Let’s make a stunning Orange Cranberry Cake. With a jeweled cranberry jam filling, and a silky orange buttercream, this cake is as beautiful as it is delicious.
During the winter months, I absolutely love baking with cranberries. They are such an underrated berry, and it’s criminal. Try these other delicious cranberry treats like these cranberry rolls and cranberry white chocolate bread.
What Makes this Orange Cake Special?
- The orange cake is ridiculously moist and fluffy. And it’s flavored with all natural orange ingredients, no orange extracts in town.
- The Swiss meringue buttercream is extra silky and a great way to offset the tart tanginess of the cranberry jam.
- The cranberry jam filling comes together in minutes and is flavored with plenty of spice and orange juice.
- A topping of sugared cranberries makes this easy cake a real showstopper!
Ingredients
The key to this orange cake is, you guessed it, orange! Fresh oranges makes all the difference in this cake.
Orange Cake
- Cake flour. Cake flour is the key to a light and airy orange cake.
- Baking powder and baking soda. These leavening agents give us our lift.
- Unsalted butter and neutral oil. The mix between the butter and oil gives us a good combination of moisture and flavor. Be sure to use an oil without added flavor like canola or vegetable.
- Granulated sugar.
- Eggs.
- Whole Milk. I tried this recipe with only orange juice, but it was frankly a fail. The cake was too fragile and overly acidic. We need the milk to add richness to the batter.
- Sour cream. This gives us an extra hit of softness in the final cake texture.
- Orange juice and orange zest. The zest really brings out the orange flavor without changing the texture of the cake. It’s natural extract!
Cranberry Jam
- Cranberries. Fresh or frozen will work.
- Granulated sugar. Cranberries are pretty tart, we need the sugar to balance things out, plus the sugar helps to set the jam.
- Orange juice and orange zest. Let’s bring in the flavor of the oranges into the jam too!
- Cinnamon and nutmeg. Rounds out the flavor nicely in our jam.
Tips for a Successful Cake
Room temperature ingredients. Start with room temperature ingredients so everything mixes in well.
Do not skip the creaming. To ensure a light and fluffy cake, it’s important to cream, or beat, your room temperature butter and sugar until it’s also very light and fluffy. Really whip them for 3-5 minutes and scrape down the bowl so all the bits are well blended.
Zest the oranges properly. When zesting the oranges, a microplane is the best tool. It’s important to only remove the orange rind and leave the white pith behind. The pith is very bitter.
Pro tip: Zest the oranges directly into your mixing bowl. The zest has a lot of natural oils that carries the flavor. If you zest over a cutting board, the oils to stick to the board and we want all the flavor!
How to bake more even cakes! Really grease and flour your cake tins well (I actually prefer Baker’s Joy for all my cake baking, it’s foolproof). Then, line the bottom of the tins with a circle of parchment paper. This ensures a clean release of the cake layers.
Now, here’s the real key of an even cake layer. A domed cake happens with the sides bake and set faster and the center continues to cook and rise. To prevent this, wrap a water-soaked baking strip, or a cut up old kitchen towel, around the outside of the tins. This will insulate the edges and let them bake at the same rate as the center.
Cool cakes is key for layer cakes. Really allow the cakes to cool completely. If you plan to trim the top of the cakes for perfectly level layers, a cake chilled in the fridge is even better.
Filling the Cake
The cake I have shown here is called a naked cake. You can fully cover the cake in icing too, completely a personal preference. But the filling process would be the same for both.
- Spread a light layer of icing on the top of your cake layer.
- With the icing in a piping bag or in a Ziploc bag with the corner cut, pipe a ring of icing around the outer edge of the cake layer.
- Spoon the cranberry jam inside the ring of icing. This will hold in the jam so there are no leaks in the final layers!
How to Make Sugared Cranberries
While it’s not a requirement, these super simple sugared cranberries are just the sweetest little topping to this cake. How to make them?
- Bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup (200g) of granulated sugar to a simmer, stir occasionally until the sugar is just dissolved to make a simple syrup.
- Pour hot syrup over 1 1/2 cups (150g) of fresh cranberries in a heat-proof bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove cranberries from simple syrup and toss in a bowl of granulated sugar. Set on a drying rack and let dry for at least 1 hour.
- Use left over simple syrup in your favorite holiday cocktails!
Frequently Asked Questions
Make a DIY cake flour by substituting 3 tablespoons (22g) of the flour with 3 tablespoons (21g) of cornstarch.
The cranberry jam can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the fridge. The cakes may be baked and wrapped in plastic and frozen until ready to use. Defrost and assemble when ready to use.
Orange Cranberry Cake
Equipment
- 3 6" cake tins
Ingredients
Cranberry Jam
- 340 g cranberries, fresh or frozen
- 150 g granulated sugar
- Zest and juice of 1 orange
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
Orange Cake
- 210 g cake flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 100 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 225 g granulated sugar
- Zest of 2 oranges
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons whole milk room temperature
- 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice room temperature
- 56 g sour cream room temperature
Orange Buttercream
- 1 recipe of Swiss Meringue Buttercream*
- Zest of 2 oranges
Instructions
- Cranberry Jam. Place all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves and cranberries begin to burst, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Mash cranberries with a potato masher and allow to simmer until jam is thickened, about another 10 minutes. If desired, blitz jam with an immersion blender for a smoother slice of cake. Allow to chill completely in fridge before filling cake.340 g cranberries, fresh or frozen, 150 g granulated sugar, Zest and juice of 1 orange, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Orange cake. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 3 – 6" cake tins. Line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.210 g cake flour, 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, whip together butter, sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Add in oil and mix well.100 g unsalted butter, 225 g granulated sugar, Zest of 2 oranges, 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
- Add eggs in one at a time with mixer on low. Add vanilla extract.2 eggs, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Alternate between adding the flour and milk, add 1/3 of the flour mixture on low. Add 1/2 of the milk. Continue until all ingredients are combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons whole milk
- Stir in orange juice and sour cream. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Tap a few times on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake for 22-24 minutes until cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool enough to handle before removing cakes from tins and onto cooling rack. Cool completely before filling.2 tablespoons fresh orange juice, 56 g sour cream
- Assembly. Prepare buttercream per recipe. Add orange zest to buttercream. Trim top edges off of cakes if desired for a perfectly flat cake. Spread a light layer of icing on one layer. Pipe a 1/2" ring on the outside of the cake using a piping bag or Zipoc bag. Spoon cranberry jam in center of piped icing ring.Zest of 2 oranges, 1 recipe of Swiss Meringue Buttercream*
- Repeat with second layer. Place final cake layer on top, cover sides and top with icing, or leave sides uncovered. Top with sugared cranberries and herbs if desired.
Notes
- *For this naked cake, I only needed 1/2 batch of Swiss meringue buttercream. If you plan to fully cover the sides of the cake, make a full batch.
- Cranberry jam may be made up to 3 days ahead of time.
- Baked cake layers may be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen for up to three months.
- Store leftover cake in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Disclaimer: We test all recipes using the metric weights shown, we cannot guarantee outcomes when switching to US measurements.