Over and under an orange-cranberry pound cake

This is my second favourite thing to bake for the holidays. Where traditional pound cakes use a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs, this one is a slightly (just slightly) lighter and easier on the stirring arm version. My recipe makes 8 mini loaves for sharing but is easily reduced by two thirds for a single, normal-sized loaf.

What you need:

1.5 cups butter

3 cups granulated sugar

6 eggs

4.5 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1.4 cups of milk

3 tsp. vanilla

1.5 cups dried cranberries

grated peels and squeezed juice of 4 oranges

Start by creaming the butter, sugar & eggs together until fluffy with a hand mixer. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and add to the creamed mixture slowly, alternating between it and the milk. Once all of that is combined add the vanilla (for this batch I ran out of vanilla so I substituted 3 teaspoons of Angostura bitters and I think I’ll keep using them as a replacement because the results are sooooo good) and mix again. Now it’s time to get out ye olde wooden spoon and stir in the cranberries and orange peels.

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease whatever it is you’re choosing to bake them in – I used two 10×12″ casserole dishes then I divide the cakes into 8 after they’re cooked. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes or until a test with a toothpick comes out clean.

Use the orange juice with 3/4 of a cup of granulated sugar to make the glaze by mixing them together then pouring over the cakes as they come out of the oven. Allow to cool then refrigerate immediately or the cakes will be eaten.