7 UP Cake-Famous Fridays

Hope you had a wonderful holiday yesterday! So much preparation and build up and then poof, it's over, and we're on to New Year's! I don't know about you, but this time of year makes me feel nostalgic, so this edition of Famous Fridays, is dedicated to those time-honored classic recipes that have made us who we are today, those recipes that no matter how uncool they are, are just too good to forget! Like this incredibly delicious 1950's recipe for cake made from of all things,  7UP!

A few weeks ago I stumbled on a cookbook called America's Best Lost Recipes at the library. Unless I absolutely can't control myself, I always try to take a look and test out cookbooks by checking them out from the library before I make the commitment and buy them. I've just learned the hard way by making the impulse purchase and then realizing that there's really only one recipe that I like or that what looks good in print doesn't make the leap to the plate! Anyway, this Lost Recipes cookbook is a winner and I am now a proud owner (I know, it's pathetic, but little things make me happy!). The book is filled with tried and true recipes for old classics and also family recipes for dishes I've never heard of like "Naked Ladies with Their Legs Crossed" (spiced crullers) and Pagache (Polish pizza). And each recipe is accompanied with a little story or anecdote about its origin. It's a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll be sharing many of these gems.

And now enough digressing--back to this wonderful cake,  which is moist, tender and subtly lemon/lime flavored, thanks to the 7UP and a lemon-juice enhanced glaze.  Apparently, cakes made from soda were all the rage in the '50's. One interesting thing about this cake is that all the leavening comes directly from the fizz of the soda--there's no baking powder or baking soda, and you can see, it rises pretty high. Cool, huh?

It all comes together fairly easily and unfortunately is the kind of cake you feel compelled to cut off a little slice of each time you pass by the kitchen. See what I mean? This is how much of the cake was left after I'd only made it a few hours earlier!

It's the perfect cake to cozy up to with a cup of tea on a cold winter day or bring as a gift to someone's this holiday season--not too fancy, but a little out of the ordinary at the same time too! I know I'll be making this again and again and I'm so glad this is no longer a "lost" recipe. In fact, I'd be lost without it!! Have a great weekend!!

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7 UP Cake- Famous Fridays

Serves 12

Prep Time: 15 minutes: Bake Time: 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup 7 UP

• 5 large eggs, room temperature

• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I used Crisco)

• 3 cups sugar

For the Glaze

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar

• 4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

• 1-2 teaspoons water

The Recipe

1.  Make sure oven rack is in the middle and preheat oven to 325ºF.  Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt or tube pan. Set aside.

2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt.  In a large measuring cup, whisk together 7 UP, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla.

3.  Using an electric mixer, beat butter, shortening, and sugar together on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.  On low speed, add the flour mixture and the 7 UP mixture in 2 batches, alternating each and beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of bowl as needed.

4.  Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake until cake is golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  The original recipe calls for 1 hour but mine took an extra 20 minutes on top of the hour. At the one hour mark, I covered the top loosely with a piece of foil to keep it from getting too brown. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes and then unmold from pan and let cool completely before glazing.

5.  To make glaze:  Whisk together all the ingredients in a small bowl. Place cake on a sheet of wax paper or parchment to catch the drips, and drizzle glaze all over cake. Transfer to a cake plate and serve.

6.  Cake can be stored, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

Note:  Recipe barely adapted from America's Best Lost Recipes by the Editors of Cook's Country Magazine.