Cranberry Orange Sour Cream Coffee Cake

You know you’ve been stuck inside for over a week when you break out the bundt pan. But it’s time to come out of winter blog hibernation, and give you the recipes you need to survive the never-ending quarantine that we’re all dealing with. I decided to break the quarantine funk today by getting back to baking basics, and channeling two things that will forever make me happy: my Grandma and Cape Cod. The resulting recipe is this Cranberry Orange Sour Cream Coffee Cake that is quite literally bursting with fresh Cape Cod Cranberries, so much so that if you close your eyes and take a bite you will be transported to a sunny Cape beach in the middle of July. How good does that sound right now?

I inherited my baking skills from my mom and my Grandma. I have nothing but fond memories especially during the holidays of baking lots and lots of delicious homemade treats with my Grandma. My mom and I have tried our best to interpret many of her recipes from worn down recipe cards that are covered in ingredients and love. She used to always bake this Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe that was such a treat if you got to enjoy it for breakfast, or as a post-holiday dessert. 

Cranberries also bring happy memories when I bake, since I’ve spent every summer since I was little in Harwich down the Cape, which hosts an annual Cranberry festival each October and lots of beautiful cranberry bogs not far from our home. So when Cape Cod Select Cranberries sent me a 3-lb bag of their delicious frozen cranberries for a recipe contest, I took advantage of being stuck inside to experiment on a new coffee cake recipe using cranberries. 

Cranberry and orange is one of my favorite summer flavor combinations. I also am pretty sure that if you jam pack a bunch of fresh fruit into a coffee cake that makes it a balanced breakfast, right? I used both orange zest and freshly squeezed orange juice in the cake batter and the aroma was heavenly. Look at all of those giant, juicy, delicious cranberries bursting with flavor. 

The cinnamon sugar nut mixture adds a really nice, nutty crunch to each bite, especially the cinnamon swirl in the center of the cake. My favorite part is definitely when you get a bit of the bottom (which is extra crunchy, because that’s the top of the cake when you’re baking it in the oven). Look. At. That. Cinnamon. Sugary. Nutty. Toasty. Goodness. Don’t you wish you could take a fork right to the screen? 

After I let this cool and went to slice it, I sat on my couch, closed my eyes and let the coffee cake take me straight to the golden days of summer. It felt like a hug from my Grandma under a Long Pond Cape sunset. My ultimate comfort food. And to spread the joy (and to avoid me eating the entire cake solo this week), I took advantage of Boston’s sunny (albeit chilly) weather today, and walked this across the neighborhood and delivered the bundt cake (minus one slice) to a friend who enjoyed it with her family for dinner.

I’ve still got half the bag of cranberries in my freezer, so I feel a lot more delicious new recipe ideas coming out of this quarantine. So if you’re in need of a taste of summer, comforting, pick-me-up recipe, grab some Cape Cod Select Cranberries and bake up this Cranberry Orange Sour Cream Coffee Cake. 

You can find where to buy Cape Cod Select Cranberries here

Follow Cape Cod Select on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for new delicious cranberry recipes and more. 

Cranberry Orange Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Yield: 12 Slices

Cranberry Orange Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Cook Time 20 minutes
Prep Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

The perfect weekend breakfast treat, bursting with fresh Cape Cod cranberries and orange zest.

Ingredients

Coffee Cake

  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • Dash of salt
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 cups fresh cranberries (or frozen cranberries thawed)

Cinnamon Sugar Topping

  • 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup (or a little more) granulated sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bundt pan (or a tall round pan) with non-stick spray or butter and set aside.
  2. Make the cinnamon sugar topping by mixing the granulated sugar, cinnamon and walnuts in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, granulated sugar and orange zest until creamy.
  4. Add in the vanilla, eggs and orange juice and mix well.
  5. On a low speed, mix in the sour cream, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder until just combined.
  6. Fold in the cranberries until evenly distributed.
  7. Sprinkle a little of the sugar/nut mix in it on the bottom of the greased pan.
  8. Slowly pour in half of the cake batter. Then carefully sprinkle a little more of the nut/sugar mix on top
  9. Top with the rest of the cake mix and top with the remaining sugar/nut mix.
  10. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes. Let the coffee cake cool for at least a half hour before transferring to a plate. Enjoy while warm or store in an airtight container for the week. (warning: it will not last that long). Enjoy!