London, what are you putting us through today?! There is a tube strike on and the skies are chucking down rain in bucketloads. I am trying hard to recover from a cold and sore throat, with hay fever thrown in.
Failing miserably to sleep last night, I came downstairs to tidy up some paperwork. I never worry on the nights I can’t fall asleep, and the only mistake I make is to not head to my desk earlier.
With time to spare before breakfast (normally at 7.30 am) I looked at NY Times Cooking and chose a cake to bake. This cake is an adaptation of their Orange and Cranberry Loaf. I could tell from the recipe that it would work in one of my Bundt pans, and so it did.
As always, part of the success with cakes is to weigh out all the ingredients and line them up in order of use. I used my KitchenAid but the recipe could also have been made in a Thermomix or food processor, using the all-in-one beating method and adding the cranberries by hand at the end.
For the Cake:
150 g plain flour
75 g ground almonds
1¼ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
large pinch of fine sea salt
115 g unsalted butter, softened
150 g golden caster sugar
finely grated zest of 2 oranges (I used a Microplane)
3 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120 g fresh orange juice (use the zest above)
120 g Greek yogurt (fat-free is fine)
170 g cranberries, fresh or frozen but not thawed (I used frozen)
10 g each softened butter and plain flour to line the Bundt pan
You will also need a 6 Cup Anniversary Bundt Pan as the shape is attractive and it makes cutting/ sharing easier. You can also bake the cake in a 2-lb loaf tin.
How to Make:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan.
Brush 10 g of softened butter evenly over the entire inside of the Bundt pan, taking care to fill every corner.
Sift over 10 g of flour, moving the pan around to coat evenly. Remove the excess flour by turning the pan upside down and giving it a tap (do this over a sink). Set the pan aside.
Sift the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl (I used a KitchenAid with a flex edge beater), beat the butter, sugar and orange zest on a medium speed until lighter in colour and texture.
Add in the eggs and vanilla and continue beating. The mixture will look curdled but this is how it should look.
Add in half of the flour mixture and beat until just combined.
Beat in all the yogurt mixture, followed by the remaining flour mixture. It is important not to over-beat the batter in order to retain a light cake texture.
Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and fold in the cranberries using a silicon spatula.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake in the oven for 60 minutes. The cake doesn’t bounce back much when cooked, but a metal skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. The top of the cake may turn quite brown but rest assured, it is not burnt.
Leave the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Turn the pan over to release the cake onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Due to the pattern of the Bundt, the cake will slice into eight thicker and eight thinner pieces – perfect with a hot cup of tea.
There is a previous Cranberry and Orange Cake on this blog, using marmalade and dried cranberries.