Orange and Cranberry Cake with Orange Citrus Icing

Flavours and aromas bring back childhood memories. Citrus reminds me of collecting oranges, mandarins and lemons with my Grandmother in her backyard. The scent perfumed hands and of course my clothes because I routinely dropped the fruit and wiped my hands all over myself. Mucky kid.  Later in the kitchen my Grandmother would toss a few ingredients together and, as the cake baked, her kitchen transformed into a fragrant orange orchard. Sadly, that Grandmother never wrote down recipes but this sublime Orange cake by Belinda Jeffery reminds me of that aroma as it now fills my kitchen with it's warm citrus breeze of orange sunshine and memories.   Belinda Jeffery suggests you brush hot cake with Orange Glaze (at end of post) and then spoon over the icing as well.  Wow!

   Enjoy!  Colleen

Orange Cranberry Bundt by Feed Your Inner Cook

       Orange juice syrup

Orange Cranberry Bundt by Feed Your Inner Cook

Preparation    40 minutes  (including icing preparation)

Cooking          1 Hour 15 minutes .. plus needs to cool before icing

Ingredients

6 - 10 oranges 

zest first then juice and strain - prepare syrup first (see below) 1 juicy orange should yield between 3 - 4 tablespoons juice, but I find some have been bit dry lately. Because simmering then reducing juice liquid you need to start with more juice.

NB this zest and juice is used for the cake, glaze and the icing. 
Recipe needs 10 tablespoons of concentrated juice - 3 tablespoons for cake, 4 tablespoons for glaze and 3 tablespoons in icing.  So you need to start with at least 24 - 30 tablespoons, or  1 1/2 cups to nearly 2 cups squeezed juice.
Any left over syrup can be used later - smoothies, muffins etc etc

PLUS

3 cups plain flour    (Reserve 1 tablespoon to dust cranberries)

1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

tiny pinch of ground cardamom  OR  ground cloves - Optional

3 eggs - room temperature

2 cups sugar

250 gram butter - cut into small chunks, room temperature

1 cup Buttermilk    OR   3/4 cup yoghurt and 1/4 cup milk combined

100 gram dried cranberries (craisins) - Optional but lovely addition

Belinda's Orange Glaze 

1 cup Icing Sugar mixture  OR  I use 1 cup pure icing sugar sift with 1 tablespoon cornflour

1/4 cup of your prepared Orange juice syrup - see above  (or 4 tablespoons)

30 gram butter - melted.

Icing

1 cup Icing Sugar mixture  OR  I use 1 cup pure icing sugar sift with 1 tablespoon cornflour

3 tablespoons of your prepared Orange juice zest syrup - see above

Method

Preheat oven to 150 ℃ and butter and flour large bundt tin (approx 26cm)

TIPS AND HINTS Belinda Jeffery suggests to place bundt tin on top of preheating oven, with small chunk of very soft butter that will melt from warmth of heating oven.  Then use a pastry brush to thoroughly brush the melted butter really well coating inside of bundt tin.  Tip a small amount of flour into the bundt tin and thoroughly shake and wiggle the tin so the flour covers the insides.  Shake out the excess flour and set the prepared tin aside away from the warming oven.

Orange Zest and Juice Syrup

Add all the strained zest and juice to a very small saucepan.  Very gently simmer the juice stirring with a wooden spoon until quantity halves and juice thickens and flavour intensifies.  Set aside to cool.

Cake

Place the dried cranberries in a small bowl and roll with sprinkled reserved tablespoon of flour. This separates and stops fruit clumping in cake later.  Set aside.

Sift the flour, Bicarb, salt and spice into a bowl

In a food processor, whiz the eggs and sugar for 1 minute

Add the chunks of butter and whiz for another minute until thick and creamy

Add the buttermilk, 3 tablespoons of prepared orange syrup and whiz for 10 seconds.

Transfer the eggy butter orange batter into a large bowl.

Add a third of the  sifted flour mixture into the batter and gently fold in with a large metal spoon.  Add another third, fold and then the final third. Don't overbeat - just enough so the flour is incorporated into the batter.

Finally fold in the floured cranberries and stir through.

Spoon the batter into your prepared bundt tin and smooth surface.

Bake for approx 70 minutes.  Check and rotate if necessary.  Test with a fine skewer in cake middle that comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the tin on a wire cake rack for 10 minutes. 

(NB Belinda Jeffery suggests you brush hot cake with Orange Glaze (at end of post) and then later on also spoon over the icing as well.  If you decide to use glaze, this it the stage to brush hot cake ,after it is removed from tin, with prepared Glaze until absorbed)

Remove the cake from the tin carefully.  Use a fine palette knife to carefully loosen around the edges and middle of cake tin.  A few gentle thumps around the outside also help to loosen the cake.  Place the cake rack on top of cake surface.  Gently invert the tin and the cake should gently drop to the cake rack.  If not, turn it back up and check where it is sticking and invert again.   Allow cake to completely cool on the rack other icing will not set properly.  

Make the icing during this time.

When cooled, place on serving plate or stand.  Spoon the prepared icing over the cake allowing it to trickle into the swirl edges.  Leave it to set.  

Belinda's Orange Glaze 

Whisk orange glaze ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth.

Brush the glaze over the still hot cake after it has been removed from tin. Place some paper under the cake rack to catch glaze drips.

Keep brushing all over the cake until all absorbed.

Leave to cool completely.  Glaze will form a fine crackly coating.  Ice cake as per recipe.

Icing

Sift the 1 cup Icing Sugar mixture  OR  I use 1 cup pure icing sugar sifted with 1 tablespoon cornflour into a medium bowl.  

Add 2 tablespoons of the Orange syrup.  Reserve the other tablespoon as different sugars absorb liquids differently.  Add the remainder a bit at a time for desired consistency.

Mix together until no lumps and add the remaining juice until icing is smooth, thick but able to be spooned onto cake and set firm.

                                          Enjoy!   Colleen