Orange and Cranberry Drizzle

After posting a photo of this cake on Instagram for my Christmas menu for The National Botanical Gardens of Wales, lots of people asked me for the recipe. This one was my favourite's out of everything I baked for Christmas – I love a good drizzle cake, the cranberries bring all the tartness you’d expect from a good lemon drizzle but with the sweetness of orange.

Even though this was a Christmas bake it’s still perfectly seasonal now in January, with fresh cranberries still on the shelves and oranges at their best – especially blood oranges which would also be a great substitute in this recipe.

This cake keeps well for a good few days if kept well wrapped
Photograph of Orange and Cranberry Drizzle baked by Jane.

Serves

Makes 10

Ingredients

Orange and cranberry drizzle cake

  • 95g fresh or frozen cranberries 
  • 1 medium orange
  • 170g unsalted butter, softened 
  • 170g caster sugar 
  • 3 large free range eggs
  • 170g self raising flour 
  • 20g cornflour 
  • ¼ teaspoon of baking powder 

Drizzle 

  • 1 medium orange 
  • 160g caster

Method

  1. Pre heat the oven to 175°C fan.
  2. Grease a 20cm x 10cm x 6cm loaf tin and line with baking paper. 
  3. Put the caster sugar, butter and zest of one orange in a mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well in between.
  4. Wash the cranberries and reserve about a third of them. Sift together the flour, cornflour and baking powder, take a spoonful of the flour mixture and toss the remaining two thirds of cranberries in it to coat, this will stop them sinking in the cake. Now fold the flour into the into the butter and egg mixture making sure it’s thoroughly mixed, add the juice of half the orange, followed by the flour coated cranberries. Scrape the mixture into your loaf tin and sprinkle over the remaining cranberries.
  5. Bake for about 40-45 mins in the centre of preheated oven, test with a skewer, it should come out clean, if not pop it back in for a few minutes longer then test again. 
  6. Once baked leave to cool slightly, while the cake is still warm poke it all over the surface with a skewer then make your drizzle with the remaining 160g of caster sugar and approximately 100ml of juice from the orange, use the other half orange left over from the cake if you need a bit more juice. Mix together and spoon over the warm cake, leave to cool completely before you remove it from the tin.

The cake keeps well for a good few days if kept well wrapped.

Author

Published by Jane Lewis

Menu

In 2015 I made it through to the last 50 in the last audition of The Great British Bake Off. Sadly I wasn't chosen for the programme but I need to carry on my journey as I can't imagine my life without baking.

I'd love to start writing my own recipes. So what better place to do it than starting a blog.