Cranberries are one of my favorite fruits, especially for holiday baking! This light and buttery cranberry bundt cake is topped with a vanilla glaze and sugared cranberries. It's the perfect, show-stopping Christmas dessert!

How to make sugared cranberries
I love making sugared cranberries to top holiday desserts! They're super easy and look beautiful (and make a delicious snack)! All you need is water, granulated sugar, and fresh cranberries!
- Combine ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil.
- Stir in cranberries to coat in the syrup. Use a slotted spoon and transfer cranberries to a wire rack (set it on top of a lined baking sheet for easy clean up). Reserve syrup if you want (it's delicious in cocktails).
- Let cranberries dry for 1 hour. After one hour, roll cranberries in remaining sugar until completely coated.
prepare your bundt pan
To get your cake to slide right out of the pan every time, use these tips!!
- Generously coat the inside of the bundt pan with a vegetable oil cooking spray. I love Everbake Pan Spray but any vegetable oil spray will work. You don’t 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.
- Evenly dust with a light coating of nut flour. For this recipe I use almond flour but for a different chocolate recipe I use hazelnut flour. Why nut flour? It acts as a barrier and crisps up in a way that regular flour doesn’t which allows the cake to just slide right out of the pan.
- Don’t prepare the pan until right before you pour the batter in. If you let the prepared pan sit for too long, the oil and flour may start to slide down and pool in the bottom making them effectively useless.
- Using a high quality non-stick bundt pan will also increase your odds of success. 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 bundt cake I used my classic 12 cup bundt pan*.
Note: This recipe is designed for a 10-12 cup bundt pan! Simply halve the recipe for a 5-6 cup bundt!
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Cranberry Bundt Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cranberry Bundt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup plain full fat yogurt
- ⅓ cup orange juice, about 1 orange
- 1 tablespoon orange zest, 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 salt
- 1 ½ cups fresh cranberries, or frozen
Glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 teaspoons milk
Sugared Cranberries
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup water
Instructions
Sugared Cranberries
- Combine ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil.
- Stir in cranberries to coat in the syrup. Use a slotted spoon and transfer cranberries to a wire rack (set it on top of a lined baking sheet for easy clean up). Reserve syrup if you want (it's delicious in cocktails).
- Let cranberries dry for 1 hour. After one hour, roll cranberries in remaining sugar until completely coated.
Cranberry Bundt
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add in the yogurt, orange juice, and orange zest and mix until fully combined.
- 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 and then fold in the cranberries.
- Prepare your pan by spraying thoroughly with a vegetable oil based pan spray. Evenly dust with a light coating of nut flour (almond flour is great).
- 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 milk 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
- 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.
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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!