Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Buttery and delicious, with hints of orange flavor, and juicy cranberries.
Texture: The cake is incredibly soft and moist.
Ease: Not too difficult to make
Appearance: Gorgeous!
Pros: This is a fairly easy and beautiful dessert.
Cons: It’s hard to stop at one piece.
Would I make this again? Absolutely!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Please welcome Danielle from Live Well Bake Often as she shares this Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake recipe! Be sure to send some love to her delicious blog for me! -Tessa
Hi everyone, it’s Danielle from Live Well Bake Often! I’m back with another delicious recipe for you all that is perfect for this time of year. While I absolutely love anything with chocolate, I also love any kind of dessert with fresh or dried cranberries in it. In fact, these white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies are one of my favorite cookie recipes.
For today’s recipe, I wanted to share something with beautiful, fresh cranberries. When I think of cranberries, I immediately think of how well they pair with oranges too. Orange and cranberry go together like peanut butter and jelly. So, I decided to combine the two into this easy and delicious Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake.
Bundt cakes are one dessert that I love to bake because they’re easy and always turn out beautifully. This Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake is no exception. All you have to do is mix up the batter, bake it, then top it with an easy glaze. Plus, this cake is a perfect recipe that you can make ahead of time for the holidays too.
When it comes to making bundt cakes, some recipes call for using all butter. I prefer to use mostly butter and just a little bit of oil. There is only 1/4 cup oil in this recipe, but it helps to add a little moisture to the cake and keep it from drying out. This cake is so incredibly soft, rich, buttery, and moist that it’s almost impossible to stop at just one piece.
The orange flavor in this recipe isn’t too overpowering, but you can definitely taste little hints of the orange in each bite. To add a little extra pop of orange, I like to use fresh orange juice in the glaze. You can certainly use milk for the glaze, but the fresh orange juice is absolutely delicious in this recipe!
Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For the cranberry orange bundt cake:
- 2 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (349g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (169g)
- 2 cups granulated sugar (400g)
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 cup sour cream (227g)
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
For the orange glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar (125g)
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh orange juice (or milk)
Instructions
To make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or a large mixing bowl using a hand-held mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one a time, then mix in the vanilla until well combined. Slowly mix in the orange juice, orange zest, and oil until well combined. With the mixer on low speed, slowly mix in the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the sour cream (starting with the dry ingredients and ending with the dry ingredients). Mix everything until just combined, making sure not to over mix the batter. Add in the cranberries and gently fold them into the batter.
- Spray a 10-inch bundt pan well with non stick cooking spray, or grease with butter and flour. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and evenly spread it around. Bake at 350°F for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cover loosely with foil if needed for the last 5-10 minutes of baking to prevent excess browning.
- Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then invert the cake onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
To make the orange glaze:
- Once the cake has cooled, place a piece of foil under the wire rack (to catch any glaze that falls off). Pour the orange glaze evenly over the cake and allow to harden for about 10-15 minutes. Slice and enjoy!
Excellent recipe!! Thank you for sharing! Perfect balance of orange and cranberry and beautifully moist. I added candied cranberries to the middle of my Bundt cake. The look was so festive and pretty. I will make again!
I noticed the picture shows very few cranberries in the cake even though it says cranberries in every bite. We like a lot of them so l might chop fresh ones to give a more even distribution. Where did s the cranberries end up in your cake? It sounds delish.
I’ve used this recipe a few times and everytime it’s delicious. My family love it. Can I use this recipe for muffins as well?
Hi Danielle
I followed your recipe and this cake tastes awesome. I had this cake in a coffee shop long time ago and have been craving for a long time. Finally found the perfect recipe that tastes exactly like I wanted.
I used a mix of fresh and dried cranberries (1.5 cups of fresh and 1/2 cup of dried). It tastes perfect. Also the first time I baked this cake, my husband felt it was a bit dry so I added an egg white to make it moist.
Thank you so much for the recipe. All of my friends and family are in love with this cake.
Can’t thank you enough.
Cheers!!
Hi Danielle,
I tried this recipe using an all-purpose gluten free flour. The instructions on the bag said to use the flour as you would with regular all-purpose flour. My results did not come out as hoped for the texture was spongy but the flavor great! Any hints when using gluten free?
Many thanks.
Can this recipe be made in mini loaf pans and how long should they cook.
I made this cake for a Christmas party – aside from adding 2 tbsp of ground ginger, I followed recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly! I agree with the comment about the oil in this recipe, I think it did help with the added moisture over previous recipes I’ve tried that used only butter. I added some flair when putting on a cake stand for presentation by using sugared cranberries (made) and candied ginger (bought) , and also made the glaze a little thicker so it was more like an icing but still dripped down the sides – got rave reviews!
Is it ok to chop the cranberries instead of using them whole?
Made this the other week and loved it, planning to make again for Thanksgiving! An optional step that I will be doing next time – the whole berries can block off the batter getting in to all the corners of the pan, especially if using a more detailed bundt pan – this can be solved by reserving a little bit of the batter in a piping bag and piping in to the sharper corners of the pan before adding the rest of the batter.
I made this cake for the first time and it was a hit as well. Thank you Tessa for a lovely recipe.
Some questions:
1/ I added 2 tbsp orange zest and also some to the glaze but the orange flavor was very weak. Perhaps it was the oranges?
2/ Could the recipe be used with other fruits, such as blueberries, raspberries or strawberries and lemon juice, and if so, would you suggest 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice?
Thanks again!
I haven’t made this yet I was just wondering about the tartness of the whole Berry? Will they sweeten up with the mixture of the batter? To me whole cranberries seem sour.
Made this recipe for the first time and it was a super hit! lovely texture of the cake,and it stayed fresh for so many days.
love all your recipes Tessa!