Cranberry Orange Cake

There was a remarkable confluence of events in Southern California this week. First, it was overcast and slightly drizzly. This is not actually as odd as one might think (we have a month of it, June Gloom, every year), but after a long period of extremely boring sunny days, I was thrilled to have something resembling actual weather. Second, my freezer became full. Again, this is hardly unusual, as my freezer is roughly the size of my microwave and I tend to throw things in there on a regular basis. Third, it occurred to me that I still had a few wedding gifts I hadn’t used, likely because I started graduate school a month after the happy occasion (two years this August). And lo, I had the perfect excuse to make the best of these parallel situations – cranberry cake.

See, I have several bags of cranberries taking up room in my freezer, as I adore them and can only get fresh ones during the holiday season. The proper cake would allow me to use my bundt pan, which for various reasons I had been thrilled to receive but had never played with. And, with the grey skies and chilly temperature, I could pretend it was late fall in Massachusetts, my favorite time of year, with all of the accompanying holiday flavors.

My plans were nearly dashed when a quick search on the internet revealed nothing but the most boring cranberry cake recipes. For such a delicious and versatile ingredient, no one seemed to have anything better than a vanilla cake with some orange zest and berries thrown in. I’m sure my out-of-control cookbook collection has an answer to this dilemma, but there was no time – the sun was already making an appearance! So I found a recipe that was bundt-compatible and looked reasonably tasty, and threw in some extra autumn spices, a handful of pecans, and a glaze to make the whole thing more celebratory. I’m sure I’ll be playing with it more around the holiday season, but for now, this has a little tartness, a little sweetness, and just a hint of spice – an excellent answer to my craving. If you are inclined to join me for my ode to Christmas this summer, you could easily resuscitate some dried cranberries in a combination of water, orange juice, and bourbon, and I’m sure the cake would be equally good, if little sweeter. Otherwise, file this away for the 2010 holiday season – I intend to start my celebrations now.

Cranberry Orange Cake
Adapted from Recipezaar

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (to taste – I used 2)
2/3 cup Greek yogurt
2 cups fresh cranberries (or frozen, not thawed) – about one bag
¼ cup orange juice
1 ½ teaspoons orange zest, finely grated (zest of one orange)
½ - ¾ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup finely chopped candied crystallized ginger (or more)
Sifted powdered sugar OR glaze made from 1 cup powdered sugar and 2-4 tablespoons orange juice (juice from one orange)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare bundt or tube pan with a light coat of cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice.


In a large bowl, cream the butter with and electric mixer. Add sugar and beat until pale, light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition for a total of two or three minutes. Beat in vanilla extract.

Mix together the yogurt and orange juice in a small bowl. Alternately add the yogurt mixture and the flour mixture to the creamed butter and eggs in thirds, mixing after each addition. Add the ginger and the orange zest, and mix to combine.


Manually fold in the cranberries, and nuts, distributing throughout the batter (warning – if you use frozen berries, the batter will seize up a bit and become difficult to work with; with fresh berries, the problem will instead be to fold without crushing them).

Pour batter into the prepare tube pan and bake for 50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Be very careful not to over bake. If the top starts to get too brown before the cake is done, cover with aluminum foil.


Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes until turning onto cake rack or plate. Unmold onto rack to finish cooling. Glaze while just warm, or coat with powdered sugar once the cake had completely cooled. Serve with sweet whipped cream or crème anglaise to counter the tart berries.