In case you didn't know, using OLIPOP in your favorite baked goods is a super easy way to add some extra flavor and fiber to your sweet treats!⁠ (Oh, and did we mention how the carbonation makes your cakes and cupcakes extra fluffy?) Here’s everything you need to know about our Orange Cream flavor and the cupcakes recipe that you didn’t know you needed in your life until right this moment.

OLIPOP Orange Cream

This recipe calls for our summer seasonal flavor, Orange Cream. A tribute to endless summers and the rush of a trip to the ice cream truck in the heat of day, this new flavor’s a little sweet, a little tangy, and—of course—a little creamy, too. It’s the classic taste of your favorite poolside treat that has only 5 grams of sugar and an awesome 9 grams of digestive health-supporting fiber. Orange Cream is overflowing with delicious citrus and creamy vanilla flavor to bring you all the sweet summer goodness you remember but with all of the same OLIPOP benefits you know and love.

OLIPOP and Simple Mills

To make these delicious cupcakes, you’re going to need a few more ingredients than just OLIPOP, of course. And when it came time to develop a recipe for a healthier cupcake that tasted as good as it is for you, we knew how important it would be to include the highest quality, health-minded ingredients you could find. That’s where Simple Mills came in.

If brands can have crushes on one another, then you’d see Simple Mills scribbled in our notebook with hearts all around it. Simple Mills is known for its delicious foods that make it easier to eat a healthy diet without having to compromise on flavor. (Sound familiar?)

Above all else, Simple Mills aligns with us on their mission because they also know that good health is a precursor to living full and prosperous lives. Made from only ingredients you recognize, Simples Mills hand-selects what they put in their products, ensuring that nothing artificial ever finds its way into their goods.

In this recipe, we call for Simple Mills classic vanilla cake mix. Made with nutty but still sweet almond flour and vanilla bean, the cake mix is sure to create decadently delicately baked goods that will have people demanding, not asking, seconds! Plus, because it’s gluten-free and kosher, practically everyone you know can have a bite with no regrets!

OLIPOP as an Ingredient

For some of us, soda as an ingredient in baked goods is nothing new. But for others, hearing that a baked good has soda in it....sounds strange. Sure you know that soda can make a good mixer ingredient, but for baking and cooking….really?

The truth is as much as cooking with soda sounds like a concoction someone whipped up to cure their boredom during the pandemic, it actually has a long history. In reality, cooking with soda dates back to the Great Depression when cooks had to develop creative solutions to their lack of backing staples.

According to Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida and the author of Re-Evaluating Women's Page Journalism in the Post-World War II Era, Dr. Kimberly Voss explains that baking with soda is connected to the Great Depression as rationing during World War II. While baking with soda is most commonly associated with the South due to Coca-Cola being an Atlanta-based company, soda is related to the South because it offered a suitable substitution for recipes that required alcohol[1].

While not exclusively a Southern phenomenon, baking with soda became extremely popular around the 1950s. One of the reasons it was popular was the view Americans had of dessert at the time. While today, we see cake as a special occasion dish or treat, in the 50s and into the 60s, cake was an everyday dish. In studying Junior League cookbooks, Voss discovered separate chapters for desserts and cake and concluded that adding soda was a way to make the daily occurrence slightly more festive[1].

In addition to being a novelty ingredient, sodas make great ingredients for braises, glazes, and marinades. Soda's sugar, or in our case stevia, can add a delightful sweetness to meat sauces and glazes. Plus, soda's acidity helps tenderize meat and reach that melt-in-your mouth texture that we all love. Of course, this process takes some time, which is why you often find that recipes calling for sodas tend to be slow-cooker recipes. In cakes and cupcakes, like our Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes, soda helps create the balance of fluffiness and flavor that you cannot achieve with baking powder alone.

Of course, when cooking with OLIPOP, you’re adding a little bit more than just the delicious taste. You are also imparting into your food a combination of prebiotics, plant fiber and botanicals to support your digestive health.

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes Ingredients

• 1 box @SimpleMills Vanilla Cake Mix
• 3 Eggs
• 1/3 Cup Grapeseed Oil
• 1/3 Cup OLIPOP Orange Cream Soda
• 1 Jar Simple Mills Vanilla Frosting
• Clementine slices for garnish

Instructions:

• PREHEAT oven to 350ºF and grease or paper line a 12 muffin cup tray.
• WHISK eggs, oil, @drinkolipop and vanilla in a large bowl. Add cake mix and whisk until well blended.
• SPOON batter into greased or lined muffin cups. BAKE 18-23 mins. Or until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• TRANSFER one jar of vanilla frosting into a bowl of stand mixer. COOL cupcakes completely before frosting.
• WHIP
• SPOON frosting into your piping bag with desired tip or Cut the tip of the bag. PIPE frosting into tops of each cupcake. PLACE a clementine slice on top of each cupcake and enjoy!

Sources

1. Voss, Kimberly Wilmot. Re-Evaluating Women’s Page Journalism in the Post-World War II Era: Celebrating Soft News. N.p., 2018. Print.