I was trying to achieve the taste of Sonic Cherry Limeades. Pictured is lime cupcake with cherry jello. Also made cherry cupcakes with lime jello.

These were a start, but I need to refine the cake recipe. This time I used a white cake mix and added lime juice to half the batter and maraschino cherry juice to the other half. Too much sugar and too much beating made for a tough cake. I’m not sure if the acid from the lime did something funky, as the lime cake was even tougher than the cherry.

I’m researching recipes for old-skool maraschino cherry cake but need to figure out the best substitute for shortening–either all butter or part butter part oil…need to work out the percentages.