Looking for a dessert to impress your family and friends? This Cherry 7 Up Pound Cake is packed with flavor and is beautiful too! This is THE BEST pound cake recipe you’ll make!
Readers love our cakes, and our cherry chip cupcakes are one of my personal favorites. Delicious frosting on a sweet chocolate cupcake!
Why This Recipe is Best
My good friend, Jocelyn, from the blog Grandbaby Cakes sent me her beautiful family photo album. Okay, I kid. It’s her gorgeous cookbook, aptly titled Grandbaby Cakes.
However, flipping through the pages I feel at times like I am snooping through her family history and secret family recipes!
Her recipes include stories and her stories include recipes. And there are plenty of family photos as well to draw you right in.
Jocelyn asked me to make one of her recipes, adding my own twist if I wanted. I was immediately drawn to her 7 Up Pound Cake.
My biggest change was I replaced the 7 Up with Cherry 7 Up and added in some maraschino cherries. Plus a heavier cherry glaze!
- The texture of this pound cake is perfectly moist and hearty
- The crust on the outside is just heavenly
- And that cherry flavor throughout is such a fun twist
And this is just one of many gorgeous recipes in her book. You should definitely go to Amazon and buy your own copy (it would make a GREAT gift for the holidays too).
Ingredient Notes
- Butter – I use unsalted butter in all of my baking so I can control the amount of salt in my recipes. Also, it’s important to let it soften on the counter.
- Eggs – I use 5 large eggs in this pound cake. They bind the dry and wet ingredients together so you get that dense, yet tender, old-fashioned pound cake texture.
- Cake Flour – Yes, it’s important. It creates the perfect texture and crumb when it comes to baking a cake.
- Cherry 7 Up – This replaces the baking soda in traditional pound cake recipes, adding pockets of air to your batter, along with a bit of citrus and cherry flavor.
- Maraschino Cherries – We are using the cherries in the cake batter, and also the juice from the jar in the glaze on top.
Easy Instructions
Step 1. Prep. Preheat oven to 315 and generously coat a large Bundt pan with cooking spray.
Step 2. Make batter. Beat the butter in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment for 2 minutes on high until pale in color. Add in sugar and salt and cream together for an additional 7 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Mixture will be very pale yellow and fluffy.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Slowly add in flour and turn the mixer down to low to avoid over beating. Pour in the Cherry 7 Up and mix just until combined. Fold in the maraschino cherries.
Step 3. Bake and cool. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 75-85 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate and cool completely.
Step 4. Glaze. Put 1 cup of powdered sugar in each of 2 bowls. Add the maraschino cherry juice to one and the milk to the other bowl. Whisk each one until smooth. Pour the white glaze over the cake and then drizzle with the cherry glaze. Cut and serve!
Tips and Tricks
- Make sure you use a large bundt cake, or tube pan. This is a a very large pound cake, and it rises high, so make sure you’re not using a pan that is too small.
- Once you’ve added in your flour do NOT overbeat. I mix JUST until the flour is incorporated, then I use a spatula and mix gently without the electric mixer.
- Bake at a lower temperature for longer. You’ve got to trust this, but it works and it’s amazing. And after one bite of this cake, you’ll say, “that’s the best and most perfect pound cake ever!”
- Save the juice in your jar of maraschino cherries! It not only gives the glaze the pretty pink color, but also the great flavor!
Recipe FAQs
Cake flour is important for the texture in a pound cake, but you can make your own cake flour. Substitute 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour plus 1/3 cup cornstarch for 3 cups cake flour.
Yes! To freeze this cake, wrap your cake slices in parchment paper, then in a ziploc freezer bag. Remove from freezer and place at room temperature to thaw. Freezing slices allows you to only pull out exactly what you need (or crave)!
Be sure to beat butter and sugar at medium speed. Do NOT over beat the flour, add slowly and gently until combined.
More Cake Recipes
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- Apple Pound Cake
- Lemon Crumb Coffee Cake
- Lemon Bundt Cake
- Cherry Margarita Pound Cake
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Cherry 7 Up Pound Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter softened
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 large eggs
- 3 cups cake flour
- ½ cup Cherry 7 Up
- ½ cup maraschino cherries stems removed, patted dry
For the glaze:
- 2 cup powdered sugar divided
- 3 Tablespoons maraschino cherry juice
- 2 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 315 F. (yes, it’s a lower temperature than normal). Prepare a Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, attached to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, but the butter for 2 minutes on high until pale in color. Add in sugar and salt and cream together for an additional 7 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple times. Mixture will be very pale yellow and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Slowly add in flour, being careful not to over beat (turn the mixer down to low at this time). Pour in Cherry 7Up and mix just until combined. Fold in maraschino cherries.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 75-85 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert on serving plate. Cool completely before adding glaze.
- For the glaze, divide the powdered sugar in half by adding 1 cup to two bowls. To one bowl, add in cherry juice. Whisk until smooth. To the other bowl, add in milk, whisk until smooth.
- Pour the white glaze over the top of the cake first. Then drizzle with the cherry glaze. ENJOY.
Notes
- Once you’ve added in your flour do NOT overbeat. I mix JUST until the flour is incorporated, then I use a spatula and mix gently without the electric mixer.
- Bake at a lower temperature for longer. You’ve got to trust this, but it works and it’s amazing. And after one bite of this cake, you’ll say, “that’s the best and most perfect pound cake ever!”
- Save the juice in your jar of maraschino cherries! It not only gives the glaze the pretty pink color, but also the great flavor!
- To freeze this cake, wrap your cake slices in parchment paper, then in a ziploc freezer bag. Remove from freezer and place at room temperature to thaw. Freezing slices allows you to only pull out exactly what you need (or crave)!
Nutrition
This stunning Cherry 7Up Pound Cake recipe was originally published in September 2015 and has been updated in March 2018.
This cake is a definite must try.
A must try recipe!!
This looks so delicious! The two toned looks like it would be perfect for Xmas, Valentines or even a baby shower the wheels are turning in my mind to find a use for this cake!!
This cake looks delicious! I gotta pick up a copy of that book.
I think I will honor my Grammie D when I tell you that for us the big family recipe is scrapple. Never heard of it? You’re not alone, unless you live in the Pennsylvania area! It sounds weird to modern tastes (it’s basically corn meal mush cooked over the stove with ground stewed pork — !) but our family has been eating it for Christmas Eve for… as long as Grammie D has been cooking, I guess. Definitely since the 1930’s anyway.
I have heard of scrapple. I think it was featured in one of our map books when we were going cross country driving!! Have never tried it though 🙂
This looks absolutely yummy
That icing!! OMG. So pretty!
This pound cake is just too beautiful!
This sounds amazing! I must get my hands on this book and fast. 😉
I love 7-up Pound Cakes. Can’t wait to try this.
This looks too pretty to eat!
xoxoBella | http://xoxobella.com
This cake looks so gooood.
My favorite family recipe is my grandmas spaghetti and meatballs
Looks delicate and delicious, can’t wait to try it!
My families favorite recipe is for a crumb topped apple pie with caramel sauce drizzle. it”s so yummy.
My family favorite recipe is an old family recipe from my Croatian side called Povitica. A lot of Europeans have their own family versions of it. It’s kind of hard to make, but we usually only make it for holidays. It’s really good dunked in hot chocolate. There are recipes and videos for different versions of it online.
Oops….favorite recipe? White Christmas Pie.
Thanks for the opportunity…and a regular supply of deliciousness via email!
My favorite family recipe is a Banana Fruitcake that is more like a spice cake than a traditional fruitcake. It is made every year for Christmas using the same pan that my grandmother and those before her used. It gets a buttercream frosting and cherry halves on top of that. It is quite tasty and it wouldn’t be Christmas without it!!
I bet it tastes as good as it looks! Favorite family recipe = cornbread
Your cake looks so good! I like my Nana’s sour cream pound cake.