Cranberry orange bundt cake

This cranberry orange bundt cake is a perfect Christmas dessert. It tastes amazing and looks so pretty on the table. It’s a very moist cake with an intense orange flavor, studded with bright red fresh cranberries. I also use this recipe to make orange loaf cake – it’s really the best orange cake I’ve eaten. It stays moist for days. I served it with white chocolate orange glaze and sugared cranberries.

Other bundt cake recipes that we really like are this chocolate orange bundt cake and almond bundt cake with white chocolate glaze.

Ingredients:

For an amazing orange flavor, I’m using three ingredients: orange juice, orange zest (pretty standard ingredients), and orange jam! Orange jam really adds a punch of orange flavor. Thanks to these three ingredients this cake really tastes of orange! Orange jam is optional so if you don’t have it on hand, the recipe works also without it.

Cranberries – make sure to use fresh cranberries, not dried (these would not work as they take the moisture from the cake, they would need to be soaked in orange juice first). You can also use frozen cranberries, without thawing them, just coat them in flour before adding them to the cake.

How to make a cake more moist? Add oil! Butter adds an amazing taste, but the oil makes the cake more moist!

Step by step instructions:

Make the cake:

STEP 1: Add the sugar and eggs into the mixing bowl.

STEP 2: Whisk with a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment on medium-high speed for 3-5 minutes until the mixture is pale, light, and foamy.

STEP 3: Slowly pour in the oil in a thin stream, mixing at the low-medium speed. Mix for one more minute.

STEP 4: In a small bowl, stir the flour with baking powder, and salt together.

How to measure flour: if you use a kitchen scale to measure out all the ingredients, it all goes easy breezy! But if you’re using measuring cups, remember that 1 cup of flour can weigh 120-150g, depending on how you’re filling your cup. Don’t scoop the flour directly into the measuring cup, which can compact it! 1 cup of flour in my recipes weighs 125g. To correctly measure the flour, you need to:

1. Fluff the flour by stirring it in the bag/flour container with a spoon.
2. Spoon the flour and sprinkle it into your measuring cup.
3. Sweep off the excess flour with the back of a knife.

STEP 5: Add half of the flour mixture into the batter. Whisk until almost combined.

STEP 6: Add the orange juice, zest, jam, and vanilla extract. Whisk until almost combined.

Microplane grater is best for grating citrus peel.

STEP 7: Add the remaining flour mixture to the batter and whisk until almost combined.

STEP 8: Mix the cranberries with 1 Tbsp of flour until coated on all sides. Fold into the batter with a spatula.

STEP 9: Butter your cake pan generously.

STEP 10: Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer (or cake tester) inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool for 10-15 minutes (this is important, it ensures that the cake comes out of the pan intact) then invert onto a plate.

Glaze the cranberry orange bundt cake:

There are 3 options for the topping:

OPTION 1: Just sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar.

OPTION 2: Make orange icing. Just mix 1 cup of powdered sugar (120g) with 1 tablespoon of orange juice.

OPTION 3: Make white chocolate orange glaze:

How to make it:

• Melt the chocolate using the double-boiler method. If using sour cream, press it through a sieve to ensure it’s not lumpy. If your orange jam is not smooth, also press it through a sieve (optional).
• In a small pot, bring water to a boil, remove the pot from the heat (steaming water is enough to melt the chocolate), or leave it over the lowest heat. Place a small bowl over the pot (glass or metal, not plastic), it should not touch the surface of the water.
• Add the chopped chocolate to the bowl, stir until the chocolate is melted.
• Add the room temperature sour cream and orange jam to the chocolate, whisk until combined.
• Drizzle the glaze over the bundt cake.

It’s important that the cream and jam are at room temperature otherwise the chocolate may split. If you forgot to take them out of the fridge, just warm them up in a pot, then add to the melted chocolate.

How does split white chocolate look like: it‘s lumpy and grainy. White chocolate can form a firm block and even though you heat it, it won‘t dissolve. Fortunately, if this happens to you, there is an easy fix.

How to fix split white chocolate:

• Continue to heat the chocolate in a double-boiler over low heat.
• In a second pot, heat a small amount of milk (about a tablespoon), it should be very warm but not boiling. Add it slowly to the chocolate, whisking constantly, until the ganache is smooth and glossy.
• If the chocolate glaze is too thick, you can add a little more cream or milk to thin it, but it must be very warm, at a similar temperature to chocolate (otherwise it will split again).

I also decorated my cake with sugared cranberries. They are super quick and easy to make (if you don’t count the time needed to dry the cranberries which is 2 hours). If you’d like to make them, I have a separate tutorial: sugared cranberries.

How to ensure that your bundt cake comes out of the pan:

There are two most important things to ensure your bundt cake doesn’t stick to the pan:

1. Butter your pan generously in all those nooks and crannies, especially at the bottom of the pan (that’s where the top of your cake will be). Use soft butter – it’s easier to apply a really thick layer of the butter if it’s warm.
2. Let the cake cool on a wire rack (in the pan) for a minimum of 10 minutes

How to remove cake from a bundt pan:

1. Take the cake out of the oven and place on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes.
2. Hold the pan with a kitchen cloth (if it’s still warm), turn it over onto a plate or a wire rack.
3. If the cake doesn’t immediately come out of the pan after turning it over, just bang the edges of the pan until the cake comes out.

Let the cake cool slightly then cut it into servings with a serrated knife.

Storage:

This cranberry orange bundt cake will keep for up to 4-5 days (it tastes best on the day of baking, but is also very good the next or third day). Keep it wrapped in plastic foil or in a closed bundt cake keeper, at room temperature.

It also freezes very well. Freeze it whole or sliced. Thaw in the fridge then warm up in the oven or in microwave.

If you’re looking for more Christmas desserts, check out this Christmas Bark.

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!