This Budget-Friendly Soda Cupcake Recipe Requires Just 3 Ingredients and Costs Less Than $5

When you can’t be bothered to make cake from scratch, store-bought cake mix is a grocery store staple. With your cake mix in hand, all you need is some vegetable oil and eggs and voilà — semi-homemade cake. But if you’re looking for an even easier way to accomplish the simple cake of your dreams, blogger Janelle Rohner skips the oil and eggs (as her daughter has an egg allergy) and uses soda instead. Yep, you read that right. Soda.

In an Instagram Reel, Rohner shows how to make $3 cupcakes using ingredients from Dollar Tree for a “frugal Friday” post. First, she combines a box of Pillsbury Traditional Chocolate cake mix and 12 ounces of Shasta Root Beer in a mixing bowl. Not a fan of either flavor? Rohner notes that any flavor of cake mix and soda will work. As she mixes with a spatula, she says, “Trust the process. It starts a little bit strange, it looks like it’s not gonna come together but I promise you’ll get there.”

Next, she distributes the batter into cupcake liners using a plastic piping bag, and ends up having enough to make 18 cupcakes. The cupcakes then go into the oven, and as Rohner lets her daughter lick the leftover batter off the spatula, says “So far we’re off to a great start; she approves.”

Once the cupcakes are out of the oven, she frosts the cupcakes with pre-made cream cheese frosting, using a piping bag to achieve a neat swirl. As an optional final step, Rohner sprinkles some crushed Oreo cookies on top.

People in the comments have offered up their favorite soda and cake mix combinations, which include Funfetti cake mix with orange soda, vanilla cake mix with root beer, and chocolate cake mix with Dr Pepper. I can’t say I’ve ever done this, but I’m definitely curious to give it a try.

What say you: Have you ever made boxed cake with soda? Would you try it?