While shopping recently at the local supermarket, I was surprised to see the bakery department had a display featuring a line of commercially pre-packaged cakes, with one of the varieties billed as “7-Up Cake,” and even boasting the endorsem*nt and logo from the iconic soda company right on the brand label.
The recipe for making 7-Up cake is certainly not anything new.
By contrast, it’s a nostalgic recipe I can remember my mom making back in the 1970s when it enjoyed a resurgence in popularity as a novelty dessert served by hostesses, such as my mom, for bunko club gatherings and church carry-ins. 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.
The lemon and lime flavored soda staple is about to celebrate its 90th birthday in 2019, providing a good reason to once again publish the easy recipe for homemade 7-Up Cake, as provided from the beverage company, which has a long and fascinating history.
Invented and launched in St. Louis in 1929 with the formula created by advertising salesman Charles Leiper Grigg, the soda beverage was originally named Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda, which doesn’t exactly just roll off the tongue for marketing ease. Like most of the soda beverages from early days, the drink was sold and advertised as having medicinal and health properties. As described in early advertisem*nts, the original formula included lithium citrate, which was a common “mood stabilizer drug” at the time. By the 1930s, the brand name was shortened to 7-Up Lithiated Lemon Soda before the drug ingredient was removed from the manufacturing formula in 1948, and the name brand further shortened to just 7-Up.
Today, the 7-Up company acknowledges the origin of their product’s name has always been veiled with mystery, although a number of theories exist.
Many people continue to praise 7-Up as an effective remedy to sooth an upset stomach or relieve nausea, giving credence to the idea 7-Up’s name comes from the drink’s formula having a pH level “higher than 7,” despite that its pH level is really closer to 4. Other name association claims range from the drink’s formula only having seven key ingredients, to its unique bottling size for many years in 7-ounce green glass bottles at a time when counterpart cola soft drinks were traditionally bottled in 6-ounce bottles.
Though it was a favorite carbonated beverage originally marketed to adults, favored as a punch and co*cktail mixer, by the 1950s, the company created new campaigns to attract kids and teens who were traditionally more partial to cola brands.
Working with Walt Disney, the 7-Up Company created a cartoon mascot rooster named Fresh-Up Freddie, who dressed in trendy attire of the day and drove a sports car. Walt Disney even created a business agreement with 7-Up to incorporate the cartoon rooster as the commercial sponsor for one of Disney’s most popular live-action 1957 TV series at the time, “Zorro.” The marketing campaign was effective, and soon, a simple desk game called “Heads Up 7-Up” had students chiming the brand in elementary classrooms of the 1950s.
For cooking and ingredient purposes, the 7-Up used in the recipe for 7-Up Cake serves as the substitute for baking soda in the batter of this moist pound cake and additional 7-Up is used for the liquid and flavor agent in the glaze ingredients. The 7-Up company features the retro recipe for 7-Up cake on its website at www.7up.com as well as suggesting the soda be incorporated as a highlight key ingredient for assorted recipes such as cheesecake, simmered tender pork chops, pancakes, guacamole, roast chicken and a variety of drinks.
Philip Potempa has published three cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. Mail questions to From the Farm, P.O. Box 68, San Pierre, IN 46374.
pmpotempa@comhs.org
7-Up Cake
Makes 8 servings
Cake:
1-1/2 cups margarine or butter
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons lemon extract
3/4 cup 7-Up
Glaze:
3-1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup cold 7-Up
1. To make cake, heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the sugar and butter until creamy. Add in lemon extract and mix. Add in eggs and mix. Add in flour and mix.
3. Add in 7-Up and mix for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix for 1 minute at low speed.
4. Pour batter into a well-greased 9-inch Bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour, or up to 1 hour and 20 minutes.
5. While the cake bakes, make glaze by using an electric hand mixer to combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and 7-Up. Beat until smooth.
6. Let cake stand in the pan for about 10 minutes.
7. Turn cake over onto a plate or platter, remove pan. Let cool, then drizzle with the glaze.
