Every slice of this super moist, ultra flavorful cranberry orange Bundt cake boasts a buttery brown sugar orange crumb, tart juicy cranberries, and a ribbon of cinnamon-sugar. Drizzle with a simple orange glaze for an impressive cake that’s a welcome addition to any holiday party or brunch.
I originally published this recipe in 2017 and have since added new photos and additional success tips.
Step aside Christmas cookies because this Bundt cake is a must-make this—and every!—holiday season.
Today we’re combining tart cranberries, a thick cinnamon swirl, and sweet orange glaze to create a dessert that’s perfect for a celebration! It’s also very well loved:
One reader, Emma, commented: “This cake is amazing… I make a cake every week to take to tennis and this was voted my best cake ever and I’ve been taking a cake since 2008! ★★★★★”
Another reader, Sherrille, commented: “I was a little apprehensive about this cake, as most similar recipes I’ve tried were dry. OMG, this one is moist and perfectly delicious! I made mini-Bundt cakes for gifts and am on my second batch now. All gift recipients raved about the flavor and moistness! ★★★★★”
And another reader, Andi, commented: “I made this a few weeks ago. Absolutely amazing. I plan to make it for breakfast Christmas morning. I mean, why not? Yum! ★★★★★”
Cranberry & Orange Flavor Pairing
Peppermint and mocha. Pumpkin and spice. Ginger and molasses. Mint and chocolate. There’s no doubt this time of year is home to some of the most delicious and irresistible flavor combos. But there’s one duo that’s completely underrated: cranberry and orange.
I love this flavor duo year round, but especially during the holidays (hello, cranberry sauce) when we could all use a little pop of sweet/tart flavor in between chocolatey, spiced, and rich desserts. Don’t get me wrong, this cranberry orange Bundt cake is definitely decadent—and I love the flavor profile this cake adds to a holiday spread. A few other orange-cranberry recipes I love? Orange cranberry bread, cranberry orange icebox cookies, and cranberry orange muffins.
Behind the Recipe
Chai Bundt cake is the starting point for today’s recipe. It’s honestly one of the best cakes I’ve ever made, even if you skip the chai cinnamon swirl inside. It’s super buttery, moist, and dense without being too heavy.
With a quality base recipe like that, the options are endless. (Try my rum cake next!) I knew that’s where I wanted to start when crafting a holiday inspired cake.
Ingredients in Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake
Because they’re so large, Bundt cakes have a tendency to dry out. Not this one! We’re using lots of power ingredients to ensure the very best flavor, moisture, and texture. Here’s what you need:
Some ingredients notes before you begin:
- Flour: We use sturdy all-purpose flour as the base because it’s strong enough to hold up to the cranberries and all the liquid ingredients.
- Butter: Make sure you use room-temperature butter that’s still cool to the touch. If it’s too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream. Here’s more on how to cream butter and sugar and its importance in recipes.
- Sugars: Use brown sugar as the primary sweetener, with just a touch of granulated sugar.
- Oranges: Can’t have a cranberry orange cake without the flavor from real oranges. We use both orange zest and juice for added flavor and moisture. I don’t recommend store-bought OJ, because it’s too thick and I found it made the cake too wet.
- Eggs, Sour Cream, + Milk: 5 eggs, sour cream, and milk add moisture. It’s a lot of volume, but remember, this is a big cake!
- Cranberries: Use fresh, frozen, or dried cranberries—I tested the cake with both fresh and frozen. If using frozen, do not thaw. If using fresh cranberries, you can cut some in half or give them a rough chop before adding to the batter; this just gives a little more texture variety, and ensures cranberry flavor in every bite.
Curdled Ingredients: The wet ingredients will look somewhat curdled before you add the dry ingredients—this is due to the ranging temperatures of the ingredients. It’s normal. The butter may be warmer than the eggs, the sour cream may be colder than the butter, etc. It will all come together when the dry ingredients are added.
Cinnamon Swirl Filling
Layer the cinnamon swirl between the cake batter—half of the cake batter on the bottom, half of the cake batter on the top. There’s no need to actually swirl it, the oven will take care of that. The weight of the cake batter rises and falls as it bakes, moving the cinnamon swirl along with it.
Success Tip: When you sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar filling over the bottom layer of cake batter, try to keep it away from the edges of the pan as best you can. If a lot of the cinnamon-sugar layer touches the sides or center of the Bundt pan, the cake is more likely to stick to the pan when you try to invert it.
Easy Orange Icing
I love making icings and glazes with fresh citrus juices, like the topping on these lemon shortbread cookies. A little tang with a little sweet is always a good idea! You’ll notice that the icing is a bit thin, but it will “set” on top of the cake. For an alternative, try the brown butter icing used on my peach Bundt cake or the cream cheese frosting used on my hummingbird Bundt cake.
Before You Bundt
- Bundt Pan: You need a large Bundt pan for this big cake, one that can hold 10–12 cups of batter. I use and recommend this one and this one. Even though they have a nonstick coating, I still always grease the pan generously with nonstick spray, to ensure the heavy cake releases easily when it’s time to invert it onto a platter.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 1 hour, and then invert onto a cooling rack or serving platter/cake stand. Trying to invert the cake too soon or after too long always makes it harder to release; I find that 60 minutes is the sweet spot for this cake.
To really take this cake presentation to the next level of festive, serve it with the sparkly sugared cranberries that I also use to garnish pumpkin pie.
Print
Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Total Time: 5 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Every slice of this super moist, ultra flavorful cranberry orange Bundt cake boasts a buttery brown sugar orange crumb, tart juicy cranberries, and a ribbon of cinnamon-sugar. Drizzle with a simple orange glaze for an impressive cake that’s a welcome addition to any holiday party or brunch.
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 and 1/4 cups (20 Tbsp; 283g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons fresh orange zest
- 5 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh orange juice*
- 1 and 3/4 cups (220g) fresh or frozen cranberries (do not thaw if frozen)*
Filling
- 2/3 cup (135g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Orange Glaze
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) confectioners’ sugar
- 3–4 Tablespoons (45-60ml) fresh orange juice*
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 10-inch Bundt pan.
- Make the cake: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment beat the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and orange zest together until creamed, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla and beat on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. The mixture will look curdled; that’s ok—it will come together when you add the dry ingredients.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, add the milk and fresh orange juice, and beat on medium speed it all until the batter is completely combined. Beat or stir in cranberries. Batter is thick, yet silky.
- Make the filling: In a small bowl, mix the 2/3 cup (135g) brown sugar and cinnamon together.
- Pour half of the cake batter evenly into the prepared Bundt pan. Sprinkle the swirl ingredients evenly on top, doing your best to avoid sprinkling near the edges. Keep the cinnamon sugar in the center, so it doesn’t bake/get stuck onto the pan, which makes inverting the cake difficult. Cover evenly with remaining cake batter.
- Bake for 55–70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean with just a couple lightly moist crumbs. This is a large, heavy cake so don’t be alarmed if it takes a little longer in your oven.
- Once done, remove from the oven and allow to cool for just 1 hour inside the pan. Then, invert the slightly cooled Bundt cake onto a wire rack or serving dish. Allow to cool completely.
- Make the icing: Whisk confectioners’ sugar and 3 Tablespoons of orange juice together. Add 1 extra Tablespoon of juice to thin out as needed. (Alternatively, add an extra Tablespoon or 2 of confectioners’ sugar to thicken, if desired.) Drizzle icing over cake before slicing and serving.
- Cover leftover cake tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the entire cake ahead of time (before topping with icing). Cover cooled cake and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before icing and serving. Baked cake can be frozen up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature (if desired) before icing and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 10-inch Bundt Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack
- Sour Cream: You can use 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Just as moist and delicious!
- Orange Juice: Use fresh orange juice. You’ll need an orange for the zest anyway, so use up that juice in the cake and icing. The cake tastes MUCH better with fresh juice than with store-bought OJ.
- Cranberries: 1 and 3/4 cups of fresh, frozen, or dried cranberries work.
- Optional Garnish: I added some sugared cranberries for garnish.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Good morning ! My name is Anais. I use to bake your ORANGE Bundt cake. Unfortunately, I can’t find the recipe anymore. Would you kindly help me out.
Hi Anais, we recently removed that older recipe from the website, but if you send us an email (sally@sallysbakingaddiction.com), we’d be happy to share a copy. Thank you!
I have some Nordic mini bundt pans, which I love to use. Can most bundt cakes be cooked in the mini pans? If so, as a rule of thumb, how much less time should they cook? Thanks!!
Hi Alida, The bake time would depend on the size of the pans, but bake until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean with just a couple lightly moist crumbs. Enjoy!
I’m so confused as listed the ingredients it’s 1.5 cups (340g) butter yet in the directions it says to use 1 cup (200g). I can’t see anywhere else for the rest of butter to be used and obviously afraid to try the cake for this reason.
Hi Brenda, in that step you will mix all of the butter (1.5 cups) with 1 cup of brown sugar, granulated sugar, and orange zest. Hope that helps!
Hello Sally & team,
I just got a cake pan to make Bundt cakes, and I’m super excited to try it out!
I enjoyed seeing the recipe of the Chocolate Cream Cheese Bundt Cake, here on the site.
I was unable to write a comment underneath it, so I hope it’s ok that I’m using this recipe to write a question about that other Bundt cake.
So my question is: can I use heavy cream or other substitutes for the cream cheese filling? Where I currently live cream cheese is very expensive, that’s why I wanted to know. Or, do you have a recipe that is more similar to what I want?
Secondly, is there a substitute in that recipe, for the sour cream?
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions! I’m a huge fan of your recipes!
Hi Rebeka, for our chocolate cream cheese Bundt cake, there isn’t a great substitute for the cream cheese, but you can simply omit the swirl for a plain chocolate Bundt cake. For the sour cream, you can also use the same amount of plain yogurt. Here are all of our Bundt cake recipes if you’re interested in browsing. Happy baking!
Hi there, loved this cake – sooo moist – got loads of compliments on it! Love question though, my cinnamon layer sank to the bottom while cooking, which led to a cinnamon tipping effect instead of a swirl in the middle…? Any ideas what happened? Still delicious though!
Hi Sally,
I had made this amazing orange cake from your website. But for some reason I cannot find it now. Would really appreciate if you could help me by providing the recipe. Thank you.
Hi Bernadine! We were no longer satisfied with the outcome of that older recipe, so we unpublished it. We still have it, so send us an email and we can forward it to you. sally@sallysbakingaddiction.com
Wow this cake is divine!!! I didn’t have cranberries but I had frozen rhubarb and it worked so great!! Next time I would pack down the cake a bit more as there were some minor gaps but still super delicious!! I’m making this again for sure!! Used fresh mandarins for the juice and zest! Yum!!
Are you able to use this recipe in a loaf pan for a smaller cake
Hi Steph, the batter as written is enough for 2, 9×5-inch loaf pans. Or, you can halve the recipe for one loaf or use this cranberry orange bread recipe instead.
Hi, it’s after Christmas now & no fresh cranberries to be found! I have frozen raspberries from my garden-would those work?
Hi Amy, that should work just fine! No need to thaw the raspberries, but bake time may be just a few minutes longer since raspberries give off more moisture than cranberries. Hope you enjoy the cake!
We made this recipe with a 1-1 gluten free flour, and it turned out so good! I made it for my husband because he hardly get to enjoy the treats at Christmas. He loved it, and so did everyone else. It was incredible! Thank you for this recipe!
Made this for Christmas. The family loved it so much.
This was amazing. Followed the recipe exactly. It’s moist and flavorful. Could probably skip the glass and reduce the sugar overall
Wow. Made this for Christmas. It was delicious!
Can I put half of this recipe in 8×8 alum pan and bake shorter time
Hi Deborah, We haven’t tested this recipe in a square pan but here is a helpful post on Cake Pan Sizes and Conversions that should help you figure out how much batter you would need for different size pans.
I made this a few weeks ago. Absolutely amazing. I plan to make it for breakfast Christmas morning. I mean, why not? Yum! Thanks for another great recipe!
Has anyone tried halving this in a loaf pan? Wondering if the swirl would hold up or if the cranberries would sink
Hi Krisha, half this recipe should work well in a loaf pan!
Can I substitute the sour cream and milk for buttermilk?
Hi Beccs! Yes, that should work well.
Can I use mascarpone, which I have on hand, instead of sour cream? This looks so good and has one of my favorite flavor combinations. Thank you!
Hi Tracy, I’m unsure. I haven’t tested it myself. The only sour cream substitution I have tried in this particular cake batter is plain yogurt and it works wonderfully.
Hi Sally,
I was very excited about this recipe with all of the yummy ingredients. I followed the instructions exactly and it baked up beautifully however, I am not able to get it out of the pan. Any suggestions?
Hi Lou-Anne, is the cake fully cooled yet? Waiting until it is cooled may help. For next time, make sure to heavily grease your pan to ensure it comes out easily!
Great recipe! I toasted some walnut pieces & added them to the cinnamon mixture. This recipe is a keeper for sure!
Can you add pecans or walnuts?
Hi Susie, absolutely. I’d go with 1 cup (around 120-130g) chopped nuts. Pecans or walnuts would be wonderful.
Can I use frozen cranberries for this recipe and if so what kind of adjustments need to be made? Like for instance, should I cut back a little liquid due to the frozen berries?
Hi Heather, you can use frozen cranberries—do not thaw before using. Bake time may be just a few minutes longer. No other changes needed!
I checked my cake at 55 minutes and every 5 minutes after that until it was done at 70 minutes in the oven and a skewer inserted in the middle came out clean. However, my cake still seemed underbaked, with a very dense texture almost like pudding cake, and noticeably doughy areas around the cranberries. What went wrong?
Hi Rosemary, this sounds like an issue of the wet to dry ingredients being off. Did you replace any ingredients, or accidentally mis-measure anything? If you try the recipe again, you can add a little more flour such as an extra 1/4 cup (around 32g) to help soak up some moisture.
Oh. My. Gosh. This cake is absolutely amazing! The flavors blend together perfectly. It is like a delicious classic old-fashioned Southern poundcake. (People from the South will know exactly what I mean, LoL. Southern pound cakes are like a work of art.) I don’t often leave reviews, but I had to leave one this time! I will be making this cake again and again and again. I did not have any fresh oranges so I used dried orange peel and bottled juice. Other than that, I made it exactly as written, and it is wonderful.
I just finished making your chocolate gingerbread Bundt cake and am this one and the buttered rum cake, too! I absolutely love your recipes and have learned so much about how and why ingredients and techniques work by reading your blog! Question about baking ahead- would it be better to refrigerate or freeze a Bundt cake if it’s being served the next night? (It would be about 30 hours or so.) I want to be sure it stays super moist and doesn’t dry out!
I was a little apprehensive about this cake, as most similar recipes I’ve tried were dry. OMG, this one is moist and perfectly delicious! I made mini-Bundt cakes for gifts and am on my second batch now. All gift recipients raved about the flavor and moistness! Thank you for a “keeper” recipe!!
How long did you bake the mini Bundt cakes
Just made the cake. It stuck where the brown sugar mixture touched the pan. It was very crumbly. I live at an altitude of 5000 should I make an adjustment. But it tastes fantastic anyway just couldn’t take to my event didn’t look so nice
Try using high altitude flour
Lovely recipe! I just entered it into our workplace holiday baking competition and won “Best in Bread!” Loved the cinnamon swirl, especially, and a coworker told me that it tasted like the “best Sunday breakfast.”
The only thing I added was a little chopped crystallized ginger on top to add a little sparkle, and i think it complemented the flavors well.
Thanks for a great recipe! It was a definite hit!
Hi, Sally! This cake looks wonderfully scrumptious, and I’d like to make it as a Christmas gift cake for my daughter who lives in Olympia, WA, whereas I reside in Fort Mill, SC. Would this cake endure distance traveling from one coast to the other as UPS travel? If so, how would you recommend packaging it?
Hi Dionakaye, we find the cake stays well at room temperature for up to two days, and afterwards in the refrigerator for up to a week — something to keep in mind when selecting shipping times. If it’s tightly wrapped and stored in a container that would prevent it from getting damaged, we imagine that should work. Hope it’s a hit!
Would this recipe work if I wanted to make mini bundt cakes? If so, what would you suggest as an estimated bake time?
Hi Lindsey, Yes you can divide this batter between mini Bundt pans. The bake time would depend on the size of the pans, but bake until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean with just a couple lightly moist crumbs. Enjoy!
Delicious! Released from pan after 15 minutes, was intact. The cinnamon sugar layer was a great balance for the tangy taste of cranberry. Very moist texture to the cake! I have never made anything with cranberries other than cookies. This was great!