Vegan Orange Cranberry Cake

Vegan orange cranberry cake - this delicious loaf cake consists of a vegan orange pound cake studded with tangy fresh cranberries. It is moist, flavourful and perfect for snacking. Eggless and dairy free.

This vegan orange cranberry cake, aka orange cranberry bread as it is often called in America, is an incredibly flavourful, moist, soft, delicious cake.

It is a pound cake style cake, so has a moist, dense crumb, and has a fragrant orange flavour with bursts of tangy fresh cranberry.

This is a wonderful cake to have around for snacking on over the festive season, and would even be good as part of an indulgent breakfast or brunch.

It is made using the reverse creaming method, which helps to give the cake a lovely texture.

It may sound complicated, but the reverse creaming method is very simple; it just means that you mix the flour with the fat first and then add the wet ingredients.

Coating the flour with fat helps to stop the gluten from developing when it is mixed, making for a more soft and tender cake crumb.

This recipe is adapted from my vegan marble cake recipe, which in turn was adapted from my vegan lemon pound cake recipe and this marble cake recipe by the very talented Izy Hossack of Top With Cinnamon, who’s idea it was to use the reverse creaming method.

What Do I Need To Make Vegan Orange Cranberry Cake:

Silken tofu: silken tofu makes an amazing egg replacer in things like pound cake, lending a beautifully moist, tender crumb. It really is the best thing to use and I haven't tested any substitutes I'm afraid.

Orange juice and zest: finely grated orange zest adds loads of flavour to this cake, which is also boosted by using orange juice as the liquid. You can either use freshly squeezed juice (from your zested oranges), or orange juice from a carton. Because orange juice is acidic it also helps the cake to rise by reacting with the raising agents.

Vanilla extract: vanilla extract gives the cake extra flavour. Be sure to use extract rather than essence for the best flavour.

Cornflour (cornstarch): A bit of cornflour helps to give the cake a nice soft texture. If you don’t have any you can just swap it for more plain flour but I do recommend using it if possible. And if you happen to have any cake flour then you can omit the cornflour and plain flour and use all cake flour instead.

Plain flour: I use a blend of plain flour and the above cornflour for a good texture. If you have cake flour then you can just use that in place of both flours.

Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda): Obviously necessary if you want your cake to rise!

Vegan block butter: For the best textured cake it is important to use a vegan block butter/margarine to make this cake – the kind that comes in a foil wrapped block, NOT the spreadable kind in a tub which has too high a water content for baking.

I use Naturli Vegan Block but Flora, Stork, Vitalite or Tormor blocks are also fine (not the tub versions). Spreadable will work in a pinch but I really do recommend block if possible.

Neutral oil: adding a bit of oil as well as the butter makes for a moist, soft cake. I use sunflower but vegetable, canola or mild olive oil would all be fine.

Caster sugar: I like to use golden caster sugar for a bit of extra flavour but white is good too. If you only have granulated sugar then you can give it a quick blitz in a blender to make your own caster sugar.

Cranberries: I use fresh cranberries. Frozen will also work but don't defrost them first, use them straight from the freezer. The cake may take a couple of minutes longer to bake. You could also use dried cranberries instead.

How To Make Vegan Orange Cranberry Cake:

(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)

Place the silken tofu, orange juice and vanilla extract in a blender and blitz until smooth. (I just put it all in a large jug and use a stick blender).

Place the plain flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar in a large bowl and sift to combine.

Add the melted butter, oil and orange zest to the dry ingredients and stir until no dry patches remain. Adding the fat to the flour before adding the wet ingredients helps to make the cake more soft and tender.

Gradually whisk the wet ingredients into the dry to form a smooth batter.

Mix the fresh cranberries with ½ tablespoon of flour until they are well coated then fold them into the batter.

Pour the batter into a greased and lined loaf tin and bake for about 75 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. You can loosely cover the top of the cake with tin foil towards the end of baking if it starts to get too dark.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then carefully turn it out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely before slicing.

Top Tips:

For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.

For the best textured cake it is important to use a vegan block butter/margarine to make this cake – the kind that comes in a foil wrapped block, NOT the spreadable kind in a tub which has too high a water content for baking. I use Naturli Vegan Block but Stork, Vitalite or Tormor blocks are also fine (not the tub versions).

You need to use firm silken tofu, NOT regular tofu. It is most commonly the shelf-stable kind, not the fridge kind. In the UK it can usually be found either in the ‘Asian’ section of the supermarket (by the soy sauce), or next to the tinned beans. I use Mori-Nu or Clearspring. Make sure you drain off the excess liquid (no need to press it though).

I think that this vegan orange cranberry cake is perfectly sweet and delicious as it is, but you could also add an orange glaze if you wanted to pretty it up a bit.

How To Store Vegan Orange Cranberry Cake:

The cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

It also freezes well, either whole or in slices. Make sure that it is well wrapped to prevent freezer burn and freeze for up to three months. Allow to defrost at room temperature

More Vegan Loaf Cakes:

Ultimate vegan lemon drizzle cake

Vegan pumpkin bread

Easy vegan banana bread

Vegan lemon pound cake

Vegan courgette cake

Vegan carrot cake loaf

Vegan marble cake

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