As I approached my 41st birthday, I thought about what kind of birthday cake I wanted to bake myself. Last year, for the big 4-0 baking a cake was still a little bit of a challenge for me. I struggled to get a good rise, and it would never quite cook in the middle. Since then I finally figured out how to bake the perfect gluten free cake, and now I needed a new challenge. So gluten free cranberry orange bundt cake seemed to be a delicious choice.
As you know, I absolutely love following Sally’s Baking Addiction, and having food allergies leaves me so jealous sometimes of all of the people that can just bake anything, anytime they want. I want to be them! So I try to challenge myself to recreate things that I think will be so delicious and make them gluten free and mostly allergy free.
I looked and looked at pictures of cakes. It really couldn’t be chocolate (even though it’s my favorite) because no one else in my family likes chocolate and I wanted my family to share my birthday cake with me. So when I saw this idea on Sally’s blog I thought to myself, a gluten free cranberry orange bundt cake sounds so interesting and delicious.
I had never heard of this particular flavor cake before and I wanted to see if this was an original idea. And after a quick search on Pinterest, I saw just how popular a cranberry orange cake actually was. Who knew?
I have only made a bundt cake one other time in my life. So this was risky. Before food allergies I was really never a baker. I am definitely more of a cook. But now that I have had to learn to make almost everything from scratch I have realized that this baking thing can rally become an addiction.
Ok so on to the details of this delicious gluten free cranberry orange bundt cake (such a long name!).
My ingredients
I am really loving the combination of brown rice flour, sorghum, arrowroot and xanthan gum. Based on the amount of all purpose wheat flour needed in regular recipes I adapt my ratios accordingly. This combination has consistently given me the best results for my cakes and cupcakes. I buy only Authentic Food Brand single grain flours to create this blend.
I used the dairy free So Delicious Brand Coconut Milk Vanilla yogurt in place of sour cream because I am not a fan of the dairy free sour cream for baking and the vanilla adds that much more flavor. Generally gluten free food lacks flavor, so the more we can add, the better. I had tried using the plain yogurt instead of vanilla and it did nothing. I didn’t like it at all.
You can use fresh or frozen cranberries for this recipe but when I went looking for fresh cranberries this time of year, I couldn’t find them. I would have loved to use fresh cranberries, but frozen ones worked great. Do not thaw them. I am not sure what will happen if you do, but it’s not recommended.
To enhance the orange flavor you might want to use 2 tablespoons of orange zest. I was a little impatient and only added one.
And I think I have officially converted to using Earth Balance butter in my baking. I don’t know why I didn’t give it a fair chance before. I think it is because it really doesn’t melt or cream when you need it to. It’s a little difficult to work with, but it does yield the best most consistent results.
My Method
There isn’t really anything special about the way this cake was made. There is a little prep work. You have to grate the orange to get enough orange zest and squeeze enough fresh orange juice for the cake and icing, but other than that it’s basically combining the wet ingredients and dry ingredients and mixing them together.
But this recipe is not for the faint of heart. It uses a lot of ingredients and needs focus and attention. But I promise it will be worth it. This cake tastes anything but gluten free, egg free and dairy free. No one will be able to tell the difference.
My favorite discovery in this recipe was making the icing with the fresh squeezed orange juice. It’s Genius!! I have traditionally only used milk and water to make my icing. Orange juice takes it to a whole other level. I can’t wait to try this icing on some cookies.
I drizzled the icing on the cake just before we sliced it up. The cranberries for the middle were frozen and just for the photograph. I wouldn’t recommend doing that, it might make the middle of the cake soggy.
There is also a big window regarding cooking time. My cake cooked for 65 minutes. Since all ovens may vary make sure if you are doing the toothpick test that you test toward the middle of the cake and not just the edges.
I am so happy that I was able to have a fun birthday cake this year. Getting older hasn’t been the easiest thing in the world for me. I would have loved to have had so much more accomplished by now. Each day I still wake up with such hope of getting so much done, but then the boys wake up and I have to just stop and realize that these days will not be forever and I need to savor each and every one.
The point is, despite having a family that has multiple food allergies, I was still able to have a delicious cake, make a wish and blow out the candles. It’s taken a lot of work to get this far but I am so glad I am here now.
I especially loved each and every birthday wish that came across on Facebook. The ones that were really near and dear to my heart this year were the ones that came from the members in my Stay Gluten Free Community (It’s FREE, click here to join). This place has been so amazing and the people in it have become like family. We truly journey together. I hope you join us this month as we launch our very first “cookbook club” month where we all cook from the same cookbook for an entire month. Details are all in the group.
As always, I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we all did. Be sure and share your questions and comments below. I love hearing from you.
The post Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake appeared first here at Stayglutenfree.com.
Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Brown rice flour
- 1 Cup Sorghum flour
- 1/2 Cup Arrowroot
- 1 1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 Cups Earth Balance butter sticks 3 sticks room temperature
- 1 Cup Packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 Cup Granulated sugar
- 1 Orange Zest (approx 1 tbsp)
- 5 tbsp Bob's Red MIll Egg Replacer
- 10 tbsp Warm water to be mixed with egg replacer
- 1/2 Cup Vanilla So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/2 Cup So Delcious Coconut milk (Original flavor)
- 1/4 Cup Fresh Squeezed orange juice
- 1/2 Cup Cold water
Icing
- 1 1/2 Cup Organic Powdered Sugar
- 3-4 tbsp Fresh Squeezed orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 10 inch bundt cake pan with spectrum shortening.
- In medium bowl mix brown rice flour, sorghum, arrowroot, xathan, baking powder and salt.
- With stand mixer with paddle attachment (cream as best you can) the Earth balance butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and orange zest together until combined.
- In small bowl add the 5 tbsp Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer with the 10 tbsp of warm water. Let sit for 1 minute to thicken.
- Add the egg replacer, vanilla So Delicious yogurt and vanilla to wet ingredients (butter mixture). Mix until combined. Scrape down bowl and do not worry if the mixture looks curdled. It's normal.
- Add the dry ingredients, coconut milk, orange juice and water and mix well.
- Stir in cranberries.
- Pour batter evenly into prepared bundt cake pan.
- Bake the cake for 60-70 minutes making sure it is cooked toward the center. If you test with a toothpick, insert it toward the center. Error on the side of baking a few minutes longer than not long enough.
- After baking allow the cake to cool completely right inside the pan. This will take a couple/several hours at least.
- Flip the cake and let cool longer on cake stand or cake plate. Once it is cooled completely prepare the icing.
- To make the icing: Stir together the powdered sugar and the orange juice. You will want a drizzle consistency. Add juice to thin it out, add more powdered sugar to thicken it.
- Drizzle the icing over cake just before slicing. Drizzle with fork using back and forth strokes until your desired amount of icing is on the cake.
- Serve and enjoy!