5 Delectable 7 Up Cake Recipes to Wow Your Tastebuds

Bake It up With 7 Up!

7 Up Cake has been popular since the 1950s when adding the lemon-lime soft drink instead of water to a mix was said to make the cake "light and airy". In the early 1980s, baking a 7 Up pound cake in a bundt pan became a popular trend.

7 Up was added to baked goods, such as:

• a pound cake made from scratch that was usually baked in a bundt pan.
• a sheet cake made from a mix.
• a 3-layer torte made from a mix.

These cake recipes also make excellent cupcakes. I've included easy recipes for all three of the popular types of 7 Up cake as well as recipes for pineapple-butter frosting and a sauce with orange and apricot.

Learn How to Make Five Different Cakes With This Soda

1. 7 Up Cake With Brown Sugar Sauce
2. 7 Up Pound Cake
3. Aunt Eleanor's Tropical Cake
4. 7 Up Pound Cake From Louisiana (Circa 1983)
5. 7 Up Cake With Orange Sauce

You'll also find the history of the drink and some memorabilia that will send you on a trip down memory lane. I hope you enjoy these recipes and memories.

1. 7 Up Cake With Brown Sugar Sauce

This unusual recipe dates back to 1959: "In the following recipe, dried apricots are cooked in 7-Up soft drink, for the brown sugar sauce. The natural lemon-lime flavor of 7-Up is used as the liquid ingredient."

Reference: "Please Your Family This Week With An Apricot Up-Side Down Cake," Daily Defender (Chicago), February 17, 1959 (p. 40)

Ingredients

• 2 (7-ounce) bottles 7 Up
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 egg whites

Instructions

1. To make the sauce, simmer 7 Up with the apricots for 20 minutes.
2. Stir in the butter and brown sugar. Continue simmering it to melt the butter. Spread the sauce over the bottom of a 9"x12"x2" baking pan.
3. To make the batter, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is fluffy.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Stir it together, pouring in a bit of the soda each time.
5. Beat the egg whites until they're stiff, and fold them into the batter. Pour the batter over the sauce into the baking pan. Bake at 350° Fahrenheit for 45 minutes.
6. Once the cake is done, invert the pan and serve the cake up-side-down.

2. 7 Up Pound Cake With Pineapple Icing

This pound cake recipe is quite involved. Mary Jane Altman of West Palm Beach wrote the first recipe, and she said, "It's a little extra effort, but it's worth it." Similar recipes emphasized that it is important to beat the butter for a full 20 minutes. They also said the cake improves if it's baked a day before you plan to serve it and that it keeps well frozen.

The pineapple butter frosting can be used on other versions of the cake as well.

Ingredients

• 4 sticks of butter (margarine will not do)
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp lemon extract
• 3/4 cup 7 Up
• 3 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/3 cup crushed pineapple, with juice

Instructions

1. Cream three sticks of butter and granulated sugar together for 20 minutes.
2. Add lemon extract and 7-Up. Bake for 1 1/4 hours at 325°F in a well-oiled bundt pan.
3. Cool for 8 to 10 minutes, and then dust it with powdered sugar.
4. To make the frosting, cream one stick of butter. Add the confectioner's sugar and crushed pineapple to it.
5. Continue creaming until the mixture is well blended and fluffy. Spread it on the pound cake.

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3. Aunt Eleanor's Tropical Cake

This is Steffan's recipe for 7 Up cake that begins with a packaged mix. Similar recipes call for a yellow or lemon cake mix in place of the pineapple and lemon or vanilla pudding in place of the pineapple pudding. Pat Krenick of Goulds uses an orange cake mix and lemon pudding. Some cooks bake this in a 9"x13" pan; others make this in three round pans.

Ingredients

• 1 package Pineapple Supreme cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 package instant pineapple pudding
• 10 ounces 7 Up

Instructions

1. Mix the cake mix, eggs, oil, pudding packet, and 7 Up together.
2. Beat it on medium speed with an electric mixer for two minutes.
3. Pour the mixture into greased and floured 8" cake pans or a 13"x9" pan.
4. Make one of the three frosting options below. Then, add it to the cooled cake.

Three Frosting Options

1. Krenick's Cooked Frosting

This recipe for a cooked frosting comes from Krenick, who says the 7 Up cake with this frosting is always requested for family birthdays and special occasions. She got her recipe from friends in Arkansas.

What You'll Need:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 small can of flaked coconut
• 1 small can of crushed pineapple

Instructions

1. Beat the sugar, eggs, and butter together until smooth.
2. Then, stir in the coconut and pineapple. Frost the cooled cake.

2. Pineapple Frosting

What You'll Need:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 small can of crushed pineapple in heavy syrup
• 1 cup coconut flakes

Instructions

1. To make the pineapple frosting, mix the following ingredients together: granulated sugar, butter, flour, eggs, and a can of pineapple in heavy syrup.
2. Cook it over the stove until it's thick and transparent.
3. Remove it from the heat and stir in the coconut.
4. When it's cool, fill and frost the cake.

3. 7 Up Icing

Finally, just to be sure we've had the last word on the 7-Up cake, here's a recipe from Bedell that will really top it all.

What You'll Need:

• 2 egg whites
• 3 tablespoons 7 Up
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tbsp cream of tartar

Instructions

1. Put all the ingredients in top of a double boiler over boiling water. The upper pan should not touch the surface of the water.
2. Beat the mixture with a rotary beater until it's stiff enough to stand in peaks, about 5 minutes.
3. Top the cake with this icing.

Reference: "AMERICA IS TURNING 7-UP CAKE," Linda Cicero, Miami Herald, August 5, 1982

4. 7 Up Pound Cake From Louisiana (Circa 1983)

This is the recipe we used in both north and south Louisiana. I found copies of it in Pots, Pans, and Pioneers III, Councils of Louisiana Chapter #24 Telephone Pioneers of America Cookbook and also New Orleans Public Service Middle South Utilities System Newsletter. Enjoy!

Reference: Mattie M. Johnson, Ouachita Council, Monroe, LA; Betty Beatty, Caddo Council, Minden, LA

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 3/4 cup 7 Up

Instructions

1. Cream the sugar and butter together until the mixture is light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating them in well. Add the flour, then the lemon extract and 7 Up.
3. Pour the batter into a well-greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 325° F for 1 hour or up to 75 minutes.

Did You Know?

Early sheet cake recipes used a pineapple icing either cooked or made into a buttercream. Most bundt recipes use a sprinkling of powdered sugar or a light glaze on top.

5. 7 Up Cake With Orange Sauce

Here is another version of the delicious 7 Up Cake with an orange sauce instead of the traditional lemon. The recipe is from Fun Vista.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 eggs, room temperature
• 3 cups flour, sifted 3 times
• 3/4 cup 7 Up
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon butternut flavoring
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup orange juice

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F.
2. Cream the butter, shortening, and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.
3. Add the sifted flour and 7 Up alternately, beating well. Then, pour in the vanilla extract and butternut flavoring. Mix well.
4. Pour the batter into a greased bundt pan or angel food tube pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake completely cool before serving.
5. To make the orange sauce, put the powdered sugar in a saucepan. Add enough orange juice to make a paste.
6. Heat the mixture until the powdered sugar dissolves and the paste becomes more of a sauce. Add a little more orange juice if needed.
7. Pour a tablespoon of warm orange sauce over each slice of cake right before serving. Otherwise, you can put the orange sauce in a heat-resistant pitcher and let everyone pour the sauce over their slice of cake themselves.

How to Make 7 Up Cupcakes

• Use any of the recipes above to create the batter base.
• Instead of pouring the batter into a cake pan, pour it into muffin tins lined with cupcake liners.
• Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.
• Cool the muffins.
• Frost them with the icing of your choice.

A Snapshot of 7 Up Cake History

You can find more information about the food timeline, but here is a brief overview of 7 Up's baking history.

1982

"Now here's a request that really fizzed. Sally Garber of Deerfield Beach asked our readers to come up with a recipe for 7 Up cake with pineapple frosting. We received 72 replies. Apparently, there are three versions of 7 Up cake: A pound cake, baked in a Bundt pan, that is made from scratch; a sheet cake made from a mix; and a 3-layer torte, also made from a mix."

The pineapple frosting comes in many versions.

• Usually, the topping for the pound cake recipe is a sprinkling of powdered sugar or a light glaze.
• The sheet cake or the 3-layer recipe often has a pineapple frosting. Some recipes called for a cooked frosting, while others used a buttercream type. Other recipes add chopped pecans along with the pineapple—most added coconut. And while most recipes called for the frosting to be spread on a cooled cake, some specified that the frosting be spread while the cake was warm.

Why would you add 7 Up to a recipe? According to a quote from a cookbook published by The Seven-Up Co. in 1957, here is the answer: "Make a cake with the contents of a packaged mix, using 7 Up instead of the liquid in the recipe. You'll be amazed at how light and airy your cake is." Here are some of the delicious recipes for this easy cake.

History of 7 Up

Source: The History of 7up

Charles Leiper Grigg

By Mary Bellis

The soft drink, 7 Up, was invented by Charles Leiper Grigg (originally of Price's Branch, Missouri). When he was an adult, Grigg moved to St. Louis, where he was first introduced to the carbonated beverage business.

By 1919, when he was working for Vess Jones, Grigg invented and marketed his first soft drink called "Whistle".

After a disagreement with management, Charles Grigg quit his job (relinquishing his rights to "Whistle") and started working for the Warner Jenkinson Company, where he developed flavoring agents for soft drinks. While there, he invented a second orange-flavored soft drink called "Howdy". He eventually moved on from the Warner Jenkinson Co.and took his soft drink "Howdy" with him.

Along with financier Edmund G. Ridgway, Grigg went on to form the Howdy Company. But his soft drinks could not stand up to "Orange Crush", which soon dominated the market for orange sodas.

In 1929, Charles Grigg decided to focus on lemon-lime flavors, and by October of that year, he had invented a new drink called "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Sodas".

The name was quickly changed to " 7 Up Lithiated Lemon-Lime" and then again quickly changed to just plain 7 Up.

7 Up merged with "Dr Pepper" in 1986.

Questions & Answers

Question: How do you make the glaze for the seven up pound cake?

Answer: Glaze Recipe

4 tablespoons butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 to 4 tablespoons milk or hot water for desired consistency

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Melt butter in saucepan or in a bowl in the microwave. Sift 2 cups powdered sugar into medium-size bowl. Add melted butter and 2 tablespoons of liquid (milk or water) and vanilla to the powdered sugar. Stir to blend. Beat with a mixer until smooth and creamy, add a little more liquid if necessary. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake.

© 2008 Yvonne L B