Diet 7-Up Pound Cake - Wheat Free/Grain Free/Gluten Free/Sugar Free

Diet 7-Up Pound Cake

7-Up Pound Cake was one of those things that showed up at every Picnic, School Bake Sale and Church Social in the 1970s.  It has just the right amount of tartness and sweetness so I really wanted to try to recreate it.  This turned out so much like the old favorite that I bet you can't taste the difference!

Cake
1/2 C butter (one stick) softened or at room temperature
1/2 C Swerve or similar sugar substitute
1 t. lemon extract
3 eggs
1 1/2 C almond flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 C vanilla protein powder
1/3 C diet 7 Up

Glaze:
1 t lemon zest
1/3 C confectioners Swerve or sugar substitute, you can "powder" it by putting it in a coffee grinder.
1-2 T lemon juice - alternately you can use 1 t lemon extract and 1-2 T milk.

Beat the butter in a mixer, add sugar substitute, lemon extract and beat in eggs one at a time.  Combine dry ingredients and beat them in.  Pour in 7-Up (gently or it will foam all over your mixing bowl).  Continue mixing until smooth.

Coat a bread pan with coconut oil or coconut oil spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.  You really do need the parchment paper or you'll never get it out of the pan without it breaking up.  One of the difficulties with gluten free baking is the gluten acted like glue to hold stuff together, so gluten free recipes tend to fall apart and crumble easily.  Parchment paper helps with that.
I have no idea why Blogspot randomly likes to turn some of my photos sideways, but it's not worth fighting it.

Bake at 325 degrees for 35-45 minutes.  Test using a toothpick, the toothpick should come out with no crumbs or batter sticking to it.  Cool for 30 minutes in the pan.  Gently loosen the sides to make getting slices out easier, but you can leave it in the pan.  Mix the glaze by starting with the powdered sugar substitute.  Add the lemon zest and slowly add the lemon juice or lemon extract and milk until it's the right consistency.  It should be thinner than icing, but thick enough to drizzle, but not too drippy.  Spread evenly along the top of the pound cake.  Slice and eat!

This makes around 8 slices - 269 calories each, 5.6 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber.  Bear in mind, I'm not counting any of the Swerve "sugar alcohols" as carbohydrates in recipes that call for that since most diets don't count it and it doesn't get processed into blood sugar like regular sugar does.  The "carb counts" in this are mainly from the almond flour.