7-Up Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze (2024)

This old-fashioned 7-Up pound cake recipe with lemon glaze is a classic Southern dessert that uses 7-Up to make a buttery and moist from-scratch cake that has a hint of lemon flavor.

7-Up Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze (1)

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Pound cakes are such an integral part of Southern cooking. Made with simple ingredients like butter, flour, sugar, and eggs, they’re known for their crisp crust and velvety soft buttery interior that’s both dense and rich in texture and taste. Pound cakes are also traditionally baked in either a Bundt cake or tube pan.

So while this is a traditional pound cake recipe, it includes a secret ingredient… 7-Up lemon-lime soda. The carbonated soda acts as a leavening agent and replaces baking soda (yep, really). It helps make the cake rise and gives the cake a lemon-lime flavor. This 7-Up pound cake tastes like a classic lemon pound cake. Plus, we pair it with the perfectly complementary sweet lemon glaze.

So besides 7-Up, the other baking ingredients you need to make this pound cake include sugar, flour, butter, eggs, shortening, vanilla extract, and lemon extract. Fortunately, this is a very easy pound cake recipe. You’re just going to cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar, then slowly mix in the remaining ingredients. We pour the cake batter into a bundt pan and wait patiently for it to bake.

Then we have to be patient some more and invert the cake, before mixing together powdered sugar, milk, and lemon extract to make the lemon glaze. The final step is to pour this over the cooled cake and your 7Up pound cake is complete!

Keep scrolling for some serving suggestions and to learn exactly where the 7Up cake came from. I hope you enjoy this classic Southern treat. You’re bound to always find a bundt cake at any Southern gathering, whether it’s a baby shower, potluck, or family gathering. It’s just the Southern way, y’all!

7-Up Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze (2)

Recipe Ingredients

  • Flour
  • Granulated sugar
  • Shortening
  • Unsalted butter or margarine
  • 7-Up or similar lemon-lime soda
  • Eggs
  • Vanilla extract
  • A bit of lemon flavoring

How to Make 7-Up Pound Cake

7-Up Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze (3)

Place your sugar, shortening, and butter in a mixing bowl.

Mix that up until well blended.

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Add your lemon extract or flavoring or whatever it is you found in your pantry or went out and bought.

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Add in your vanilla…

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And all of your eggs.

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Mix that up really well.

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Add in your flour…

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And your 7-Up.

Mix all of that up.

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Grease your bundt cake pan with cooking spray.

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Then pour your cake batter into the greased bundt pan.

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Bake at 325 for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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After it has baked, let it sit in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn the cake out onto a wire rack to continue cooling.

Goodness, can you smell that?

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The lemon glaze

Now we need to make our glaze.

Place your confectioner’s sugar in a bowl and add a wee bit of lemon flavoring. Then add a wee bit of milk.

Stir that up until it looks kind of like school glue. Don’t worry, it won’t taste like glue 😉.

If it is a bit thin, just add more confectioner’s sugar. I always end up making mine too thin to begin with and have to add more.

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Pour the lemon glaze over the cooled cake.

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It should look a little bit like this.

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Now grab a slice and enjoy your 7Up cake!

Storage

  • Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the fridge for up to 1 week.
  • You can also freeze 7-Up pound cake for up to 3 months. I’d double-wrap individual slices or store them in an airtight container. I’d also freeze them without the glaze if possible.

7-Up Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze (18)

Recipe Notes

  • For best results, use room-temperature butter, shortening, and eggs.
  • Another wait to guarantee the best results is to properly grease the cake pan with cooking spray or butter and flour. We definitely don’t want this cake to stick to the pan.
  • Don’t overmix the cake batter once you add the flour to make sure your cake doesn’t turn out tough.
  • Now, experts say that Sprite and 7-Up have different levels of carbonation, so you really only want to use 7-Up in this pound cake recipe to ensure it rises perfectly. But hey, you can use diet 7-Up if you really want to!
  • If you don’t have lemon extract, I’ve got another suggestion for you to give that cake its lemon flavor! First, add 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon zest to the cake batter. Then add 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice to the glaze.
  • Speaking of the glaze, you can make a 7-Up glaze instead by combining 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of 7-Up.

Recipe FAQs

Where is 7-Up cake from?

7-Up cakes are a Southern recipe, as baking with soda became popular in the South in the 1950s when Southern women realized that carbonated beverages are an innovative leavening agent.

How long should you wait to flip a pound cake?

You should wait at least 10 minutes to flip your pound cake, but some recipes say to wait at least 30 minutes, so you do you. If you’re wondering why you wait, you want the cake to cool and firm up before you flip it to avoid it breaking apart.

Do I have to use a bundt cake pan?

You don’t HAVE to use a bundt pan, but I do recommend it. Otherwise, you can use a tube pan or 2 loaf pans.

Can I make my pound cake in advance?

I recommend making your pound cake up to 24 hours ahead of time. The cake gets moister the longer it sits.

How do you serve 7Up pound cake?

You can serve your pound cake as is or with some fresh fruit (I like fresh berries) and fresh whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. However, you can also skip the glaze and simply serve your cake with a dusting of powdered sugar instead.

You may also like these pound cake recipes:

Apple Pound Cake

Aunt Sue’s Easy Pound Cake Recipe

Mini Bundt Cakes Using Aunt Sue’s Famous Pound Cake

Chocolate Pound Cake with Fudge Glaze

Buttermilk Lime Pound Cake

7-Up Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze (19)

7-Up Pound Cake

This old-fashioned 7-Up pound cake recipe with lemon glaze is a classic Southern dessert that uses 7-Up to make a buttery and moist from-scratch cake that has a hint of lemon flavor.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cake, pound

Servings: 12

Calories: 465kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter or margarine
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 1.5 teaspoons lemon extract
  • 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 5 eggs
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 7 fluid ounces 7-Up

Lemon Glaze

  • 1.5 cups confectioner's sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, place butter, shortening, and sugar. Beat until it is fluffy and well-mixed.

    1 cup butter or margarine, 1/2 cup shortening, 3 cups granulated sugar

  • Add in lemon extract, vanilla flavoring, and eggs and beat again until blended in.

    1.5 teaspoons lemon extract, 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract, 5 eggs

  • Add in all of your flour and then the 7-Up. Mix until smooth and creamy.

    3 cups all-purpose flour, 7 fluid ounces 7-Up

  • Pour into a greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 325 for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  • Let your cake sit in the pan for 10 to 30 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack.

  • Combine all the glaze ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until smooth. Add more milk if too thick and more confectioner's sugar if too thin.

    1.5 cups confectioner's sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

  • Pour over the cooled cake.

Nutrition

Calories: 465kcal

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7-Up Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze (2024)

FAQs

Why did my lemon pound cake sink in the middle? ›

If you have too much liquid or too much fat in your cake batter, this can result in a cake with a weak structure which can cause it to sink in the middle.

Why is my lemon pound cake dry? ›

Too much flour or not enough fat (butter or eggs) can make the cake dry. Not Enough Fat: Pound cake relies on high amounts of butter for moisture. Undermixing or Overmixing: Properly creaming the butter and sugar is crucial; it introduces air into the batter, which helps with leavening.

What makes a pound cake gooey in the middle? ›

When a cake is wet in the middle it is because the edges have cooked faster than the centre. This happens because of the way the cake cooks naturally in the tin – the sides of the cake tin heat up first.

How many calories are in a slice of 7 up pound cake? ›

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
417Calories
22gFat
51gCarbs
5gProtein

What causes a pound cake to be gummy? ›

Those gluey pound cake streaks happen when your over-cream the butter and sugar.

Can you still eat a cake that has sunk in the middle? ›

What to Do If You Have a Sunken Cake. If you tested the cake's doneness with a toothpick and it came out with just a few moist crumbs attached, chances are you baked a moist cake. If your cake is undercooked and raw in the middle, you can still use the edges that are baked through.

How do you make pound cake moist again? ›

The most common cake soak is simple syrup, equal parts sugar and water cooked until the sugar is dissolved. This added bit of liquid and sweetness help make the cake more moist, and stay moist longer. Professional bakers also use a milk soak, which is milk or cream dabbed onto the cake.

How do you fix dry lemon cake? ›

The 4 Best Ways to Fix a Dry Cake
  1. Brush the cake with a simple syrup glaze.
  2. Soak your cake in milk or cream.
  3. Add frosting.
  4. Fill your cake with mousse or jam.
May 14, 2023

What makes a cake moist and fluffy? ›

10 WAYS TO MAKE CAKE MOIST
  1. USE THE CORRECT TEMPERATURE AND BAKING TIME. Consider lowering your oven temperature slightly when baking a cake. ...
  2. USE VEGETABLE OIL. ...
  3. USE BUTTERMILK INSTEAD OF MILK. ...
  4. ADD INSTANT PUDDING MIX. ...
  5. ADD MAYONNAISE. ...
  6. USE SIMPLE SYRUP OR GLAZE. ...
  7. USE CAKE FLOUR. ...
  8. DON'T OVERMIX.

Is it better to bake pound cake at 325 or 350? ›

Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Not 350°F. Generously grease a 10-12 cup Bundt pan with butter or nonstick spray. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Can you overbeat a pound cake? ›

Be careful not to overbeat the butter-sugar mixture, especially on a hot day — you could rupture the air cells and cause the batter to be heavy.

What is the sad spot in pound cake? ›

There are several possible causes for what is called a sad streak in a pound cake. One is that there wasn't enough stirring in the early stages of preparing the batter. The other is that the cake needs to 'set' the crumb when you first remove it from the oven.

Why do you start a pound cake in a cold oven? ›

Starting in a cold oven gives those leaveners more time to work. In addition, the edges of the cake don't set as quickly when starting in a cold oven, which enables the cake to rise higher.

Should pound cake batter be thick? ›

Unlike layer cakes, which use a thin batter that should never fill the pan more than halfway (more on that here), pound cake batter is thick, and should fill the pan within an inch of the top to encourage a prominent crown.

Where did the 7 up cake come from? ›

The recipe's origin dates back much farther, with the 7-Up company including it in a promotional recipe booklet published in 1953, along with the equally ever-popular recipe for “7-Up Salad,” green gelatin-based dessert I can recall being served at holidays.

What does 7UP cake taste like? ›

The secret ingredient is the Bundt pan and the 7UP soda! It has bright citrus flavor. In fact, 7 up cake tastes like a classic lemon pound cake. You'll finish the moist cake with a sweet-tart lemon glaze to really emphasize the citrus!

How many servings can you get from a pound cake? ›

Round Cake Servings
Layer Cake ServingsPound Cake Servings
8”8-1212-15
9”12-1518-24
10”16-2025-30
12”30-3540-50
2 more rows

How do you keep a pound cake from sinking in the middle? ›

Rotating pans: Some recipes instruct you to rotate the cake pan(s) halfway through baking. Wait until the cake has set to minimize the chance of collapsing as you rotate. Utilize your oven's light to avoid opening the door when checking on your cake. Be super careful not to slam the oven door!

Why is my cake pale yellow and not golden brown? ›

Likewise, if your cake isn't brown enough it is likely because it is under-cooked or the recipe used insufficient egg or sugar.

Why did my pound cake turn out rubbery? ›

Mistake: Overmixing The Batter

Mix just until blended after each addition. Overmixing the batter creates a tough, rubbery cake.

How do you keep a lemon drizzle cake from sinking? ›

The most common reason for a Lemon Drizzle Cake sinking in the middle is when the oven door has been opened before the cake was set. Be sure not to open the door before 40 minutes, and even then, do it by opening the oven door and checking it as quickly as possible!

Why is my pound cake not done in the middle? ›

Pan Issue. The depth of your cake pan and the volume of batter in your cake pan can also contribute to a sunken cake. If the cake pan is too full and the oven temperature is too high, the cake will again cook around the edges and not in the center.

References

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