Recently, I was looking for another alternative to the dense fruit cake of celebrations past, and I thought about how great cranberry and orange goes together. This lead to a bit of a kitchen experiment, and I thought I’d share the outcome.
You will need:
For the orange cranberry cake:
- 1 box of butter cake mix (I used Edmonds)
- 2 teaspoons of orange zest
- 1 cup of craisins
- 1/2 cup of orange juice
- 100 grams of softened butter
- 3 eggs
For the icing:
- 150 gram of softened butter
- 150 grams of spreadable cream cheese
- 2 cups of powdered sugar
- pumpkin seeds and craisins to decorate
Instructions:
In a bowl, add the cake mix, craisins, butter and eggs. Grate the zest of an orange into the bowl and squeeze the juice in as well.
Using an electric beater, mix the cake batter up until combined.
Grease a cake tin, line with baking paper and pour in the batter.
Bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or until a cake skewer can be inserted and comes out clean of batter.
Once the cake is cooked through, remove to the bench and allow it to cool for five minutes, then move the cake to a cooling rack. When the cake is fully cooled you can ice and decorate it.
For the icing, add softened butter and cream cheese in a bowl and, using an electric beater, mix until they are smooth. Add in some powered icing sugar, and continue to beat until you have added 2 cups worth. This will give you a tart cream cheese icing without it being too sweet. If you want a sweeter icing, you can add more sugar.
Decorate with pumpkin seeds and craisins
Then cut, serve and enjoy!
What’s your favourite cake at Christmas time? Do you have a recipe that has been handed down? Join the discussion in the comments below.
This article was written by Kym Moore. Kym is a working mum of two, and occasional blogger. Fancies herself a writer, when she isn’t editing her kids’ vlogs or running their social media at Baby Likes Cake. Follow them on Facebook and YouTube.
Read more on Kidspot:
My mother in law always makes fruit cakes and while the cake itself is absolutely yummy, the glazed cherries that she puts in are not so much. We don’t often do cake but love pavlova as our christmas dessert
Yum this actually sounds really good, although I love dense fruit cake. My late grandma used to make us 1 every year until she passed. They were the best fruit cakes ever! I don’t like tmthe almond icing though gross hehe. This cake would be a great alternative 👍😊
Yes! when I see a short list of required ingredients. It just gets me going. I want to try this recipe. Especially since it has cream cheese. I’m a sucker for cream cheese icing.
This was so good. I love a fruity cake and the craisins with orange zest and juice was really the perfect combo. I also love that it’s a cake mix involved so a bit easier.
My son and I like Christmas cake but this cake sounds so yummy I’m going to have to try it with the cream cheese icing reminds me of carrot cake another one of my favourites.
my favourite cake at christmas time would have to be a ginger cake, however i am loving the reindeer cakes that people are making – may have to try this.
My favourite is the almond icing on Christmas cake. I’m fussy so hate the cake but love the icing. Although for my nana who goes to the effort of making her own Christmas cake each year I do manage a tiny piece just so I don’t feel as if I’m being rude. But the icing is the maker lol