Cranberry Orange Vanilla Cake is an experiment when I needed a Christmas Cake recipe for an upcoming event and to create a new recipe for Christmas Cake for an upcoming Holiday Cake Roundup of blogger recipes. I knew that I have had cranberry bread with orange flavoring and orange peel in it and cranberries and oranges seem to naturally compliment each other. So I decided that Cranberry Orange Vanilla Cake would be a perfect cake and certainly be perfect for the holiday season.
On the day I was planning to make the Cranberry Orange Vanilla Cake I was asked to babysit for the "little sweet one" below and being the grammy that I am, of course I said yes. I had the cake made before she got there and all I had to do was make the cranberry sauce and the orange frosting and assemble the cake, the hard part but fun part.
Somehow when I wasn't looking a piece of cake went missing ? What? I'm calling it "The Case of the Missing Piece of Cake". I'm not saying she is guilty but she sure looks suspicious!!!
The cake is a three layer cake and with one piece of the cake missing it would not be easy to decorate but somehow I pulled it off by using extra orange frosting in the missing area.
[mpprecipe-recipe:12]
First make the cake and let it cool. This cake recipe is an adaptation of The Best White Cake Recipe at Add A Pinch. While the cake is cooling make the cranberry sauce. Use a large bag of cranberries, sugar, water, orange juice and orange peel and let it cook until it is the consistency of jam. The cranberries will break apart as they cook and become jam like. You will be looking for a sweet and tart taste with a hint of orange.
It reminds me of homemade cranberry sauce that you would eat for Thanksgiving. It was so good that I ended up making another batch and using it for cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was pretty popular.
Choclette says
That looks fabulous. I've made several cranberry upside down cakes, but nothing as spectacular as this.
Linda says
Oh, thank you Choclette. My husband loved it. It was a large cake and we ended up freezing half of it and it was just as good when it thawed.
Jerry says
Looks amazing! I love the combination of cranberry and orange. The vanilla cake just takes it over the top. Pinned!
Linda says
Thanks Jerry. We loved it!
Michelle @ The Complete Savorist says
Well at least your suspect is adorable. I have my own culprit around these parts too. Love the flavors in this cake, I know I'd enjoy it thoroughly.
Linda says
Yes she is adorable (sometimes) 🙂 The cake was a big hit!
Christie says
I love the cranberry sauce on this cake. It is perfect for Christmas
Linda says
True, it is the perfect Christmas cake. Thank you Christie!
Marye says
How pretty! This looks absolutely delicious!
Linda says
That's Marye, it was very good!
Marlynn @ UrbanBlissLife says
How adorable the missing cake piece suspect is though 🙂 This cake looks so festive and perfect for the holidays! I'm not a huge fan of cranberries on their own, but the flavor combo with orange and vanilla sounds wonderful.
Linda says
Lol, she is adorable sometimes! I'm not a huge fan of cranberries either but this combination seems to work well and was delicious!
Susan | LunaCafe says
Very pretty and I/m sure it's delicious too, As for the missing part, my darling brother could teach your granddaughter a thing or two about that. He always ate my cakes from UNDERNEATH--so his pranks couldn't be spotted until I cut into the cake. 🙂
Linda says
Lol, that is a funny prank from your brother! She isn't that sneaky yet but it's coming I can tell.
Kirsten/ComfortablyDomestic says
Cranberries are a seriously underrated fruit. The orange cream cheese frosting sounds like a perfect compliment to the cranberry sauce and cake!
Linda says
We really enjoyed the combination. Thanks Kirsten.