The BEST Cranberry Orange Bread (VIDEO)

5 from 14 votes

Moist & delicious Cranberry Orange Bread recipe with Orange glaze and a wonderful festive decoration is the ultimate holiday favorite!

Prep Time30

Cook Time45

Waiting1

Total Time2 15

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 558kcal

100 g Granulated sugar for the sugar syrup
100 g Water for the sugar syrup
Orange zest stripes peel an orange and cut it into stripes
Cranberries Fresh or frozen
Granulated sugar Small amount of sugar to roll the orange zest stripes and cranberries in

Heat oven to 175 C / 347°F , no fan
Grease your loaf pan
With an electric hand mixer beat together soft, room temperature butter and sugar until it becomes creamy and pale, then mix in room temperature eggs slowly pouring into the mixture
Mix in vanilla and orange zest
Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) and gently fold in with the help of a Rubber spatula
Finally, mix in candied orange zest and cranberries
Pour cake batter into the loaf tin and apply a very thin butter line on top of the cake batter
Bake for 45-50 min or until a skewer inserted comes out clean
Towards the end of the baking time make the syrup: boil orange juice and sugar in a saucepan until slightly thickens and reaches syrup consistency
Once the loaf is baked, pour the warm syrup over in 2-3 stages. The syrup will sink in. Let it set before removing it from the tin.
Let the cake completely cool in the fridge before glazing.

For the glaze mix orange juice with powdered sugar. Your glaze should be thick enough, so it covers the loaf, but not too thick, so it will leave the perfect drip effect.
Make sure that the cake is cold (5C / 41F fridge temp) and the glaze is on the right consistency, so it can quickly set instead of running it through.
Pour glaze over the cake or use a piping bag
Once glazing on top, move the cake back to the fridge so it can set quickly.
For the decortion, prepare a simple sugar syrup by boiling equal amount of sugar and water. Stir in the cranberries and orange zest strips to fully coat in the syrup, then remove them into parchment paper.
A few minutes later, when the sugar syrup is somewhat set on the orange zest and cranberries, roll them in granulated sugar.
Once the glaze is set on the cake, place the sugared cranberries and orange zest all around the top of your Cranberry bread
Any leftover cake can be stored in an air-tight container either at room temperature or in the fridge for 3-4 days.

INGREDIENT NOTES

All ingredients must be at room temperature to properly emulsify: eggs, butter, etc.
Fresh cranberries, Frozen or Dried cranberries can be used too

TECHNIQUE NOTES

Digital scale is required for a consistent, happy baking experience:)
Do not overwork the cake batter, after the wet ingredients are whipped up, switch to a rubber spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients
On top of the cake batter before baking apply a very thin butter line – this will help the Loaf cake to open up nicely and evenly instead of breaking in a random way in the oven
Use parchment paper in your Loaf tin or butter and flour it so the cake can easily be removed after baking
Do not skip the syrup, it will make your Cranberry Orange Bread extra moist
Always pre-heat your oven and consider using a digital oven thermometer for the best results
Baking this cake takes 45 minutes in my oven however focus on the texture, not the time. Apply the toothpick check (it should come out clean) to avoid raw cake
Only glaze chilled loaf, never glaze warm loaf