Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake

Make the Bundt Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 10-cup Bundt pan extremely well with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside. Tip – See the FAQ section of the blog post for other pan sizes that will also work, noting that baking times will differ for them all.
2. To a medium bowl or large glass measuring cup, add the milk, lemon juice, and stir to combine; set aside for about 10 minutes. This will cause the milk to curdle a bit so that it resembles and acts like buttermilk. If you're using real buttermilk, you don't need to do this and will just add the buttermilk direction in step 4. And you can omit the lemon juice.
3. To a large bowl, add the egg, oil, sugars, orange zest (zest the orange before juicing it), orange juice, vanilla extract, and whisk to combine.
4. Add the milk and lemon juice mixture (or real buttermilk) and whisk to combine.
5. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and stir to combine; don’t overmix.
6. Add the cranberries and stir to combine.
7. Turn batter out into the prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula and distributing it evenly around the pan.
8. Evenly sprinkle a few cranberries over the top.
9. Bake for about 50 to 55 minutes, or until done. Tips - Cake is done when the top is set, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center (if you can find a patch without hitting cranberries) comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Baking times will vary based on oven and climate variances, how moist the cranberries are, the exact size of your baking pan, etc. Bake until your bread is done in your oven. If the exposed surface of the cake is browning quicker than you'd like, you can tent pan with a sheet of foil at the 30-minute mark by loosely draping a sheet of foil over the top and sides of pan. This prevents top and sides of bread from becoming overly browned before the center cooks through. This isn't generally an issue with Bundt cakes, and is more of a problem in loaf cakes, but worth mentioning just in case.
10. Allow bread to cool in pan for about 20 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.

Make the Glaze

1. To a large bowl, add the confectioners’ sugar, orange juice, and whisk to combine until smooth. You may have to play with the sugar and juice ratios slightly to achieve desired glaze consistency. For this cake, I like the glaze to be on the thicker side so it adheres to the cake better and doesn't just slide down.
2. Evenly drizzle glaze over cake, noting you may not use quite all of it, although I do.
3. Allow the glaze to set for about 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Garnish with Sugared Cranberries, optionally if desired.

Make the Sugared Cranberries (Optional)

1. Place the cranberries in a large bowl; set aside.
2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
3. To a small saucepan, add 1/4 water, 1/4 cup sugar, bring to a boil over high heat, turn the heat to low or medium-low, and allow the mixture to simmer for about 2 minutes.
4. Evenly drizzle the hot sugar water over the cranberries, stir, and let rest for 1 minute.
5. Remove the cranberries with a slotted spoon, and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Tip - Don't just dump all the contents of your saucepan (cranberries + sugar water) onto the baking sheet because it's too much liquid volume and it will take a very long time to dry out. Instead, use a slotted spoon as indicated, transferring them to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Scatter them evenly around the baking sheet.
6. Allow cranberries to dry out for 1 hour, uncovered, at room temp.
7. To a large bowl, add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, add the cranberries with your slotted spoon to the bowl, and stir and toss very well to combine. You can also do this by placing the additional 1/2 cup sugar on a separate large baking sheet and rolling the cranberries though the sugar. Tip - You can add additional sugar, if necessary and as desired, to create very well-coated sugared cranberries.
8. As desired, decorate the cake with the sugared cranberries, placing them on top and around the cake as you like.