Cranberries are one of my favorite fruits, especially for holiday baking! This light, moist cranberry bundt cake is topped with a light, tangy orange glaze and sugared cranberries for a simple, but elegant Christmas dessert!
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Why You'll Love This Cranberry Cake!
- Super moist yogurt pound cake filled with fresh cranberries.
- Topped with a light, tangy orange glaze.
- Studded with delicious candied cranberries!
- Simple but show stopping dessert for the winter holidays (like Thanksgiving or Christmas)!
You might also like this cranberry curd tart or this maple pumpkin bundt cake!
Ingredient Notes
You just need a few ingredients to make this cranberry bundt cake!
Cake flour - I always use cake flour in my cakes because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
Almond flour - Substituting a portion of the flour for almond flour is one of my favorite tricks! It yields tender baked goods with a slightly nutty flavor. But if you prefer, just substitute all purpose flour.
Plain full-fat yogurt - I love adding yogurt to baked goods because it keeps them super light and moist! You can also substitute sour cream or whole milk instead.
Orange juice & zest - Fresh is best for maximum orange flavor! You need the juice and zest from about 1 large orange.
Cranberries - Fresh cranberries are best in this cake, but frozen cranberries also work great! No need to thaw them before adding straight to the batter!
Sugared cranberries - This is optional, but I love garnishing this cake with homemade sugared cranberries! They're super easy to make and look just beautiful! All you need is cranberries, water, and sugar! Check out this post for all my tips for making candied cranberries!
How to Make Bundt Cake
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and orange zest until fully combined and smooth.
Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.
Add in the yogurt and orange juice and mix until fully combined. [If you don't have enough orange juice, replace with more yogurt.]
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
Then gently fold in the fresh cranberries.
Prepare your bundt pan by spraying thoroughly with a vegetable oil based pan spray.
Evenly pour the cake batter into your prepared pan.
Bake at 375°F for 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle of the cake comes out clean. Note: Pans with a darker interior will cook faster, as will a smaller 5-6 cup bundt pan. Start checking at 30-35 minutes in those cases.
Remove from the oven and let the cake rest in the pan for 1-2 minutes.
Use a butter knife and gently slide it between the cake and pan around the edges and the center hole. Place a cooling rack on top of the bundt pan and turn over. It should fall right out but if it doesn’t let it sit for a couple minutes and then tap the top of the pan to gently coax it out of the pan.
Allow the cranberry cake to cool completely before glazing.
To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Add orange juice 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. It should be a thick but still pourable consistency.
Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake and top with sugared cranberries.
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Bundt Cake Tips
Using a high quality non-stick bundt pan will increase your odds of the cake sliding cleanly out of the pan! I only use Nordic Ware bundt pans because they’re extremely well made and won’t break the bank. You can also find them on sale all the time! For this cranberry orange bundt cake I used my classic 12 cup bundt pan.
You also want to use a good pan spray! I love Everbake Pan Spray or Baker's Joy, but any vegetable oil spray will work. You do not want to use butter though as the milk solids can solidify during baking and cause your cake to stick in some of the smaller crevices.
This cranberry bundt cake recipe is designed for a 10-12 cup bundt pan. Simply halve the recipe to use a 5-6 cup bundt!
Recipe FAQ's
This cranberry bundt cake will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. I recommend getting an airtight bundt cake keeper for best results.
This can happen for a few different reasons. The pan you're using and the nonstick spray are usually the biggest culprits! See the notes above for what I recommend!
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
More Cranberry Recipes You Might Like!
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Recipe Card
Cranberry Bundt Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cranberry Bundt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons orange zest, about 1 orange
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup plain full-fat yogurt, substitute sour cream or whole milk
- ⅓ cup orange juice, about 1 orange
- 2 cups cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ½ cup almond flour, substitute all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups fresh cranberries, or frozen
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-4 tablespoons orange juice, substitute milk
Garnish
- sugared cranberries, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and orange zest until fully combined and smooth.
- Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Add in the yogurt and orange juice and mix until fully combined. [If you don't have enough orange juice, replace with more yogurt.]
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
- Then gently fold in the fresh cranberries.
- Prepare your bundt pan by spraying thoroughly with a vegetable oil based pan spray.
- Evenly pour the cake batter into your prepared pan.
- Bake at 375°F for 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle of the cake comes out clean. Note: Pans with a darker interior will cook faster, as will a smaller 5-6 cup bundt pan. Start checking at 30-35 minutes in those cases.
- Remove from the oven and let the cake rest in the pan for 1-2 minutes.
- Use a butter knife and gently slide it between the cake and pan around the edges and the center hole. Place a cooling rack on top of the bundt pan and turn over. It should fall right out but if it doesn’t let it sit for a couple minutes and then tap the top of the pan to gently coax it out of the pan.
- Allow the cake to cool completely before glazing.
- To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Add orange juice 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. It should be a thick but still pourable consistency.
- Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake and top with sugared cranberries.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Dennis Littley says
This cake was so delicious! My family really enjoyed the sugared cranberries on top!
Lilly says
This cake is so delicious! I especially enjoyed the sugared cranberries on top!