I had a really great group within my logic class last semester. They held study groups on a weekly basis, they met before class to double check their homework, and stayed after to chat. Sometimes we’d talk about philosophy or logic, but mostly we’d just BS. A common conversation centered around the notion that learning logic made it harder to relate to and engage in stupid arguments. It’s always endearing to hear students talk about picking out fallacies in the conversations with their families and friends. I warn them from the beginning of the semester that if you do this on a regular basis, you might start to lose friends. Most people don’t love to be called out every time they commit a logical fallacy.
One of my favorite parts of this particular group was how inclusive they were. Every person in the class was invited and welcome to join. They made special efforts to include the students who were clearly falling behind. Every student who attended the study sessions on a regular basis received an A. Of course, not everyone can find extra time to join a study group, some students have other classes, job, and/or families to attend to. One student who had no job, classes, or family obligations had an excuse for not attending every single time. Most of the time it was “meeting up with the boys”. One of the times it was meeting up with the boys in Vegas. Prioritizing “the boys” over studying isn’t usually a recipe for success. This student however was welcomed by the group into the final study session despite being weeks behind everyone else and showing no interest until it was certain that only an A on the final would be enough to pass the class.
The group started off as an assembly of strangers with a common goal, but by the end of the semester they were bringing homemade cookies, and cakes, and candy. It became a social event in which all the participants were better off (at least in terms of grades) by the end of the semester.
I did my best to stop by and help them clarify details and give them some pointers about what to focus on for the exam. I figured that if they are taking the extra time to work on this class, I can reward them for that work. I really enjoyed visiting with that group, and despite the gratitude they showed for my time, it really was a pleasure.
One particular student is a recently retired engineer, who at one point worked at a family bakery. And let it be known, if you are going to be part of a group, whether it’s a study group, a climbing squad, or anything else, you want a retired person with a background in baking to be part of that team!
There were always cookies, brownies, cakes, etc. present at their meetings, and I was always pleased to partake in the snackies. There is something about mixing propositional logic and homemade chocolate cookies. It’s similar to mixing homemade chocolate cookies with any other activity, the cookies do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of enjoyment.
At one particular meeting the baker brought in some 7-UP muffins bought from the store. I had never heard of a 7-UP muffin, and I was intrigued. I was also confused as to why she bought them from the store rather than made them. She explained that these muffins tasted exactly like the 7-UP cake she used to make with her mom and grandma. I was very confused, I never heard of 7-UP cake, and couldn’t even imagine what it was. There was only one muffin left, and I didn’t want to take it, so I asked if she could share the recipe, and I would try to make it myself.
She posted it to the class website, but it’s her family recipe, and I don’t feel comfortable sharing it here without her permission. I did find a nearly identical recipe on-line in case you want to check it out.1
Growing up in Detroit, I never heard of a 7-UP cake. I assumed that the 7-UP cake was a product of the insane 70’s Frankenstein style of culinary arts. You know the style, the one that produced things like savory Jell-O. It turns out that 7-UP cake was a common pound cake recipe from the 1950’s US South. Pops (sodas if you are in the south) were used as leavening agent. You’ll find no baking powder in a 7-UP cake. The idea is ingenious, when you consider that 7-Up as the leavening agent also provides flavor and moisture to the final product.
Concerning the final product, it was delicious. I mean how could it not be, in addition to the 7-UP there are 3 sticks of butter and 3 cups of sugar. It connected me to an area of the world I am not wholly familiar with. An area where they call pop “soda”. It was so tasty; I can easily understand why there was only one muffin left at the end of the study group. The student who introduced the recipe mentioned that her family would sometimes substitute Coke for 7-UP and it was just as good. Why stop at Coke? Maybe Cream Soda, Ginger Ale, and Root Beer would make for good cakes too? Why not try Orange Pop, Dr. Pepper, or Squirt. Actually, I bet Squirt would be amazing…Hmmm? If someone is a baker out there who is looking for a niche, I bet people would go wild for pop cakes!
Baking has been pretty fun, I used a disposable aluminum pan for this recipe, but just the thought of Squirt cake has me thinking I may need to invest in something more substantial. Maybe that will be my next half-baked idea? Who knows, but what I am certain of is that it won’t be savory Jell-O. Unlike 7-UP cake, some things belong in the past!
thedihedral.com 
I think you meant “endearing,” not “entreating” . . . .
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I sure did…thank you!
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My mother made a cake with soda in it back in the 1970’s. I can’t recall now, but I think she used ginger ale. I do remember that it was moist and tasty. We were surprised. We thought it would be another one of those recipes she tried that would be a failure. She was always clipping recipes out of magazines or the newspaper. Another one I remember that was weird but delicious was potato candy (it had peanut butter in it and was dipped in melted dark chocolate). She also made a crockpot rice pudding that had mandarin oranges in it (I wish I still had that recipe).
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Donna…I wish you had that recipe too, that sounds so good!!! The chips recipe sounds amazing too! That would be so cool to grab a recipe from a magazine and just make it, you mom sounds adventurous!!!
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She was. She was good at making not much money stretch to feed a family of four. We had lots of leftovers over the years that were even better the second night! She was a creative cook and a great baker. I lost her in 2005.
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Thank you for bringing her up, she sounds like an amazing mom! I have been looking for crockpot orange rice pudding recipes, and there is one that uses orange zest and raisins, that sounds pretty good, but I didn’t seen any with mandarin oranges. I’ll keep looking, just in case!
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That’s really interesting. I haven’t heard of a 7-Up cake. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
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I think it was really refreshing…plus I am a sucker for lemon!
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Okay, I have to try it. Since it doesn’t use the whole bottle, I’ll probably make it with ginger ale, since I’d rather drink that. Moisture in cakes can come from interesting places. I had a recipe from a 1930s edition of The Joy of Cooking that used mashed potatoes in a chocolate cake – rich and creamy! I also have a rutabaga spice cake recipe from the Ontario Rutabaga Council. I don’t tell people it contains rutabagas until they eat it.
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I don’t think that I have ever been more disappointed for my ignorance about an entity. How is there an Ontario Rutabaga Council? That sounds like the greatest council in the history of the world. I think all decisions/votes that end in a tie, from every council and democracy on the planet should be decided by the Ontario Rutabaga Council. Then you add that they offer cake recipes, I didn’t believe in omnibenevolence until now!
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Well, you see, they grow a lot of rutabagas up in Ontario and, like any other industry, they have to promote themselves. When I was a produce manager back in the 70s, I heard of them and wrote to them. They sent back a bunch of recipes. I had them printed up on notepads that I could post by the rutabagas in the cooler in order to promote them. Rutabagas were not a hot seller. I also had a radio show called “The Ontario Rutabaga Council”, which featured “Rutabaga World News”. My theme song was initially “Call Any Vegetable” by Frank Zappa (since it ends with him calling a rutabaga). I later switched to “The Rutabaga Boogie” by The Good Ol’ Persons, as it was easier to dance to.
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My Dad is from London, Ontario, and I have spent summers in the UP of MI, where rutabaga based pasties are a staple, but in my wildest dreams I would have never imagined there was a rutabaga world news…please tell me you wrote a post about this! You should write an entire book about it!
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I haven’t been able to resist your suggestions yet, so there may be a post forthcoming. My mom is from Copper Harbor, about as U as one can get in the UP.
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I wish I had been in one of your classes when I was in college – back then “study groups” had not been invented yet 😁. The 7-Up cake sounds delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
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It was essentially like a pound cake with a subtle lemon flavor, but I thought it was better the 2nd day.
I wish more students would embrace the study group lifestyle, it has so many pros!
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