Shirley Temple Cake
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A light and delicious bundt, this Shirley Temple Cake will evoke the inner child in us. Full of lemon lime and cherry flavor this cake is truly addicting!
Please don’t tell me that I was the only one as a child who got to enjoy the iconic Shirley Temple Drink? Oh man how I loved them! It was the perfect mocktail of my youth!
I can honestly say it’s been ages since I’ve had one and it took me creating this bundt cake to realize that. I hate when it happens that way! But I’m so happy I got to take a little trip down memory lane. This Shirley Temple Cake is the perfect grown up throwback to your childhood!
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- 100% homemade
- Uses 7UP pound cake base
- Infused cherry juice and whole cherries
- Sweet glaze
- A great make ahead dessert
What is Shirley Temple Cake?
This cake is a traditional 7Up flavored pound cake with cherries mixed into the batter. It bakes up beautiful and golden brown. It’s then poked and poured with cherry juice and glazed with a delicious sweet lemon glaze. These flavors just burst in your mouth and the saturation of the cherry juice right under the top is AH-MAZING!
Ingredients
- Butter. We use salted butter 99% of the time in baking because that is what we keep on hand. You can use either unsalted or salted.
- Sugar.
- Eggs. Use large eggs. Room temperature eggs mix into cake batter more easily than cold eggs.
- Flour. To measure the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup lightly, then level off with a knife. If you get too much flour the cake will be dry.
- Lemon extract. For a boost of flavor!
- 7UP. You’ll notice this cake does not have baking soda or baking powder. The 7UP helps give the pound cake rise.
- Maraschino cherries. It’s important to note that some maraschino cherries do not have red food coloring. You can still use those if you’d like, but they won’t have the vibrant red color that this cake has. If you want bright red, find cherries with food coloring.
Glaze ingredients are powdered sugar, lemon extract and milk to thin.
How to Make Shirley Temple Cake
- Prepare. Preheat oven to 325ยบ Fahrenheit. Grease a 10″ bundt pan with shortening, then dust it with flour. Or you can use cake release.
- Mix. In large bowl mix together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in your eggs and continue to mix until blended. Add in your flour and mix again until smooth.
- Pour and fold. Pour in your lemon extract and 7up and beat to combine. Fold in your cherries.
- Bake. Spread the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 70-90 minutes or until center is set. The exact time will depend on your oven and pan so watch it closely.
The next step is to poke holes in the cake and pour over the maraschino cherry juice. You can do this one of two ways: while the cake is in the pan or after you take it out. The red will be on top of the cake if you take the cake out first. The red will be more on the bottom of the cake if you pour the juice while it is in the pan.
Powdered Sugar Glaze
Powdered sugar glaze is one of the easiest frostings to make to add flavor and beauty to your cake. You can make the glaze thicker to have a pretty contrasted drizzle, or you can make it thinner and have it look more like donut glaze.
Shirley Temple Cake
A light and delicious bundt, this Shirley Temple Cake will evoke the inner child in us. Full of lemon lime and cherry flavor this cake is truly addicting!
Servings 12
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 1/2 cups butter (softened)
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs (room temperature)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract
- 3/4 cup 7up soda
- 10 ounces maraschino cherries (1 jar, drained and juice reserved)
For the glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 3-4 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325ยบ Fahrenheit.
- In large bowl mix together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in your eggs and continue to mix until blended.
- Add in your flour and mix again until smooth.
- Pour in your lemon extract and 7up and beat to combine.
- Fold in your cherries.
- Grease a 10″ bundt pan with shortening, then dust it with flour.
- Spread the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 70-90 minutes or until center is set. The exact time will depend on your oven and pan so watch it closely.
- Allow the cake to cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan.* (see note below about juice)
- Turn the cake onto serving dish. Using a skewer, poke holes all over the top of the cake and pour your reserved cherry juice slowly over the top making sure the juice gets soaked up. It's ok for it to seep to the bottom to soak as well.
- Let cool completely.
- Meanwhile mix together your glaze ingredients and drizzle over the top of your cake.
- Top with more cherries if desired.
- Store the cake at room temperature in an airtight container for 3 days. Refrigerate for up to 5 days. This cake also freezes well.
Video
Notes
*Another option is to poke holes in the cake while it is still in the pan. Then drizzle the juice over. This contains the juice in the pan and may be less messy. Your red will end up more on the bottom of the cake, so it really depends on the look you want to have. Either way will work!
The calories shown are based on the cake being cut into 12 pieces, with 1 serving being 1 slice of cake. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**
Nutrition
Calories: 623kcal | Carbohydrates: 95g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 129mg | Sodium: 233mg | Potassium: 70mg | Sugar: 71g | Vitamin A: 815IU | Calcium: 26mg | Iron: 1.8mg
Can you tell me the size of bundt pan to use? Dimensions or capacity? Thanks!
Super moist and delicious and fairly uncomplicated. I took it out about 5mminutes short of the recipe time, maybe could have come out just a tad earlier, but still awesome. My husband commented โoh my God, this is delicious!โ I think next time I may use the 16 oz. cherries because I just love the juice.
I made this Shirley Temple cake and it was so good! I could have eaten the entire cake. I have people wanting me to make one for them. Delicious!!!
I am going to try this cake this weekend for my class reunion bbq.
The recipe sounds great ,but i would like to know have you tried cutting 1 cup of sugar?
I made this and it was FANTASTIC. I did add a cup of sour cream and WOW air was soooooo moist! Thanks
OH no! I just used regular butter not unsalted!!!
The cake was delicious. My whole family loved it!
The recipe says bake 1 hour 30 minutes….. is this correct?
What kind of milk?
Do you think you could do these as cupcakes?
I made this for my moms birthday, it was soooo delicious and moist my family loved it! I will definitely be making this again.
We’ve adapted this to be two teaspoons of lemon extract, but some do prefer two tablespoons.
Hi,
This sounds like a cake my five year old grandson (me too) would love. I donโt see any leavening agent in the ingredient list. Did I miss it.
Thanks,
Janet
Can we use Sprite instead of 7up? I don’t know where to find 7up near me.