The Nostalgic Frozen Drink That Makes Homemade Cake Taste Like Summer

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On a hot summer day, cooling off with a glass of ice cold pink lemonade has to be a core memory for most of us. Brands like Minute Maid make frozen pink lemonade concentrate that requires nothing more than a bit of water and a stir. That same frozen pink lemonade is also the key to making homemade cake taste like summer.

Pink lemonade pulls at our childhood heartstrings, brings equal parts sweet and sour to our cakes, and makes them as bright, cheerful, and refreshing as a fresh cup. Recipe developer Jessica Morone uses pink lemonade concentrate in her recipe for pink lemonade sheet cake, adding it to both the batter and the frosting. Because it's concentrated, frozen pink lemonade will be extra flavorful with pronounced tart sweetness that works especially well for making a basic vanilla cake batter. Morone opts to thaw the concentrate, adding it along with the other liquid ingredients to combine before mixing it with flour and baking soda. While pink lemonade concentrate is undoubtedly pink, it's not dark enough to dye the entire cake batter or frosting. So, if you want to make a pink lemonade sheet cake pink in color, a few drops of red dye will do the trick.

In keeping with the lemonade theme, the sheet cake is topped with fresh lemon rounds, dusted with pink sprinkles, and poked with striped soda straws. Add candied lemons for an edible garnish or, better yet, these bright yellow NY Spice Shop Lemon Jelly Candy Slices arranged in a circular star-like formation.

If you don't have time to make a pink lemonade cake from scratch, you can add pink lemonade concentrate to a boxed cake mix; according to our ranking, Duncan Hines yellow cake mix is the best. Simply swap thawed lemonade concentrate for a portion of the water or milk added to the cake mix, tasting as you go to ensure the lemonade flavor shines through. You can also forget the food dye by using a strawberry cake mix like Betty Crocker Delights Super Moist Strawberry Cake Mix.

Whether you whip up the cake from scratch or not, there are other upgrades you can make that improve the taste and bring even more visual nostalgia to a pink lemonade theme. While concentrate (and cake batter) uses food coloring to turn the lemonade pink, many homemade or bottled pink lemonades add fruit juices for a natural dye and flavor agent. Strawberries, raspberries, and cranberries are among the fruity food dyes, and you can use them in your cake recipe, too. For example, you can add dollops and swirls of raspberry preserves to the batter for a pop of red to complement the pink color, and the berry sweetness will go along with the tart lemonade flavor.

You can also use pink lemonade concentrate as the syrupy liquid to reduce with champagne in this recipe for strawberry champagne poke cake. Or, if you'd rather pie, blend pink lemonade concentrate with Cool Whip and sweetened condensed milk to fill a graham cracker crust for a no-bake summertime dessert.