Spiced Cranberry Raisin Bundt Cake
I just finished putting up my Christmas Tree & the lights. This time the kids are big enough to help me with decorating the tree. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work, but we are finally done. The only thing we need to do is wait for Santa. On that note, my little one, pulled out a red stocking from the box and came and told me that “Santa Claus lost a sock” & she found it! She has a funny bone.
Cranberries are in abundance and I am buying them too. Presenting here is the Cranberry cake I made. I saw the recipe and knew that this had to be it, Cranberries, Spices and all the Colors, Flavors & the Festivities of the season were all in it. It has been adapted from savory spiced cranberry Bundt cake from Bon Appetit magazine as it appeared in MSNBC. I tweaked the ingredients a little bit, the major change being made in not using sugar. I used maple syrup & honey, that too in lesser quantity than it required. The raisins & the orange juice added their part of sweetness to it. My family loved it… all that was left were crumbs in a couple of days!
Sending this to Eating with the Seasons: December hosted by Maninas, Homemade Christmas Gift Event hosted by My Kitchen Treasures, Santa’s Holiday Challenge hosted by Tasty Treats.
Ivy from Kopiaste, Val from More Than Burnt and Giz from Equal Opportunity Kitchen have decided to join forces (It is really an honorable work that they are doing!) and create a concrete force of international bloggers who will stand up to be counted, called BloggerAid.
You can read more here. This is my contribution to Blogger Aid: Because We Can Help.
Now the cake…with the irresistible cranberries…
Spiced Cranberry Raisin Bundt Cake
Ingredients:
Cake:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup almond flour or almond meal 2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 teaspoon ground ginger 3/4 cup Oil 1/4 cup Honey 1/2 cup Maple Syrup 1.5 teaspoons ground flax seed 2 large eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 cup plain reduced-fat Greek-style yogurt 1 cup chopped toasted Walnuts (or Almonds) 1.5 cup halved fresh or frozen cranberries 1 cup raisins 2 Tablespoons Orange Peels chopped into small piecesNotes: * I dry grinded whole almonds since I did not have almond meal handy.
* I also strained regular low fat yogurt, discarded the liquid & used the liquid free thick yogurt.
* The honey may be replaced with 1/2 cup of Brown Sugar, & the Maple syrup may be replaced with 1 Cup of White Sugar.
To soak the Cranberries, Raisins & Peels:
- 1/4 Cup Port Wine
- 1/4 Cup Orange Juice
For the Glaze:
- 4 Tablespoons of maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon Lime juice
Preparation:Cut the cranberries in to halves. Combine wine & orange juice. Soak the cranberries, raisins and peels in the wine & juice overnight.
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan.
Strain the cranberries, raisins & peels and set aside. Save the liquid.
Sift the first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend.
Using electric mixer, beat oil, eggs, honey, flax seed, maple syrup, the saved mix of orange juice & wine & Vanilla extract. Beat the Greek-style yogurt. Add dry ingredients. Beat just until blended. Fold in nuts and all the cranberries, raisins and peels. Transfer batter to prepared Bundt pan.
Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 60 minutes.
Cool cake in pan 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack and cool completely.To glaze:
Mix the maple syrup & lime juice. Brush on the cake. Sprinkle the almond meal on the top.
I have never used maple syrup in a cake before… I loved the flavor ! The texture was not dense, but very soft, fluffy, airy. The slight tart of the cranberries tasted really good with the crunch of the nuts, the sweet of the raisins and the spices. Well, have a slice with coffee, or a dessert after dinner just by itself or why not warm it up & top with some icecream?
Happy Holidays!!
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Wow pretty exciting ingredients !!! This is a MUST try for me !! Great work Soma !
Thanks a lot!
awesome cake Soma. perfect picture and perfect cake. i wish i had some now.. hmmmm
you can send it to christmas homemade gifts event by happy cook and another christmas festivities event by purva desai.
i think u shud copyright all ur pics dear..
Mahimaa, Thanks a lot! and thanku for letting me know about the other events. I am quite at loss these days:-)
I am working on the copyright. These pics were taken a week back.. I have been seeing a lot of thief works around. i really need to do something!
Wow it looks so beautiful and not to mention super delciious.
Thankyou fro sending this for my event. It is perfect for the season.
I would love to get one of these in real as a gift.
Thanks:-) My pleasure.
I am working on copyrighting my pics. Hopefully from the next post I should atleast put a name on the pics till I get the real thing done.
Yeah i aslo agree with mahimaa , otherwise you don’t know who will grab your pice and put them in their blog as the picture looks so beautiful.
What an absolutely beautiful and perfect looking cake. Thank you for your entry to Because We Can Help.
Thank you!
Wow, that is the holiday feast! Very tempting one
Thanks!
oh wow!! I am amazed at the looks of thsi beauty! great entry and thanks for participating in my “Santa’s Holiday Challenge” event! 🙂 Santa definitelyis impressed! 🙂
I am glad I could impress santa! may be he will leave me a gift under the tree this time:-)
Cake looks gorgeous and simply irresistible, that was soo sweet of your kids to help you decorate the christmas tree….
You can even sent the pic of ur christmas tree for the event.
Thank you for the wonderful entry
Thanks! Lemme see if I can get a pic of the tree in time:-)
Looks perfect for the holidays. I love how you used port to soak the fruits before baking.
This is the first time I used port & really liked it! The flavor actually became prominent the next day.
Awesome cake Soma! Great job! 🙂
Thanks Sharmila! Started doing the text print on the pics:-)
This is some kick ass cake! I have a lot of frozen cranberries sitting, I need to do something with them
Anu your ideas are boundless! I am sure u will come up with something awesome with those cranberries.
omg,…looks so christmasy,…:-)
yes i am in the mood for the holidays! can’t avoid it…
WOw wat a lovely, gorgeous Cake.. Great job Soma..
Thank you Priya!
beautiful pic and more than that the cake looks so delicious, I hope and I can Imagine , you had a nice time decorating X-mas tree with children..
hugs and smiles
Thanks Jaya! The little joys of having kids:-) is they make u a child again
Wow,Wonderful cake,Perfect for Christmas.
But its gone before Christmas arrived:-)
The cake looks so festive indeed 🙂
Thanks Sunita!
What a beauty! The first picture looks stunning
Thank you so much Supriya!
Dear soma,
the cake is awesome and all ur recipes…just now checked all…
Thank u so much for ur kind words and for the comments in that guys blog.Thanks a ton dear
Thanks Ramya!! Please don’t say thanks… this is something we should all fight for together.
Hey Soma, thanks for stopping by. My hubby had shared this song with me a long time back when I was baking his fav cookies. Since then its stuck in my head 🙂
Its beautiful, if u ever get to hear it.
I have this same song on my blog too.
http://cooking-up-a-storm-zaayeka.blogspot.com/2008/12/double-chocolate-chip-oatmeal-cookies.html
that’s one fabulous cake! lovely and moist! yum. can i have a slice, please? 🙂
This cake looks fantastic! Can’t wait to try it.
Just made this cake and put it in a cake sheet instead of bundt. Didn’t soak the cranberries and used frozen orange juice concentrate and rum as the liquid in place of port. Instead of Chinese spice, put in nutmeg and cardamom. Didn’t put in nuts but added in cooked apple slices. Great base recipe, delicious!