins.

My snowy popcorn covered table was filled with little penguin cakes and adorably decorated Coke bottle penguins.

It was by far the cutest tablescape I've ever created and my guests agreed.

They almost didn't want to disturb the colony so they could enjoy their treats.

Almost!

In the end, they couldn't resist.

I had spent the day before baking Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake Rolls and decorating them with modeling chocolate to look like penguins. I also created a fun printable so that I could dress up bottles of Coca-Cola too.

My guests thought the penguins were unbelievably adorable, really enjoyed the unique flavor of the Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake Rolls, and were surprised by the flavor of the soda.

I purchased a 24 Pack Coke de Mexico Coca-Cola from Sam's Club to serve at the party. Being my time is limited right now, I ordered it and had it ready for pick up at the guest services desk. Now that's my kind of shopping.

The glass bottles  are filled with Coca-Cola made with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. The sugar really makes a big difference in the flavor. Several of the older guests commented that it reminded them of the first Coca-Cola they ever drank.

They loved the nostalgia of drinking out of a glass bottle too.

They thought the penguin decorations on the bottles were just adorable and had fun drinking with their flightless friends.

I know you want to do this to your Coke bottles too.

It's hard to resist the penguins' adorable eyes. Am I right?

They are easy to make using my printable. Simply print out as many pages as you'd like, cut out the pieces and attach them to the bottles using double stick tape or glue.

If you want your decorations to be more durable so you can dress up your entire case of Coca-Cola to give as gifts along with some other penguin treats, print them on glossy card stock or photo paper.

Click this link to get the free printable → printable-penguin-coke-bottle-craft

And, I am positive you wont be able to resist these penguin cakes.

I spent an entire day, making four different recipes before I finally created a chocolate cake roll with hints of Coca-Cola Flavor in the cake and filling. Each chocolate cake is made with a Coke syrup that is made by boiling Coca-Cola until it thickens enough to become a syrup. To really ramp up the flavor I added a bit of the syrup to the fluffy marshmallow filling too.

So these cakes are sweet inside and out.

I'm not going to say they are easy to make. The recipe does require quite a few steps, but it's totally worth the effort. My guests really fell in love with their penguins.

You'll need some tools in order to make these, so pull these together before you get started.

SUPPLIES:

2 9x13 inch pans non-stick tin foil and/or parchment paper
baking spray
2 inch oval cookie cutter
2 inch tear drop cookie cutter
½ inch round plunger cutter or metal cutter
¼ inch round plunger cutter or metal cutter
¾ inch triangle cutter

Print

Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake Roll Penguins

Prep Time

2 hrs

Cook Time

40 mins

Total Time

2 hrs 40 mins

 

Coca-Cola infused chocolate cake rolls with creamy marshmallow filling.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chocolate cake roll, christmas desserts, penguin desserts

Author: Beth Klosterboer

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake Rolls

• 1 12 ounce bottle Coca-Cola de Mexico
• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 large eggs separated and at room temperature
• ⅓ cup sugar divided
• ¼ cup flour
• ¼ cup Dutch processed cocoa powder plus more for dusting
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon cream of tarter

Filling:

• ½ cup shortening
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 7 ounce tub marshmallow fluff
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon Coca-Cola syrup reserved from cake recipe

Decorations:

• 3 ounces white modeling chocolate*
• orange food coloring
• 3 ounces dark modeling chocolate*
• 1 ounce melted dark cocoa candy melts
• *Find the Modeling Chocolate Recipes on my Chocolate Making Tips page.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line two 9x13 baking pans with non-stick foil and spray with baking spray, or spray the pans, line with parchment paper, spray again, and dust with flour.
3. Pour Coca-Cola into a medium saucepan.
   
4. Heat over medium heat, stirring often, until thickened and reduced to about 2 ½ tablespoons, about 30 minutes. Watch it near the end so it doesn't burn.
5. Reserve 1 teaspoon of the Coke syrup for the filling.
   
6. Pour the remaining syrup in a microwave safe bowl along with the chocolate and butter.
7. Heat on high in the microwave for 30 seconds.
8. Stir then let rest for 5 minutes.
9. Stir again until smooth.
10. If needed, heat for 10 second increments, stirring after each until melted.
11. Beat egg yolks using an electric mixer set on medium high speed until blended.
12. With the beaters running, sprinkle in about 3 tablespoons of the sugar and continue to beat until the eggs become pale yellow and thick enough that it falls in a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted out of the bowl.

13. Fold the egg yolks into the melted chocolate mixture.

14. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt and set aside.
    
    
    
15. In a clean bowl with clean beaters whip the egg whites and cream of tarter until foamy. Add 1 teaspoon of the sugar and continue to beat to soft peaks.
16. Continue beating and sprinkle in the remaining sugar until the whites become glossy and hold stiff peaks.
17. Don't over beat until dry.
18. Fold ⅓rd of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
19. Then gently fold in the remaining egg whites.
20. Fold in the dry ingredients.
21. Equally divide the batter among the two cake pans.
    
22. Bake for about 8 minutes, until the center of the cake springs back when touched.
23. While the cakes are baking cut 8 strips of parchment paper that are at least 4 ½ inches wide by 8 inches long.
24. Set them out on your counter and dust them with cocoa powder.
25. Remove the cakes from the oven.
26. Let them sit for 3 minutes, then remove one from the pan. Cut into 4 equal rectangles.
27. Immediately, set one cake rectangle on each parchment paper strip.
    
28. Roll up the cakes and parchment paper.
29. Repeat with second cake.
30. Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes.
    
31. Meanwhile make your filling.
32. Combine the shortening, powdered sugar, marshmallow fluff, and whipping cream in a large mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
33. Stir in the reserved Coca-Cola syrup.
34. When cakes are ready, carefully unroll them and remove the parchment paper.
35. Pipe or spread filling on each cake leaving a border around the edge.
36. Roll up cake and repeat.
37. Now they are ready to become penguins.
    
38. Color a small amount of the white modeling chocolate orange.
39. Roll out the white, orange and dark modeling chocolate to about 1/16-⅛th inch thickness.
40. Cut oval bellies, two white eyes, two small dark pupils, two tear drop shaped wings, and 3 triangles for the beak and feet.
41. Lightly brush water on the back side of the pupils and attach to the whites of the eyes.
42. Attach the eyes, along with a beak, two wings and a white belly using the candy melts.
43. Cut two small slits along one edge of the remaining triangles, creating feet and attach them to the cakes.
44. You can serve these standing up if you trim the bottoms as needed so they stand upright.

If you’d like to have the ultimate guide to working with Candy Clay (modeling chocolate) be sure to get your printed or e-book copy of Candy Clay Creations. This 102 page book is filled with tips and tricks for making and working with candy clay along with 17 step-by-step tutorials for decorating cupcakes, cookies, and more using candy clay. It’s a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to make festively decorated treats.

When I put my table together, I felt the penguins needed to be nested in some snow, so I made a few batches of white chocolate popcorn and sprinkled on some snowflake sprinkles.

It looked really fun and my guests enjoyed the extra sweet snack.

If you plan to do this, be sure to cover your table with parchment or wax paper before you begin adding the Coke bottle and cake roll penguins then add popcorn in between the treats.

Be sure to stop by Sam's Club this holiday season to pick up 24 packs of glass bottles of Coca-Cola de Mexico so you can make your own colony of cute penguins. While you are there grab a 4-pack, 2-liter Coke and Diet Coke for your party guests who prefer diet soda. The 4 packs are only $3.98.

This post has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and it's advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Be sure to check out all my fun Christmas Recipes!

If you really want to go all out, you can make more of these cute penguin treats for your holiday party.

Snack Cake Penguins • Chocolate Pretzel Penguins
Chocolate Penguin Box filled with White Chocolate Snowflakes • Nutter Butter Penguins
Chocolate Penguin Truffles • Chocolate Rice Krispies Treat Penguin Pops
Chocolate Penguin Rice Krispies Treat Pops • Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake Roll Penguins

• Author
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Beth Klosterboer

Hi, I'm Beth Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com

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