Orange Cranberry Chip Bundt Cake – A Celebration Cake
Sometimes you don’t need an excuse to bake a cake. If you are in the mood for cake, just bake a cake! For me as you well know by now I love a bundt cake. I bake a lot of them – they are easy and very versatile. They can be almost anything you want them to be. Today’s cake is dressed up with orange zest, dried cranberries and chocolate chips. It can work as an every day cake or you can use it as a celebration cake because all of the flavors are a party!
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Orange Cranberry Chip Bundt Cake
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
zest from three oranges preferably organic
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup sour cream mixed with 1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup semi sweet chips
1/2 cups dried cranberries
powdered sugar for dusting the finished cake
Preheat oven to 350°
Butter and flour a bundt pan. It is worth taking the time to do this well as the cake will unmold more cleanly.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a medium bowl. Whisk together and set aside.
In a stand mixer with the paddle attached cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy – about 3 minutes.
Add in the zest and vanilla until well combined.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Reserve about 1/4 cup of the flour mixture in a separate bowl and add in the dried cranberries and chips. Set aside
With the mixer on low add the flour mixture in thirds and the buttermilk in halves alternately, beginning and ending with the flour.
Fold in the chips, cranberries and remaining flour.
Put the batter into the prepared bundt pan and drop the pan on the counter to clear out any air bubbles.
Bake in the preheated oven for 55 – 60 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
Let the cake cool on a wire rack and then invert to remove from the pan.
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Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
How Was It?
Need you ask? Not much could really go wrong with this recipe – I started with a basic vanilla bundt cake and just added to it from there. I started with the zest from two oranges but when I taste tested the batter I felt like it needed a bit more punch so I added in the third orange’s zest and it made a big difference. The orange flavor clearly comes through in the finished cake.
Adding the chips and cranberries to the flour helps to distribute them more evenly throughout the cake rather than having them all sink to the bottom. It’s not foolproof but it makes a difference. It can’t hurt. This recipe does make a beautifully moist yet light cake. It gets better as the days go by. It’s a versatile base recipe to which you can add in any number of fruits, nuts and flavorings so your celebration cake can be whatever you want it to be.
I love fruits in cakes because they add little surprises to find as you eat. I use cherries a lot because I put so many in the freezer. The Chocolate Walnut Cherry Bundt Cake is one of my favorites although I did make an Earl Grey Bundt Cake once that was delightful and subtle.
