Fizzy Fanta cake

This is one of those recipes that sounds a little crazy, but  is a delightfully moist, refreshing and light slice of cake that goes perfectly with a cup of tea! I also regularly make it with different fizzy drinks and they all work just as well, the sponge a lovely buttery taste and texture with a subtle hint of the soda. For a little extra sparkle, I sometimes divide the icing in half and add some orange food colouring to one half to give an eye-catching criss-cross of white and orange stripes!

Ingredients

• 5¾ ounces / 165g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 11¼ ounces / 320 caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 7 ounces / 200g plain flour
• ½ teaspoon of vanilla powder
• 1 large orange, zested and juiced
• 3¼ fluid ounces / 90ml Fanta (or another fizzy orange drink)
• 3½ ounces / 100g icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons of popping candy

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan) / 338°F (302°F fan).

Line a 8×4 inch / 20x10cm loaf tin.

In a freestanding electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes on a high speed until light and fluffy.  You want the texture to be almost mousse like.

Sieve the flour and vanilla powder into a bowl.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, followed by a tablespoon of your flour, and mix on a medium speed.

Add the flour and orange zest and continue to mix on medium until everything is combined.

Add the Fanta and mix in by hand.

Pour the batter into your loaf tin and bake in the oven for 60 minutes.  After this time, cover with foil and return to the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile, put your icing sugar into a bowl and add a tablespoon of your orange juice and mix.  Keep adding another half a teaspoon and mixing until your icing is sufficiently runny that you can drizzle it over your cake.

Once your cake is completely cool, drizzle with icing and then sprinkle with your popping candy.

Don’t be mean, cut into thick slabs of deliciousness!

Trivia

Fanta is a global brand of fizzy drinks made in 100 different flavours by The Coca-Cola Company. It was first created in Nazi Germany in 1940 as a result of a trade embargo which meant that the Coca-Cola factory in Germany – Coca-Cola GmbH – was unable to import the Coca-Cola syrup required. So Max Keith, head of Coca-Cola Deutschland, came up with the idea of using only ingredients available in Germany, including whey and apple pomace, ingredients generally dismissed as the “leftovers of the leftovers”. They needed a new name for their new creation. Max Keith kept urging his staff to use their imaginations – fantasie in German – and suddenly salesman Joe Knipp came up with “Fanta”. After the war, Coca-Cola repossessed the factory including the formulas and the trademarks and all the profits made during the war. Although Coca-Cola immediately discontinued Fanta, they re-launched it in 1955 as a response to the range of several drinks launched by Pepsi in 1950. Fanta was always heavily marketed abroad in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.