Our younger daughter has encouraged me to share this Mountain Dew cake recipe for months because her family loves it, and it's always a hit when she takes it to a potluck. I'm so sorry I waited this long, because this is an amazing cake!
My husband (Papa) doesn't drink coffee; he never has, but he starts every day with a 20-ounce bottle of Diet Mountain Dew. It's his caffeine. We've had Mountain Dew around for years, and when I decided to try this cake recipe, I got curious about the history of this brand of soda.
In Nebraska, we refer to soda as "pop." In the South, all soda is commonly referred to as "Coke," regardless of the brand. Mountain Dew has an interesting backstory that dates back to the 1940s, when Barney and Ally Hartman, beverage bottlers in Tennessee, developed the drink as a mixer for whiskey.
The name ties the brand to the Appalachian range, where the mountain folks made moonshine whiskey that was fondly called mountain dew. The brand name "Mountain Dew" was chosen for the new beverage, drawing on the regional slang associated with homemade, spirited beverages in the Appalachian Mountains.
Over the years, Pepsi bought the rights, and the company has had a lot of fun advertising the beverage with catchy taglines like "Yahoo Mountain Dew" and "Do the Dew." The product boasts a huge and dedicated fan base, having become one of the most popular soda brands.
When you add a few more ingredients, it makes an awesome Mountain Dew cake that's super popular and has a dedicated fan base of its own!
When I researched the level of interest in Diet Mountain Dew, I was amused to find a pop song about it! Clearly, I need to get out more or tune in to my Spotify account more regularly! LOL By the way, the bouncy song gets a lot of love online, too!
The ingredients are simple and easy to find. The cake comes together quickly, and the addition of eggs, oil, and instant pudding to the cake, along with a 12-ounce can of soda, results in a moist and tender cake that resembles a pound cake in texture.
This Mountain Dew cake recipe is simple enough for your young bakers to handle easily! All the ingredients are combined in a mixing bowl and beaten until everything is well blended.
Traditionally, the cake is baked in a bundt pan. The one I used dates back to the 1970s or 80s, judging by its harvest gold color. I borrowed it from our daughter, and we don't remember where it came from. My husband's mom, maybe?
"Thoroughly grease the bundt pan, even if it's supposed to be non-stick," said Betty, who found out the hard way. Cake wreck! I got smart and bought this wonderful Pam baking spray with flour. Game changer!
Combine all the ingredients —cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, and soda — in a mixing bowl and beat them together until there are no lumps and everything is well blended.
Then, pour the batter into the bundt pan that you have so cleverly prepared. Tap it on the counter to release any air bubbles and level it out. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until the top is a lovely golden brown.
Aside from greasing or spraying the pan well, here are a couple of tips for removing the cake neatly from the bundt pan. Let the cake cool in the pan for only ten or fifteen minutes; don't let it cool completely.
Put a cooling rack on top of the slightly warm cake pan and flip the cake and the rack over. As you can see, it came out perfectly! Hooray! Yahoo Mountain Dew Cake!!
You can use other cake mix flavors, such as yellow, vanilla, or lemon. You can switch out the pudding flavors and use lemon, vanilla, or even cheesecake. I tried that combo, and it was terrific! This cake was baked with a lemon/lemon combination, and I love the sunny, bright color. The taste is awesome!
Once the cake has cooled, mix powdered sugar with more Mountain Dew for a simple glaze. I'm really into the sparkle and crunch of coarse sanding sugar, so I used it here. In my opinion, the cake is wonderful without any glaze and would be even more amazing with just a dusting of powdered sugar.
An easy cake that uses a cake mix and a pudding mix for a moist cake with the texture of a pound cake. Impressive when baked in a bundt pan. The glaze is optional but so pretty!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease or spray the bundt pan thoroughly.
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat until the batter is smooth and there are no lumps.
Pour the batter into the bundt pan and bake for about 45 minutes. A cake tester inserted near the center of the cake should come out clean.
Cool the cake on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes, then put a plate or the rack on top of the cake and flip it over, then lift off the pan.
Let the cake cool completely, then mix the glaze in a small bowl and drizzle it evenly over the cake.
Let the glaze harden before cutting the cake.
Store cake at room temperature, securely wrapped in plastic film or covered.
If you liked this recipe, you are my people! You might also enjoy this Triple Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake Recipe. Bundt cakes always look impressive, even though they're not difficult. Here are a couple of my most popular cake recipes. You can't go wrong with these! Easy Peach Cake, perfect this time of year!
Later in the fall, this one is always amazing: Wonderful Danish Apple Cake and my personal favorite, the elegant "little black dress" of cakes, Cranberry Cake!
Who am I kidding? I only put yummy cake recipes on GB's Kitchen- so search "cake" and you're sure to find a new favorite!😉
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Love GB (Betty Streff)
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If you add Wild Turkey 101 it would be a Turkey Dew cake for a festive change. See, https://www.tastingtable.com/1460784/mountain-dew-bourbon-cocktail-appalachian/
That sounds very interesting and I bet it's quite tasty!
My son asked for a Mountain Dew cake for his birthday tomorrow (12/16) and I came across your recipe. Very simple and easy to follow and recreat with my own twist of course. i used a peach cobbler infused icing with blue sugar & sprinkles to complete this treat.
How awesome! I wish I had a picture-it sounds very cool! Glad it worked for you!!😋
I have been making this cake for years and everyone enjoys. I have used all different flavors of cake mixes, pudding and soda Pop.
I'd be so excited to hear what combinations you have made! Any chance you'd share? 🤗
This was my first time making this recipe. It looked beautiful when I took it out of the oven, but less than 3 minutes later, It inflated! Not sure why. Although it didn’t look as pretty and full as it originally did; it was moist and very tasty. I will attempt it again….hopefully it won’t shrink. 😆😆
Hmmmm, that's a head scratcher. The first thing that comes to mind is if it was slightly underbaked. Did you bake it in a bundt pan? Were the edges pulling away from the pan every so slightly when you pulled it out of the oven? I''m soory it was disapointing but I'm sure glad it tasted good and that you are willing to try it again!!