Vegan Orange Cranberry Cake

5 from 1 vote

Vegan Orange Cranberry Cake

This beautifully festive Orange Cranberry Cake is light and moist and has the perfect balance of tart and sweet. The cake is perfect on its own, but a crumbly streusel topping and optional orange glaze makes it a treat worthy of your holiday table.

Prep Time10

Cook Time50

Total Time1

Course: Breakfast and Brunch, Desserts & Sweet Treats, Snacks

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegan

Servings:

Calories: 352kcal

Author: Jenn Sebestyen

Equipment

Ingredients

For the Orange Cranberry Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup granulated cane sugar
½ cup vanilla or plain vegan yogurt I use unsweetened, but sweetened is fine, too.
½ cup melted vegan butter
½ cup unsweetened, plain non-dairy milk
zest of 1 naval orange
¼ cup fresh orange juice from one naval orange
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries

For the Streusel, optional

½ cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup granulated cane sugar
¼ cup vegan stick butter cut into small pieces

For the Vanilla Orange Glaze, optional

⅓ cup powdered sugar also known as confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper and allow the ends to overhand the sides of the pan. You'll use these as "handles" to easily lift the baked cake out of the pan.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, yogurt, melted butter, milk, orange juice, and vanilla.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir to combine using a silicone spatula. Stir just until no white flour is visible. A few lumps are fine and expected. Do not over mix!
Add the cranberries and stir gently to evenly distribute them throughout the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and spread it out evenly.
Sprinkle the streusel (directions below), if using, evenly over the top of the cake batter.
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Then, using the parchment paper "handles" carefully lift the cake out of the pan and place it back on the cooling rack to continue cooling completely.
Once the cake is cooled and just before serving, drizzle the vanilla orange glaze (directions below), if using, over the top of the cake.

For the streusel

In a small mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, and cold butter pieces. Using a pastry cutter, fork, or clean hands, combine the ingredients until you have crumbly, sandy clumps.

For the vanilla orange glaze

Whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and orange juice until smooth. The mixture should be thin enough to drizzle over the cake, but thick enough so that it doesn't seep into the cake. You may need to adjust the ingredient amounts until the desired consistency is reached. To thicken the glaze, add more powdered sugar and whisk again until smooth. To make the glaze thinner, add more juice and whisk again until smooth.

Notes

~ Use the spoon-and-level method to measure the flour. Gently fluff up the flour with a spoon. Spoon the flour into a measuring cup until it is overfilled. Use the back of a knife to scrape across the top of the measuring cup to level it off. Do not scoop directly into the flour and do not pack the flour down into the measuring cup…this will result in too much flour and a dense cake.

~ Zest the orange before juicing it.Be careful to only zest the bright orange part. The white pith underneath is quite bitter and we don't want that.

~ Use fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries. Do not use dried cranberries.

~ If using frozen cranberries, add them to the batter while still frozen. Do not let them defrost.

~ Do not over mix the batter. Mix just until not white flour is visible. A few lumps are fine and expected.

~ Line the baking pan with parchment paper and allow the ends to overhang the sides of the pan. You can use these "handles" to lift out the cake after it's baked to easily move it to a cooling rack. I like to lightly spritz the bottom of the baking dish with cooking spray before placing the parchment paper down. This helps the paper to stay in place when you're smoothing out the batter.

~ Allow the fresh cranberry cake to cool completely before drizzling the optional orange glaze over the top.

This cake can be cut into 9 large squares or 16 smaller squares. Nutrition facts are calculated based on 9 equal servings and includes the streusel topping, but not the optional glaze.

Nutrition