Fantakuchen

It is amazing the things you find out completely by accident.  In my case, the accident occurred when I bought Sunkist instead of Diet Coke by mistake from a vending machine.  I didn't want to waste the Sunkist, so I hit the Web to search for baking recipes using orange soft drink - and came up with Fantakuchen!

According to Wikipedia, Fanta originated in Germany as a cola substitute when there was an embargo on cola ingredients during the second world war.  Its name comes from the German word for imagination, "fantasie".  Now Fanta is made all over the world in a variety of flavours, not just the original orange.  My brother is obsessed with a Full Frontal comedy sketch from the 1990s where a little boy steals a soft serve icecream by distracting the driver with a request for a can of Fanta.

Fantakuchen is a popular German cake which the Web informs me originated in a Dr Oetker cookbook.  The addition of Fanta makes  the cake "juicy, soft and fluffy", to quote Purple Avocado.  

While there are numerous variations on this cake, the most common version is a fluffy sponge containing orange soft drink, topped with a mix of Chantilly cream and sour cream mixed with canned peaches or mandarins, and sprinkled with cinnamon. I used a combination of this recipe and this recipe for my cake.

I wasn't sure how they would take this cake at work, but most people loved it!  I was pleasantly surprised (I was tossing up whether or not to take it in because it looked a little bit messy).  The cake is indeed very moist and fluffy, and I recommend leaving it overnight for the flavours to meld.

To make the cake, you will need:

4 eggs
2 cups vanilla sugar (or just sugar - I had vanilla sugar)
3 cups plain flour
1 cup colourless, flavourless oil (I used rice bran oil)
1 1/2 cups orange soft drink (eg Fanta)
2 teaspoons baking soda


For the topping:

1 x 400g can peaches, drained
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 sachet cream stabiliser (eg Whip It), if desired (I did not use this)
ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and get ready (but do not grease) a 9" x 13" non-stick rectangular cake tin.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil in a large bowl.  Add the flour then the Fanta, and mix well.  Add the baking powder and combine well before scraping the mixture immediately into the tin and baking in the oven for ~ 45 minutes or until cooked through.  (It is important to mix the baking powder in well - I had one spot where I clearly didn't and ended up with hard, horrid-tasting inedible lumps in that spot.)

Remove the cake from the oven and cool completely in the tin on a wire rack.

To make the topping,  whip the cream until soft peaks form, then add the icing sugar and continue whipping the cream until stiff peaks form.  Add the cream stabiliser if using (it will make your topping firmer and less rustic than mine).  Roughly chop the peaches, then mix them with the sour cream through the whipped cream.  Spread evenly over the top of the cake, and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Cut the cake into squares to serve.