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Italian Cranberry and Orange Bundt Cake

A super moist cake laced with fresh cranberries and enhanced with a hint of orange is truly delightful with the batter sweetened with mascarpone cheese.  Even those who don't care for cranberries will love this wonderful cake.  The drizzled icing adds another layer of delicious perfection.  Garnished with cranberries, this cake brings beauty to the table too!
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: Italian
Author: Roz | La Bella Vita Cucina

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 4 eggs at room temperature
  • 1 cup unsalted butter softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup orange juice freshly squeezed is best
  • 2 Tbsp. orange zest
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup Italian mascarpone cheese
  • 3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries if using frozen, make sure that they are dry on the outside

For the glaze:

  • 1-1/2 cups powder sugar
  • 1/3 cup orange juice fresh squeezed is best
  • Mix together.

For the Cream Cheese Icing:

  • 8 oz. cream cheese softened
  • 3 – 4 cups powdered sugar
  • whole milk or heavy cream to thin the icing down if necessary, which I did several times
  • Mix together.

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  • In a medium-size mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. One at a time beat in the eggs.
  • Stir in the cinnamon, mascarpone cheese, orange juice and zest, and vanilla until well combined.
  • Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix in buttermilk and then mix in the remaining flour mixture, stirring until all dry flour disappears into the batter.
  • Gently fold in the cranberries (towel-dry frozen cranberries them so that they don’t “bleed” into the batter).
  • Generously grease a very plain bundt pan.
  • Don’t use a highly decorative bundt pan with deep grooves as the cranberries will get stuck in the grooves and your cake won’t release nicely after baking.
  • Bake for 75 to 80 minutes. Insert a knife in the center; if it comes out wet and gooey, it needs to bake a little more.
  • Remove the cake from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then turn the cake over onto a wire cooling rack with a baking sheet underneath.
  • While the cake is warm, brush the orange glaze all over the cake with a pastry brush.
  • Allow the cake to cool completely.
  • Drizzle the cream cheese frosting over the pound cake.