My favorite drink to get at a restaurant has always been a Shirley Temple. Traditionally, it’s made with ginger ale, grenadine, and maraschino cherries, but sometimes the ginger ale is replaced with lemon-lime soda.
I’ve been cutting back on drinking soda lately, so I wanted to know if there was any way to have all of that flavor in a dessert. That’s when I found this Shirley Temple poke cake, and it’s incredible.
A poke cake is exactly what it sounds like– poking holes into a cake. Once you do that, you pour something delicious into the holes and the cake soaks it all up.
I make this all the time now. It’s a great dessert with any meal, and I highly suggest you make it ASAP. Here’s how.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 5 eggs
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¾ cup lemon-lime soda
- 1 (10 oz) jar stemless Maraschino cherries; drained, juices reserved, ¼ cup cherries reserved for topping
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup milk
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a bundt pan and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla.
- Add eggs, one at a time, and beat to incorporate.
- Slowly mix in flour.
- Add lemon juice and lemon lime soda; beat until batter is smooth.
- Fold in cherries, covering them in some more flour to prevent them from sinking. Pour batter into bundt pan.
- Bake for 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly before transferring to serving platter. Place platter over top of bundt pan, then carefully flip. Tap bundt to release cake.
- While cake is still slightly warm, poke holes into the top of cake, then pour cherry juice over the holes. Let cake cool completely.
- Prepare glaze: whisk together confectioner’s sugar with vanilla extract. Slowly add milk until glaze reaches desired consistency. Pour glaze over cake.
- Top with reserved cherries.
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If you love drinking Shirley Temples, you’re going to adore this poke cake. Considering how easy it is to make, you’ll be eating it all the time, too!
Enjoy!