Ree Drummond Adds This Classic Soda To Her Pound Cake

In a world of tasty quick breads and cakes, it's still best not to forget the classics. Pound cake, for instance, is a perfectly versatile treat to keep on hand for a morning meal, snack, or dessert served with fresh fruit and ice cream. Made with a simple ingredient lineup including butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and flavorings, you might think there isn't much you can do with the recipe. Enter, Ree Drummond, Food Network celebrity chef and host of "The Pioneer Woman." As she revealed on her blog, Drummond takes the iconic cake up a notch by adding classic lemon-lime soda (what she refers to as "pop") to the mix.

Her recipe takes a page from 7-Up cakes, popular in the 70s, which used the soda for their rise and signature sweet citrusy flavor. Drummond lists Sprite as an example of a soda that works great to whip up a moist, delicious cake, but you can use your favorite brand or soda variety — as long as it's carbonated. Like substituting club soda for baking powder in baked goods or adding brew to make beer bread, fizzy lemon-lime pops' air bubbles create pockets of carbon dioxide in the cake batter and ultimately help the cake rise sans other leavening agents. While some traditional pound cakes use baking powder, Drummond's rendition uses only the flavored soda to achieve its tender crumb and buttery, citrus taste.

A good pound cake's simplicity — and undeniably buttery taste and texture — is a major part of its allure. Lemon-lime soda works perfectly because it imparts a syrupy sweetness and nostalgic citrus hints that add a nice complementary flavor and balance the cake's rich taste. If you give Drummond's recipe a try, you can bake the cake as she suggests with vanilla and lemon extract, too. Add lemon or lime zest to boost the citrus in the recipe even further. 

You can also get creative with other flavored sodas, like orange or grapefruit. Just choose one that's complementary to the butter and vanilla in the cake. Avoid strong and deeply caramelized flavors like root beer or Coke, which will overpower the cake. (Save those to make cherry cola dump cake). From there, you can experiment with baking it in different formats, like a bundt or loaf pan, or topping the finished dessert with a glaze.

If you like Drummond's concept but want to try adding lemon-lime pop to your own favorite classic pound cake recipe, you'll want to decrease the sugar (since most sodas come with their fair share of the stuff). If you don't want to do the math of decreasing the sugar quantity, opt for sugar-free soda or lemon or lime flavored carbonated water. This will give you rise and flavor without all the added sugar.