Mini cranberry and orange drizzle loaf cakes

Mini cranberry and orange drizzle loaves

Here is a winter version of the joy that is lemon drizzle cake. Orange and cranberry are such classic Christmas flavours and they’re a delight put together in a cake. The drizzle element keeps the cakes moist and they actually tasted better a day later (if they last that long!). So if you’re looking for something to bake in the limbo between Christmas and New Year, these simple loaf cakes are ideal.

Mini cranberry and orange drizzle loaves

Ingredients;
[This only made 4 mini loaves of 8 x 4 x 4 cm* – you may well want to double it]

2 eggs
140 g self-raising flour
110 g caster sugar, and a little optional extra
110 g margarine
Approx. 40 g dried cranberries
1 orange

Mini cranberry and orange drizzle cake mixture

Method;

Step 1. Place the flour, sugar, eggs and margarine into a bowl and cream the mixture with an electric hand mixer if you have one.

Step 2. Add the dried cranberries and the zest of 1 orange and stir in gently.

Step 3. Spoon into the cases, not filling them to the top (see picture).

Step 4. Bake in the middle of the oven on Gas Mark 5 for approx 25 mins. This will vary from oven to oven, so it’s best to check they are cooked using a skewer.

Step 5. Whilst they are in the oven, take the orange you zested earlier. If you are presenting the cakes or taking them to a party, you may like to present as I did with a segment of orange on top. If you are storing them, I wouldn’t bother with this step as it will make the cakes soggy. If you are wanting orange segments then read on, otherwise skip to step 6. Peel half of the orange, which will enable you to chop out 4 segments of the orange, for presentation (see this tutorial if you’re struggling).

Step 6. Juice the rest of the orange. Stir a little sugar into this orange juice (optional).

Step 7. As soon as you have removed the cakes from the oven, make several skewer holes in each mini loaf and carefully spoon over the orange juice. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Step 8. To present, I placed the aforementioned orange segment on top of each loaf and also dusted some edible glitter over the top.

Mini cranberry and orange drizzle loaves

*I bought the cases I used from Sainsbury’s, but these on ebay look similar. There are lots of cardboard versions in the shops too but based on my experience baking these blueberry and lemon cupcakes I imagine these would burn at the edges. If you don’t have any mini loaf cases, you could obviously put the mixture in one large loaf tin (and increase the cooking time) or use normal cupcake cases (and decrease the cooking time).

Mini cranberry and orange drizzle loaves