First of all, thank you guys so much for helping me wish Sara a happy early birthday! She totally wasn’t in on the surprise, so it was so fun that you guys knew what was in her birthday box before she did! The winner is #894, Trish May. Trish, I’ve sent you an email, so if you haven’t checked it, go! Now! Trying to be too bossy here, just excited.
So Easter is happening. On Sunday. If you haven’t figured out what sweet treat you’re serving with Easter dinner (besides, you know, the Starburst jellybeans and the Cadbury chocolate eggs and the Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs…need I go on? Easter pretty much has the corner on the best holiday candy), I’m here to help you out.
This cake is kind of crazy. It has 2 ½ sticks of butter. 20 tablespoons. It’s leavened with eggs and lemon-lime soda, but no baking soda or baking powder. You bake it for over an hour. The batter tastes like cheesecake and the finished product melts in your mouth and tastes like a giant cake doughnut. There’s nothing ordinary about this cake, but I swear to you all, it’s so easy and so delicious that you’ll make it again and again.
You’re going to need sugar, eggs, lemon-lime soda (I used Sprite, but you could use 7-Up or Sierra Mist. Don’t use sugar-free soda—it will mess with the texture. You could use Mountain Dew if that’s your jam), lime zest, lime juice, lemon zest, lemon juice, butter, and cake flour.
Position the oven rack in the lower-middle position. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup tube or Bundt pan.
Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly.
Can we talk about the melting of butter and how the whole process is one of the most beautiful, amazing processes in the world? Just me? It really explains so much.
Anywho.
Add the sugar, eggs, lemon-lime soda, lime zest, lime juice, lemon zest, and lemon juice to the jar of your blender. Run on lowest speed until combined. With the blender running, slowly add the butter in a steady stream and mix until fully incorporated. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add 1/3 of the flour and whisk until combined. Repeat twice until all the flour has been used.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 1 ¼-1 ½ hours or until a pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (be sure not to over-bake it—it will take on an eggy flavor. Mine was actually done around 1 hour and 7 minutes, but I live at a very low altitude and have a gas oven that is wildly irregular). Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes,
then turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely (about 2 hours, although I’ll be honest and say I didn’t wait the full 2 hours to glaze the cake.)
To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon and lime juice until smooth. Place the cake, craggy side up, on a serving plate and drizzle with glaze. Let the glaze set for at least 10 minutes before serving. Makes 12 servings.
Also, don’t forget that our olive oil is currently on sale! Go snag a few bottles while you can!
Lemon-Lime Soda Bundt Cake
Recipe very lightly adapted from Cook’s Country
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
½ cup lemon-lime soda (like 7-Up, Sprite, or Sierra Mist)
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 ½ sticks salted butter
3 ¼ cups (13 ounces) cake flour
GLAZE (CAN BE DOUBLED):
1 cup (4 ounces) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice.
Instructions
Position the oven rack in the lower-middle position. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup tube or Bundt pan.
Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly.
Add the sugar, eggs, lemon-lime soda, lime zest, lime juice, lemon zest, and lemon juice to the jar of your blender. Run on lowest speed until combined. With the blender running, slowly add the butter in a steady stream and mix until fully incorporated. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add 1/3 of the flour and whisk until combined. Repeat twice until all the flour has been used.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 ¼-1 ½ hours or until a pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (be sure not to over-bake it—it will take on an eggy flavor. Mine was actually done around 1 hour and 7 minutes, but I live at a very low altitude and have a gas oven that is wildly irregular). Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes, then turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely (about 2 hours, although I’ll be honest and say I didn’t wait the full 2 hours to glaze the cake.)
To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon and lime juice until smooth. Place the cake, craggy side up, on a serving plate and drizzle with glaze. Let the glaze set for at least 10 minutes before serving. Makes 12 servings.
Questions & Reviews
do i have to use a bun pan
This recipe is all over the internet. All the others I have seen cream the butter and sugar and add the Sprite at the end or alternately with the flour. Yours is the only one that melts the butter and blends it with the Sprite. My question is, doesn’t blending destroy the carbonation and is there an advantage to melting the butter? Your cake looks beautiful, but it seems counterintuitive to blend the soda since it helps provide the leavening.
Made this for Easter dessert and it was a hit! Thanks for the great recipe!
So good, Kate! Thanks for posting.
The flavor is fantastic…… so much so the Bundt pan ate the cake before we had a chance to…. Will try again with a different pan ~~~ or maybe let the cake cool for 30 min or so before eagerly trying to unmold it =)
For the glaze, it is listed 1 cup or 4 ounces of powder sugar. Should it be 8 ounces or does a dry product measure different than a liquid. Thank you.
Dry and liquid measure differently, especially something very light like powdered sugar. 🙂
Growing up we would occasionally get a store-bought 7-UP cake, which I loved. I imagine this is similar, but obviously better homemade!
Looks delicious! But I have to know— what font did you use in your picture for lemon-lime…? so cute!
Well, I totally get it, haha! I rarely splurge on premium fonts, but every once in awhile, I just have to because I love them so much and this was one of those times. It’s called The Carpenter and then I used one of the stylistic alternates (on some of them, especially the premium ones, they have letters that do cool things like on the l, m, and d and you can mess around with that in Photoshop.)
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fenotype/the-carpenter/
Did you see the pan pioneer woman used with hers? So cool! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/04/lemon-lime-pound-cake/
This looks amazing! I am definitely making this to take to Easter dinner!
I’m with Sara! “Tastes like a giant doughnut?” Count me in!! :))
You gals make me crazy! Every darn day, I look at your feed and I’m like “I’m not sure I would love that, sounds a little strange” but then I open it anyway and you suck me in with your pictures and your “it tastes like a giant donut” statements. And then I make everything you tell me to and it’s awesome. #firstworldproblems
But really, thanks. You are so great.
OK, this is a dumb question, but you say to place the cake “craggy side up” on the serving plate, and the picture has it with the molded side up; I can’t imagine trying to flip it after the glaze has soaked in, sooo, the “craggy” side is the side that has been in the pan, then?
Not dumb, I was the dumb one, haha! I took pictures of the non-craggy side because it was pretty, but the glaze is so much yummier on the craggy side. So just put it craggy side up and drizzle it with the glaze and leave that way and you will know that the pretty side is on the bottom, hahaha.
Got it. Thanks so much! Yum! I never met a lemon-glazed cake I didn’t like!
I know this might sound silly, but do you melt the butter in the microwave…or over the stovetop! Thanks! So excited to make this for an Easter dinner!
Microwave. For sure. 🙂
This sounds like a perfect Easter dessert — with some sliced strawberries. How does it taste the next day? Some bundt cakes get more moist and taste better the next day so they work well if you make them the day before. Is this like that or would it dry out too much if I make it on Saturday?
I think it’s better the second day, so definitely go for it! 🙂
Is this real lemony or limy (if those are real words?) – my husband loves buttery creamy cakes (really who doesn’t?!) but not a huge lemon/lime fan. Cake doughnut would be awesome but lemon cake not so much. I figure I could adjust the citrus in the glaze but wonder if the cake would be too much. Thanks. Looks great!
It’s not super lemony or limey. I mean, definitely citrusy, but it’s not overwhelming, you know?
My birthday is coming up at the end of this month. I told my hubby I wanted a doughnut cake. But…. since this apparently tastes like a doughnut I think I will be changing my mind. This looks incredibly delicious! I also just barely got my first bundt pan and have been trying to figure out what to break that baby in with. Whew! Thanks for helping me solve that problem! 🙂
I was just telling someone the other day how it’s strange I don’t think we have a single bundt cake on our site! This one had me at “tastes like a giant doughnut.”
I’ve been inexplicably making bundt cakes lately, and this looks awesome!
I broke from the bundt cake and made the Chocolate Peppermint Mousse Cake from your 2nd cookbook! Sooooo delicious!
Such a yummy looking bundt!! Love this!