Cranberry Pecan Orange Cake

*Happy*

Happy that the enthusiastic-baking me visited Minneapolis, the flour city and enjoyed our USA trip very much!

Happy that I'm now back home and started baking...

Happy too that I've baked this lovely Christmas-y cake.

Although Christmas is almost half a year away, the combination of cranberry and pecan in this cake plus our current wintery Melbourne weather remind me a lots of Christmas! This cake recipe is from the book, "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas. It is chosen by Maria from Box of Stolen Socks for our 20th The Home Bakers bake and I reckon this is the best The Home Bakers coffee cake that I ever baked so far!

THB is an baking event organised by my friend, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. With a group of gorgeous ladies, we are baking all recipes from the book, "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas until every recipe from this book has been baked.

Baking with The Home Bakers has been a great experience for me but can like a roller coaster ride sometime: Up and down... Up and down... And this THB bake is all the way UP UP UP for me! 

I'm here back to the basic (and retro... LOL!) using a wooden spoon to bake this thin-layer cranberry streusel cake. I'm very happy that this cake is very easy to bake and very moist, tender and delicious to eat. Happy too that I baked the full amount of this cake. Without much to say, the photographs of this cake will tell you what I mean...

Cranberry pecan orange cake - one of my best THB bakes!

Sorting the nuts - Will the real good pecan please stand up?

Making the cake - the bad nuts were used as chopped pecans

Assembling the cake

Easy to bake! *Happy*

Can't have enough... Need another slice!

Delicious?

Update on 13 Dec 2016: This recipe is so good that I'm baking this Christmassy cake again! And here is my version of the recipe. Happy Baking!

Another Cranberry Pecan Orange Cake that I have baked recently :)

Equally delicious!!!

Here's the recipe.

Makes one 20 cm cake

For the cake:

60g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
50g caster sugar - this is the reduced amount and the cake is not sweet!
1 large egg, roughly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, not dried - please do not thaw
50g pecans, roughly chopped and pre-roasted at 180ºC for 5 mins

For the streusel topping:
38g all purpose flour
30g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
50g caster sugar, can be raw or white
50g pecan halves (yes... these are the good pecans that are nice and intact!)

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line a 20 cm round pan with baking paper.

To make the streusel topping: Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Place streusel in a fridge to chill while making the cake batter.

For the cake:

Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt and sift half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to mix until the flour mixture is incorporated. Stir in half of the orange juice until just combined. Repeat the flour-mixture-sifting-plus-mixing and the mixing-in-orange-juice steps with the remaining ingredients. Then, stir in the cranberries and nuts. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

Sprinkle the chilled streusel evenly over the batter and arrange the pecan halves over the streusel.

Bake at 180ºC for 40-45 mins or until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool slightly in the pan for about 10 mins. Then transfer to cool on a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut and serve. Store the uneaten cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Happy Baking
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