Orange Creamsickle Cake

Even the manliest pitmaster has to have desert now and then. And here in the South, few deserts are more popular in the summer than the orange creamsickle. All the best of orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream put together on a stick and just made for dripping down the hands and chins of grubby little kids on a hot day. Sometimes it’s ice cream encased in a layer of sherbet, sometimes they’re blended together, depending on the brand your mom bought.

Then there’s another classic, the Coca-Cola cake, which in no time at all branched out into the Dr. Pepper cake, the 7-Up cake, and so on.

I figured, why not combine the two? Especially when it’s an incredibly simple recipe. I’ll state at the outset that any flavor of cake mix will do, as well as your choice of soda. But for my purposes, this is what I used.

• 1 orange flavored cake mix
• 6 0z. orange soda
• 6 oz. cream soda

Now that’s the minimum, if you want to keep it simple. Mix those up and follow the baking instructions on the box, leaving out the eggs, oil, water, or whatever it may call for. I, however, added a few other things.

• 1 Tbs. sour cream
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

As above, mix it all up and bake it in a pan. If you like, you can make a glaze like I did. Fill a glass 2-cup measuring cup about 3/4 full with powdered sugar. Sift it as smooth as you can with a fork to get the clumps out. SLOWLY pour in a very small amount of orange soda. A little goes a long way. No need to measure, just eyeball it. But err on the side of too little and then stir. You can always add more, but it’s near impossible to take it out. When it’s a nice, milky-orange color you’ve got it. It should be pretty thick, too.

Wait until the cake is cool before drizzling the glaze on it. Otherwise it’ll just melt and make your cake all soggy instead of coating the top.