I made the Coca-Cola cake Faith Hill bakes Tim McGraw every year on his birthday – and it's as 'crazy good' as Ina Garten says

During a recent appearance on Food Network's "Be My Guest With Ina Garten," Faith Hill and her daughter Gracie Hill made Garten their family's favorite dessert: Coca-Cola cake.

Kicking off the episode, Garten said that the cake is one of Faith's husband's, country singer Tim McGraw's, favorite recipes of all time – and not just on his birthday.

"He asks for it most of the time," Gracie said. Later in the episode, she said there "hasn't been a day" in her life where she hasn't known what Coca-Cola cake is and said it was a "euphoric experience" to introduce the dish to Garten.

I have a track record for enjoying sweet treats. In the past, I've shared recipes on how to make my family's go-to chocolate cake as well as my grandfather's delicious jam.

I also love Coca-Cola. From having it straight up to testing out viral recipes, like mixing the soda with coffee creamer, it's safe to say I'm a fan of the bubbly soda.

But even though I'm partial to all things sweet, I would've never thought to mix Coca-Cola and baking to create a dessert like Faith's.

However, after hearing Garten – a seasoned chef – call the cake "crazy good" and give her stamp of approval, I decided to give it a go myself. Take a look.

To make the batter of Faith's Coca-Cola cake, you'll need:

• 1 cup of butter
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1 cup of Coca-Cola
• 1 cup of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla
• 1/2 cup of buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• A handful of tiny marshmallows.

For the frosting, you'll need:

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 6 tablespoons of Coca-Cola
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• A whole box of confectioners' sugar.

The first thing that Faith does is slowly heat 1 cup of butter on the stove, helping it melt using a spatula.

It was pretty wild to see Coca-Cola, a drink I have always enjoyed cold, heat up on the stove.

Just like Faith, I gave the mixture a few more swirls with my spatula before heading over to work on my dry ingredients.

In order to keep the mixture warm, but not overheated, I left it on the lowest heat setting possible.

"Forgive us," Faith told Garten when she asked her to add "a lot of sugar" into the bowl.

Before adding in the warm ingredients, I should mention that it took me a little while to sift the dry ingredients. I found it helpful to use a wooden spoon to break down chunks of flour that were a little more difficult to sift.

According to Gracie, buttermilk is "essential for any Southern recipe."

I added in the half cup of buttermilk required for the recipe as well as the vanilla extract before whisking up two eggs. On the show, Faith joked that she had to "spank" the eggs because "they've been bad," prompting Garten to break out into laughter.

Faith didn't specify how many marshmallows to add. I judged it to be around a cup.

As for why marshmallows are part of the recipe, Faith told Garten that they act as a nice "surprise" when you bite into a slice of the cake.

As Garten once said in an episode of "Barefoot Contessa" where she demonstrated her own easy chocolate cake recipe, "There's no point in making a cake if you can't get it out of the pan."

Once my pan was prepped and ready to go, I poured in the batter and made sure the marshmallows, which had floated to the top of the mixture, were evenly spread out.

Afterward, I popped my pan into the oven. Gracie said the cake should be baked for around 30 to 35 minutes.

Garten pointed out that Faith's frosting is similar to a glaze in that it is made by heating ingredients over a stove.

The first ingredients I added were butter and cocoa powder, similar to how the cake batter started.

If you thought that 1 cup of Coca-Cola in the batter was enough, think again. Following the recipe, I added the rest of the amount of Coca-Cola it called for (6 tablespoons) into the pan for the frosting.

The sugar immediately made the warm frosting super lumpy and unappetizing to look at.

After I swapped my spatula for a whisk, I noticed that all of the sugar lumps dissipated, leaving the mixture nice and smooth.

The frosting was super thick at this point, so I made sure to constantly stir it while the cake finished baking in the oven to prevent it from hardening too much.

The cake was noticeably darker and lighter, which I think can be explained by where the marshmallows were floating when they melted in the oven.

"The glaze kind of hardens pretty quickly so you get a nice little crunch when you bite in," Gracie told Garten.

I could see exactly what she meant after I topped the cake with the frosting – within minutes, the surface looked shiny and hard just as Gracie said it would.

My first impression of the cake was that it looked incredibly moist, like a fudge brownie, but that it cut super easily so it wasn't dense at all.

The glaze-like frosting, which Garten also compared to a ganache, gave it a professional finish, even though it's a relatively easy recipe that doesn't call for any fancy techniques.

"If this were in my kitchen, I'd keep going back and tasting it to make sure it was OK," Garten told Faith and Gracie.

And I felt exactly the same after I took my first bite of the Coca-Cola cake. It was light, but moist. While I could taste the sweetness of the Coca-Cola, I loved that it didn't overpower the chocolate, rather, it enhanced the natural flavors.

While I was eating, I was curious to see how else the soda might've affected the texture and flavor of the cake. After doing some research, I read on the official Betty Crocker website that, like any soda, Coca-Cola contains carbon dioxide bubbles that act as a leavening agent, "the element that makes baked goods rise and makes them light and fluffy." I could definitely taste that in this recipe.

I will say that my only criticism was that the marshmallows didn't make as big as an impression me as I expected them to from Faith's description. I didn't really notice any difference between bites of cake that contained marshmallows with those that didn't. If I make this recipe again, I probably won't bother buying them.

But otherwise, I definitely think this cake is perfect for those who love chocolate, Coca-Cola, and baking desserts that look fancy, but don't take a lot of work.