Spiced Orange Cranberry Snacking Cake

I am so excited! I am no longer a "first time home buyer". I bought a condo and am heading out right now to the building inspection. If all goes well I will remove subjects on May 20th (this Friday) and the house will be mine on June 22! It's all happening so quickly. I feel like this is a new chapter for me and my son. It will be more financial burden on me and more work for me not having my mom around to help out with Zach but this is something I have to do. My mom was so mad at me the weekend I put in an offer she didn't speak to me all weekend. It shouldn't have come as a surprise to her since I've been looking since November 2010! I think she's warmed to the idea now.

I've been swept up with house buying stuff, so I haven't been baking as much and might not be baking as much over the next few months. For busy times like this, here's a recipe that's really quick, really easy and really delicious. Perfect for picnics or bake sales and lunchboxes when you don't want to deal with messy frostings or streusels. It's like a zippier version of an orange cranberry muffin, baked in cake form. The dash of cloves give it an interesting flavor but if you're baking for kids or don't like cloves feel free to substitute with cinnamon or omit them altogether.



This book by Lauren Chattman: Cake Keeper Cakes is a real winner. Right now it's only $6.46 on Amazon.com! I bought it when it first came out and so I paid much more than that, but it's been totally worth it. I like this book so much that it even has its own tag in my blog. Check out the tag in my side-bar for more recipes from the book.



Spiced Orange Cranberry Snacking Cake
8" cake | Cake Keeper Cakes

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
1 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8" square pan. Combine flour, powder, soda, cloves and salt.

2. Cream together butter, sugar and zest. Add vanilla and eggs. In a separate bowl combine sour cream and orange juice.

3. Add flour and sour cream mixture alternately, starting with the flour. Do not over mix. Fold in cranberries and dump batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan before inverting.