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!
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Please welcome Danielle from Live Well Bake Often as she shares this Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake recipe! Be sure to send some love 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!
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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 fine sea 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!
I only added a little extra garlic and fresh thyme. We loved it!!
This cake is the bomb! I took it to a family Christmas Eve celebration. When Danielle says it’s “so incredibly soft, rich, buttery and moist,” she’s telling the truth. My daughter-in-law put together a container of leftovers for us to take home on Christmas Day, but no pieces of this cake were included, and that was intentional! LOL. I didn’t blame her; everyone loved it. If you want to impress an audience, bake this cake!
Very easy to make and looks so velvety fluffy as it poured into my Bundt cake pan. Can’t wait to try it tomorrow.
Can frozen cranberries be used?
Hi Pat! If you use frozen cranberries, don’t thaw them, and gently fold them into the batter just before baking. I hope that helps!
Fresh cranberries are sometimes hard to find outside of the holidays where I live. Could you do this with blueberries and lemon instead?
I have made it with cranberries and orange and it’s delicious!!
We haven’t tried that, but it sounds absolutely delicious! Please let us know how it goes if you give it a try 🙂
Perfect crumb. Perfect texture. Perfect taste.
Absolutely amazing. I totally loved it. Everyone loved it. It wasn’t sweet. Had the right amount of tangy favour from the cranberry and a hint of citrus from.the orange. Will definitely do this again!
Thank you
So glad to hear it, Leonie!
Can u write the Ingredients in grams please
Here is a link to sign up for my free measuring guide for baking to help you with future bakes listed in measurements rather than by weight: https://handletheheat.com/measuring-cheatsheet. I’ve updated the recipe to include gram measurements. I don’t use a scale to measure smaller ingredient amounts and always suggest using a liquid measuring cup when measuring milk, water or creams as there’s no air inside those ingredients. Hope this helps!
I used applesauce instead of oil, non dairy yoghurt and coconut milk in place of the sour cream. Chopped up dried cranberries (1/2cup) and an orange syrup drizzle when the cake was warm. Five stars from the family 🙂
Glad to hear your substitutions worked well, Lorna!
I’ve never made Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake before and I’m glad I saw this recipe! I followed the instructions to a T and it turned out beautifully. Mine took 50 minutes to bake. I love that the cake has the right density – not too heavy. It’s texture is moist, its flavors fresh and not too sweet. Next time I want to try and mix it with orange liqueur!
I made this cake for a party and followed the instructions to the T. Didn’t have a 10 inch bundt pan, so i put half the batter in a 6 cup bundt pan and the remaining in a loaf pan. The cake in the loaf pan needed to bake for 5 extra minutes in my oven. The flavor was perfect. The cake was a huge hit at the party!
I would have really loved some more cranberries and a bit more of the orange flavour. As it is, it was perfect. Planning on making this cake again but this time with a tad more orange zest and cranberries. Can’t wait!
Thank you for the recipe. 🙂
You say to use fresh cranberries, do I cook them before putting in.mix or put them in raw? Never made anything with dried cranberries before, wanted to make sure before I make this recipe. Thank you?
Hi Julie! You don’t need to do anything with the cranberries beforehand, just add in the fresh cranberries as the instructions call for!