Cranberry Orange Almond Cake is a great coffee cake or holiday cake for potlucks and parties! Can be made with fresh, frozen, or dried cranberries.
This is a breakfast cake born of my love from cake for breakfast. It's not a traditional Classic Coffee Cake but is one of our favorites around the holidays!
Cranberry orange almond cake is now a favorite weekend (breakfast) and holiday treat for us, especially Christmas and Thanksgiving. I use greek yogurt in this recipe, so the Mancub argued that it's healthy and eats it for breakfast.
Ingredients for Cranberry Orange Cake
Here are the basic ingredients needed to make this cake.
- Cranberries - can use fresh or frozen, just make sure they're thawed first. If using dried, make sure you rehydrate them using my recipe notes below.
- Oranges - zest and fresh juice
- Plain Greek Yogurt - or sour cream for a lovely light and moist cake.
- Butter
- Sugar
- Flour - all purpose
- Vanilla & Almond extract
- Almonds - sliced
How do you rehydrate dried cranberries?
- Measure out desired amount of dried cranberries into heat-safe mixing bowl. ¾ cup dried cranberries would equal about 1 cup fresh cranberries in a recipe.
- Pour boiling water over dried cranberries until covered.
- Wait 15-20 minutes before using in recipe.
Dried cranberries also usually have sugar or corn syrup added to them, so you might want to use less sugar in the cake recipe if you decide to use dried cranberries. I would reduce the sugar by ¼ cup, but I haven't tested this recipe with dried cranberries. 
How to make Cranberry Orange Cake
- In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix well between each addition.
- Add in vanilla, almond extract, greek yogurt, salt, zest of one orange, and orange juice and mix well.
- Separately combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients and mix until just combined and all flour pockets are gone, careful not to overmix. Add cranberries. Spread into prepared 9X9 baking dish.
- Combine ingredients for almond sugar topping, and spread evenly over top of cake.
- Bake at 350 for 35-40 min, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Note that glass/light colored pans will take a little longer to bake, darker pans will take less time.
Can I double this Cranberry Orange Cake recipe?
Sure can! Just make sure you double all of the ingredients ingredients. Follow instructions and bake in a 9x13 inch pan at 350 F for 45-50 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. You may want to cover lightly with tinfoil the last 15 minutes or so to protect the almonds from getting too toasted on top.
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More Christmas Treat Ideas
I have a LOT of ideas for holiday treats. Unique cookie ideas included!
- Neapolitan Cookies Recipe
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Best Homemade Orange Rolls
- Eggnog Mug Cake
- Biscoff Filled Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Caramel Stuffed Pumpkin Mug Cake
📝 Printable Recipe
Cranberry Orange Almond Cake
Ingredients
Cake Batter:
- ¾ cup (1.5 sticks) butter, softened
- ¾ cup white granulated sugar (use only ½ cup if using rehydrated dried cranberries)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 -½ teaspoons almond extract
- ½ cup plain greek yogurt (or sour cream)
- ¼ cup fresh orange juice (juice of 1 orange)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- zest of 1 orange, about 2 teaspoons
- 1-½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1-½ cups frozen(thawed) or fresh cranberries, or about 1 cup dried cranberries rehydrated
Almond Sugar Topping:
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- ⅓ cup granulated white sugar
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup sliced almonds
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
Orange Glaze
- 1-2 Tablespoons orange juice concentrate, thawed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare 9X9 baking dish with baking spray.
- In stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar for 2 minutes until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well. Add in vanilla, almond extract, greek yogurt, salt, zest of one orange, and orange juice and mix well.
- In separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients and mix until just combined and all flour pockets are gone, careful not to overmix. Fold in cranberries. Spread into prepared 9X9 baking dish.
- In small bowl combine ingredients for Almond Sugar Topping, mixing well. Sprinkle evenly over cake batter.
- Bake at 350° on a middle shelf for 35-45 minutes or until inserted toothpick come out clean. Allow cake to cool for 15-20 minutes.
- While cake is cooling, combine ingredients for Orange Glaze, and mix until smooth. Drizzle over cake evenly. Enjoy!
Notes
- Measure out desired amount of dried cranberries into heat-safe mixing bowl. ¾ cup dried cranberries would equal about 1 cup fresh cranberries in a recipe.
- Pour boiling water over dried cranberries until covered.
- Wait 15-20 minutes before using in recipe.
Nutrition
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Alex
hi, i was just wondering if you could make this in a round cake pan ? xxxx
Sara
Hi Alex, I’m sure you could. Baking time would depend on width of the pan. An 8 or 9 inch pan would work well and the baking time would be about the same. Cheers!
Victoria Trotter
Sounds wonderful but what happened to the cranberries going into the cake. ?? They are not there. !!
Sara
Hi Victoria, I’m not quite sure what you mean. They are clearly listed in the ingredient list as the last ingredient to go in the batter. I hope that helps.
Katie
This works well to make gluten free, just use a 1-to-1 gluten free flour mix (Bob's Red Mill is what I usually use, but have used other brands in the past with success!). Also, in the instructions I think step 4 and 5 are mixed up (just fyi, the instructions before the recipe were very clear and helped me figure things out right away). Thank you for a great recipe, our entire family enjoys it (gluten free, with no fuss) for breakfast a few times a year. 😊