Baking with Hansen’s Natural Soda #HansensSoCal

That’s right – I baked with Hansen’s Natural Soda! I wanted to try something different so, one day, I looked for recipes involving soda. The most intriguing was that of baking brownies or cake with it. Would it still turn out okay? Would it taste overwhelming like soda? It was time for me to find out.

Brownie Recipe
1 box Brownie mix
1/2 can Hansen’s Natural Soda (or Diet Soda)

Frosting (optional)
1 cup Powdered sugar
2 Tbsp  Hansen’s Natural Soda (or Diet Soda)

Using a box of our favorite brownie mix, my daughter helped mix 1/2 a can of Hansen’s Kiwi Strawberry Soda with the powdered mix. We stirred until the batter was mixed well, poured it into a greased pan, and set it in the pre-heated oven. For the time and temperature, I used what was suggested on the box. I did need to add an extra 10 minutes of baking time to make sure the center was cooked through. Just for fun, some of the left over soda was combined with powdered sugar to make a layer of frosting. I put in a bit too much soda so the frosting was a bit liquidy and more powdered sugar had to be  added. Since I was using Strawberry Kiwi soda, I used a couple drops of food coloring just because.

Surprisingly, the brownies turned out quite well. They were chewy but solid. I did taste a bit of the soda flavor but it was minimal. The frosting (more like icing) made it too sweet for us as my family generally prefers their brownies plain. I’m not sure I’d make this on a regular basis but this was definitely an interesting experiment. The soda replaced the need of using eggs or oil, great for those that are allergic or trying to cut down. As for calories, Hansen’s offers a variety of Diet Sodas that can be used to cut those.

I love that Hansen’s uses only natural ingredients and that their sodas are free of caffeine, preservatives, sodium, and high fructose corn syrup. California residents can get their fill at local grocery stores but their amazing varieties can also be ordered online at Amazon.com to be shipped nationwide.

Follow Hansen’s Natural Facebook page and at @HansensNatural.

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I have been asked to participate in a series of partnered posts for Hansen’s Natural Soda as a Social Media Correspondant. All opinions are my own.