Orange Crush Cake

Some of you may recall that I write a monthly column for The Weekly, a local publication that is mailed to thousands of homes around the county each month, and my latest recipe was so delicious that I made it again. It's Orange Crush Cake, which joins the ranks of Coca-Cola Cake and Seven-Up Cake as delicious cakes that have the novelty of containing cola as an ingredient.

One of the vintage recipe boxes I recently bought contained this old typewritten recipe for Orange Crush Cake, and the recipe had some grease stains, which I always take as a good sign. Basically, it’s an orange-flavored pound cake. I didn’t find an Orange Crush soft drink at the first two stores I visited but finally found it at Publix, so if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, right?

The light texture and subtle orange flavor were so good that Alex and I ate our half right up (I shared the other half with Daddy and Aunt Jane). But after I sent this in to The Weekly, I decided to make it again but in two loaf pans. While the cake tasted just as good, I obviously filled the pans with a little too much batter, so the top crusts clung to the side and didn’t have that “pretty” finish I like. If I make it in two loaves again, I’ll leave a little batter out, maybe enough for three or four cupcakes or so. But I will definitely be making this full-size cake again, partly because it is absolutely perfect as a teatime snack, and I decided some of you might enjoy it too.

Orange Crush Cake

1 cup shortening

1 stick butter, softened

2-3/4 cups sugar

5 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons orange flavoring

8 ounces of Orange Crush

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare a tube pan with grease or cooking spray (I used Pam). In bowl of electric mixer, cream shortening and butter, add sugar, and combine well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add flour and salt and combine. Finally, add orange flavoring and Orange Crush. Combine well and pour into pan. Bake for 1-1/2 hours. Let cool on a baking rack for 10-15 minutes before removing cake from pan.