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Cranberry Coffee Cake with Vanilla Orange Sugar
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen Recipe

Cranberry Coffee Cake with Vanilla Orange Sugar

I love a good coffee cake. Maybe even better than cakes with buttercream. Maybe it's a crumbly topping or maybe it's a glaze, but I love them so much. This one uses one of my favorite berries, the cranberry. I always buy extra bags of fresh cranberries during "the season" so I can keep them in my freezer and enjoy them "off season". I imagine you could sub in other fruits that don't have much liquid in them.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours 16 minutes
Servings: 12
Course: Dessert, Brunch, christmas, holiday, fall baking
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste generous
  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • zest of one half orange reserve orange for glaze
  • 2 cups cranberries fresh or thawed frozen
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons butter softened
  • ½ cup whole milk
  • 1 tablespoon butter softened
  • 1 tablespoon flour
Glaze
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar sifted
  • zest of one half orange
  • 2-3 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon butter melted

Method
 

Vanilla Orange Sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 375º.  Line the bottom and sides of a 8”-9” round cake pan with parchment paper and then butter the paper.  
     
    Place the sugar in a food processor with the vanilla bean paste  and orange zest and pulse to blend.  Place this vanilla orange sugar in a bowl and set aside.
Cranberry Filling
  1. In the same processor bowl, pulse the cranberries with ½ cup of the reserved vanilla orange sugar until finely chopped but not pureed.  
Cake Batter
  1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Beat the butter and 1 cup of the vanilla orange sugar  on medium speed until pale and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl, reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour until just combined.  
Assembling
  1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Beat the butter and 1 cup of the vanilla orange sugar  on medium speed until pale and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl, reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour until just combined.  
Baking
  1. Bake until a wooden pick inserted into cake comes out clean and sides begin to pull away from pan, 45-50 minutes.  Cool in pan for 30 minutes then flip out of pan using a cardboard then flip over so crumb is on top.  
     
    Dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with Glaze if desired.
Glaze
  1. Whisk the powdered sugar, zest, and orange juice until smooth, adding more juice if needed. Drizzle over the warm cakes.