Tessa's Recipe Rundown
TASTE: Bright orange, tart cranberries, and cozy cinnamon all marry together so beautifully in this recipe.
TEXTURE: Super soft and moist coffee cake with ultra-flavorful cranberry compote throughout, all topped with a little cinnamon crunch from the streusel.
EASE: Not the fastest recipe in the world, but all three parts of this coffee cake are very straightforward.
PROS: Absolutely delicious.
CONS: It dirties a few dishes.
WOULD I MAKE THIS AGAIN? For Thanksgiving breakfast, if not before!
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This Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake might just be my new go-to breakfast this fall.
While I’ve always enjoyed cranberry, and especially cranberry + orange, I don’t think I’ve fallen this completely in love with the Autumnal flavor combination until now!
The bright sweetness of the orange complements the tartness of the cranberries so beautifully, and the addition of cinnamon really levels up the coziness.
This recipe has been on my mind for over a year now. I started playing with this recipe last year, but ran out of time to get it finalized before the fall season snuck up… so it was pushed back to this year.
After 7 tests and tweaks to the recipe, my team and I finally nailed it. And wow. It’s soooo good!
This Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake will not only be a crowd-pleasing addition to any brunch or potluck, but I also think it’s perfect to make ahead for breakfast on Thanksgiving Day. It gets even better the next day as the flavors intensify!
Plus, it makes your whole home smell incredible.
This recipe can easily be doubled to serve a crowd, and it also freezes beautifully, so it’s a great make-ahead option.
Check out all my tips in the pink tip box below and my answers to FAQs just below the recipe card.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake
Why is There No Coffee in This Coffee Cake?
Coffee cake is typically meant to be served with coffee, so it doesn’t always contain coffee as an ingredient. Enjoy this coffee cake alongside a nice cup of coffee instead.
What Sour Cream Does in Coffee Cake:
- Sour cream in coffee cake creates the most beautiful, moist texture and flavor.
- Its acidity helps to activate the baking soda.
- Be sure to use full-fat sour cream for best results.
- Use room-temperature sour cream so it incorporates evenly into your batter.
- If you don’t have or can’t find sour cream, you can use plain, full-fat yogurt instead.
Can I Use Fresh Cranberries?
As fresh cranberries aren’t available for long and can only be found seasonally, this recipe was crafted to use frozen cranberries. If you want to use fresh cranberries, you’ll need to make a couple small tweaks:
- Fresh cranberries contain less liquid than frozen (once thawed), so add an additional tablespoon of orange juice to the compote.
- It will take a little longer for the fresh berries to break down compared to frozen – about 12-14 minutes.
What Pan Should I Bake This Coffee Cake in?
- Be sure to use an 8 by 8-inch light-colored metal baking pan for best results!
- Dark-colored pans will overly brown the edges and make them dry.
- Glass or ceramic pans may work in a pinch, but you’ll likely need to increase the baking time and lower the temperature by 25°F.
- Check out my article on Glass vs. Metal Pans for more information.
- If using a pan shorter than this USA pan (2.25 inches high) recommended for this recipe, bake on top of a rimmed baking sheet, as coffee cake may overflow.
How to Double This Recipe
Simply double all ingredients and bake in a 9 by 13-inch baking pan (use light-colored metal for best results). Add about 5 minutes to the baking time.
How to Make This Into a Brown Butter Cranberry Coffee Cake:
To add a fantastic level of nuttiness to this recipe, simply add an additional 2 tablespoons (28 grams) of butter to the recipe, and brown your butter as follows:
- In a medium stainless steel sauté pan set over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Swirling the pan occasionally, continue to cook the butter. It should become foamy with audible cracking and popping noises.
- Once the crackling becomes quieter, continue to swirl the pan or stir until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom.
- Once the bits are amber in color, remove from heat and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer. Be sure to keep the brown bits at the bottom of the pan as well, they hold so much flavor!
- Add both sugars and stir until combined. Set aside to cool for about 5 minutes before proceeding with the recipe as written.
- Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.
How to Make Cranberry Coffee Cake Muffins
For best results, use foil liners in this recipe to prevent butter leakage. You will yield about 18 muffins from this recipe.
- Line muffin tins with foil liners.
- Fill muffin tin cavities two-thirds full of batter.
- Add and swirl cranberry compote, and top with streusel, pressing in slightly.
- Bake at 400°F for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown and a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
How to Store Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake
Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake will keep fresh and moist for 3 days. Store whole or sliced inside an airtight container or zip-top bag. Keep refrigerated for best results. Microwave slices for 15-20 seconds to reheat before serving, if desired.
This coffee cake also freezes beautifully – tips on this just below.
Can You Freeze Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake?
Freeze the whole slab of coffee cake inside an airtight container for up to three months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before slicing and serving.
If storing slices of coffee cake, wrap them individually in plastic wrap and store inside a freezer bag or airtight container for up to three months. Thaw slices for a few hours at room temperature or in the fridge overnight before serving.
More Fall Baking Recipes You’ll Love:
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Ingredients
For the Cranberry Compote:
- 7 oz or 1 3/4 cup (199 grams) frozen cranberries, no need to thaw
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- Zest of 1/2 orange, about 1 1/2 teaspoons (*zest entire orange before juicing. You need an additional teaspoon for the coffee cake)
- 1 tablespoon orange juice, freshly squeezed
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
For the Streusel Topping:
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (32 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons (43 grams) unsalted butter, softened
For the Coffee Cake:
- 2 cups (254 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
- 1 stick + 2 tablespoons (142 grams) unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 teaspoon orange zest, from about half an orange
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional (if not using, add ¼ additional teaspoon of vanilla)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 8 ounces (227 grams) sour cream or plain full-fat yogurt, at room temperature
Instructions
Make the Compote:
- In a medium saucepan, stir together all compote ingredients. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then cook for 8-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the berries begin to break down and the sugar thickens. Use a fork or potato masher to carefully crush the berries so they break down faster and more evenly. Once thickened, remove from heat. Place on a hot pad in the fridge to cool while you prepare the streusel topping and cake.
Make the Streusel Topping:
- Place sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk together to combine, then add the softened butter. Mix with a fork until the mixture appears sandy. Place in the fridge to chill while you prepare the cake batter.
Make the Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Spray an 8×8-inch light-colored aluminum pan* with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper, and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and whisk together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add both sugars. Melt butter in a medium heat-proof bowl, about 30 seconds. Add melted butter to sugars and mix until fully combined, about 30 seconds.
- Add the orange zest, vanilla and almond extracts, and eggs. Mix on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes until the mixture looks slightly thickened. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Add the flour mixture, milk, and sour cream. Mix on low speed until just combined. Don’t overmix. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Carefully top the batter evenly with the cooled cranberry compote. Using a butter knife, gently swirl the compote into the batter. Evenly add the streusel topping across the top.
- Bake on the middle rack for 45-50 minutes, or until golden brown and a cake tester inserted comes out clean (though this may be difficult to do without hitting cranberries!)
- Let cool for at least 15 minutes. Slice into 9 large pieces or 16 small pieces and serve. Store cooled coffee cake for up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
Notes
Photos by Joanie Simon.
My 13YO son chose this recipe to make together. It is outrageously delicious!!! The cranberry compote was easy, and it had just the right amount of tart and sweet. The streusel topping adds that extra sweetness to balance it even more. I will absolutely be making this again! The only thing I would doggo differently is use a 9×9 pan. It overflowed my 8×8 a bit (luckily not into the oven). Otherwise, it’s perfection!
Can you turn this recipe into muffins instead of a cake?
Yes! Follow the instructions for muffins listed above the coffee cake recipe here 🙂 Let us know what you think!
Thanks so much……just saw the instructions for muffins ( missed it the last time I checked ) ~ recipe was AMAZING as a cake and I’m sure will be just
as awesome in muffin form 🙂
This coffee cake is amazing!! I made this for a Saturday brunch and the house smelled amazing while this was baking in the oven. I think cranberry orange may be my favorite fall flavor and look forward to making this again!
So happy you loved this recipe, Megan!
Just baked this little gem of a coffee cake. It is so delicious! The perfect texture and the balance of orange and cranberry is perfect. I walked into another room while I was making the compote and the smell….. FANTASTIC. Will 10/10 make this again.
Would I be able to change this to a raspberry lemon coffee cake?
We haven’t tried that, but you’re welcome to experiment! 🙂
Spectacular recipe! I made a few modifications (trying to be healthy). For the compote I used 1/4 cup sugar. For the Streusel I used 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/8 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon butter. For the cake I used 1/8 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, 4 tablespoons butter, 4 1/2 tablespoons sunflower oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and I added 1/4 cup of chopped hazelnuts.
This is a very tasty cake. Make it. You will love it! Thank you, Tessa!
Warning, put some tinfoil under it! It may run over even when using a high sided pan. Mine really rose high in the oven. Butter spilled over the sides, burned on the bottom of the oven… Opening the oven door resulted in setting off the smoke alarm and sending the cat into a panic. Cat was in the middle of her dinner, which went everywhere in the panic and resulted in me having to mop the floor. At least I now know how to get her to the basement in the event of an emergency!
The cake also took about an extra 10 minutes to bake to seem done in the middle. Had to use fresh cranberries because I couldn’t find frozen ones anywhere. Nice blend of flavors (even if my cranberries were a little tart). Very light crumb. Probably one of the tallest rising coffee cakes I’ve ever made. It was good. Would make again. Cat might not approve.
Hi Erin! I’m so sorry to hear that this resulted in multiple messes for you – but I’m glad it was still delicious enough to make again! Handle the Heat’s recipes go through many rounds of testing in various climates across the US before being published – and despite many of us testing this recipe several times each, the only time any of us experienced overflow was when we used a slightly shorter pan! Please send your cat our apologies!
Can I use Craisins instead? Would it work the same?
Hi Thea! No, that won’t work here unfortunately. Fresh or frozen will work perfectly, though! 🙂
Looks fabulous. I will be trying to make it GF. Will let you know how successful it is.
Can’t wait to hear how it goes, Diane!