Orange Cranberry Coffee Cake

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Because I don’t have enough real, legitimate things to think about in life, sometimes I make things up.

You know the whole, if you could take 3 things with you to a deserted island what would you take? Except I do a little version of, if you could only have 3 tools in your kitchen, what would they be?

This is usually about the point my husband looks at me and says, “Please turn your brain off. It is 2:00 a.m. and you have a nice life. You don’t need to choose 3 things.”

But, because I never listen and sleep is overrated (ask me how I feel about that around 7:00 a.m., though), I continue on with my little make-believe games.

 

For me, it always comes down to a sharp knife. I’d have it with me on my tropical island (knowing me, though, I’d get stranded on some island off of Alaska), and I’d choose it for my #1 tool that I could have in my kitchen.

With a sharp knife, you can not only prepare any recipe, but you can serve it too. It’s magical.

We don’t even need to get into how many tomatoes I ruined in my younger years, because I tried to cut them with dull knives. My frugal nature might have been cheering that I saved money on cheap knives, but my mushy cut-up tomatoes were not too thrilled.

Nowadays (with a few decades of experience), I make sure to keep a knife sharpener around so there are no more food casualties due to dull knives. It’s also SO much safer to have sharp knives. Especially when dealing with slippery little things like the cranberries in this coffee cake.

After using my knife sharpener to make sure I was ready to go, I sliced through these cranberries on the first pass each and every time.

This orange cranberry coffee cake has so few ingredients, it almost seems like a mistake. Trust me, though, resist the urge to throw in anything extra. This is exactly as it should be and you will not regret it. Not for one second.

The orange zest helps give it that little extra kick. I added the zest from one orange, and then saved the orange juice for the glaze that we’ll get to later.

Do you have a zester? No, get one. They are magnificent and give you the finest little flakes that incorporate so well into your batter. This zester is perfect because it has a container on the back that captures all your zest and has measurements right on it! Plus it’s stainless steel, so it’s super easy clean-up and the zest doesn’t stick to it.

The dough is extra thick, almost like a cookie dough. Just fold in those cranberries and orange zest.

Then spread into a greased 13×9 pan.

Spread the crumb topping all over that goodness.

Bake for about 45 minutes, let it cool completely and then drizzle the orange glaze all over that goodness.

It’s good. Really good.

Full of tart, juicy cranberries with a sweet orange glaze.

Note: I chose to chop about half of my cranberries before folding into the batter. You could leave them all whole or chop them all. I’m just a middle-ground kind of gal, so I chopped half and left the rest whole!

This orange cranberry coffee cake is a great base recipe to try with other combinations too! Try blueberries with lemon, raspberries with lemon and more!

This is my favorite knife sharpener and zester plus a few other products that will help you make this coffee cake and many other goodies! And then maybe you can sleep at night knowing your kitchen is completely stocked!

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