Happy Sunday! It’s time for another installment of Soul Food Sunday, and I decided it would be good to do a dessert this week. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been taking a class online all weekend about food photography from Penny De Los Santos. WOW is all I have to say. I have learned so much and been so incredibly inspired by what Penny has shared and the work she’s shown us. It has been invaluable to me, and I’m so glad I decided to go for it. So while this post is about sharing a great recipe with you all, it’s also about trying out some of the things I’ve learned this weekend.

Penny started yesterday’s class with an ingredient shot, and I realized that ingredients are kind of an opportunity for pictures that I don’t really take advantage of. She taught us about the advantages of shooting overhead, something else that I hardly ever do. I feel a little limited by my point-and-shoot, but making this cake was still a good exercise. I’m going to be playing around a little with how I integrate pictures into my posts.

7-up cake is a majorly Southern food, so some of you may not have heard of it. Essentially the soda is added to the batter instead of baking powder or baking soda and it makes for a delicious and light pound cake. This is something that you’d be likely to find in a soul food restaurant and in all sorts of kitchens in the South. This recipe comes straight from my mom, though I halved the recipe to make a smaller cake.

Things I changed to make it a leeeetle bit healthier:

1. Use Sierra Mist instead of 7-UP or Sprite, it doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors.
2. Use unbleached cake flour.
3. It’s more expensive, but use organic sugar if you can. It’s a lot less processed and just better for you.
4. Make sure the lemon extract is pure and not artificial flavoring.
5. Try Earth Balance instead of shortening or some other product with hydrogenated oils.

7-UP Pound Cake

• 1/2 c. butter substitute
• 1 c. butter
• 3 c. sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 t. lemon extract
• 3 c. cake flour
• 3/4 c. lemon-lime soda

-With an electric mixer, beat the butter, butter substitute, and sugar together until light and fluffy.

-Add in the eggs and mix in one egg at a time. Mix in the lemon extract.

-Slowly add in the flour and mix for a few minutes until the batter is creamy and very smooth.

-Add in the soda and mix just until well combined.

-Place the batter into a VERY well greased cake pan.

-Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Slightly different angle:

-Flip out onto a cooling rack and let cool for about 20 minutes. Slice and enjoy!

(As you can see below I was losing the light… also I had a major pan sticking incident so the cake itself was a little unsightly…just kind of ignore these last two, I just wanted to show you the inside of the cake! :P)

This is the perfect cake to make if you’re a newbie at scratch cakes. Pound cake is pretty goof proof as long as you use a good recipe (and SPRAY YOUR PAN LIKE CRAZY…I have learned my lesson for like the upteenth time, especially with bundt pans you really need to grease the pan well).

Since we’re leaving for Georgia in a couple days we’re working on eating the food we have out of our fridge so I can’t promise like groundbreaking gourmet recipes in the next few days. BUT when I get home, just wait for the magic. It’s going to be awesome.

Thanks for reading! I gotta go catch the end of the photography class!