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Cranberry & Orange Buttermilk Breakfast Cake
By Alexandra Stafford
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Last Updated: 02/20/2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This cranberry and orange buttermilk breakfast cake is a great one to add to your holiday baking repertoire. It takes 10 minutes to prepare, and the batter can be stashed in the fridge and baked in the morning. What’s more, it serves 8 to 10 people (or even more if doubled), so it’s great for holiday entertaining.
In an effort to figure out what to bake on Christmas morning, I turned to an old standby, buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake, and swapped cranberries for the blueberries, orange zest for the lemon, and increased the sugar a teensy bit. It worked beautifully!
Not too sweet, festively studded with cranberries, this cake is a wonderful Christmas morning treat. Best of all, you can prepare the batter the night before and bake the cake in the morning. If you’re not a cranberry fan, you can use frozen blueberries, which work beautifully here, too.
5 Favorite Make-Ahead Cakes
Store batter in a tupperware overnight, then transfer to prepared pan in the morning:
Cranberry & Orange Buttermilk Breakfast Cake
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 8 to 10 1x
Description
This cranberry and orange buttermilk breakfast cake is a great one to add to your holiday baking repertoire. It takes 10 minutes to prepare, and the batter can be stashed in the fridge and baked in the morning. What’s more, it serves 8 to 10 people (or even more if doubled), so it’s great for holiday entertaining.
Notes:
This recipe is essentially the Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake recipe but with cranberries swapped for the blueberries.
I’ve increased the sugar to 1 cup (from 7/8 cup) because cranberries are a bit tart and substituted orange zest for the lemon zest. If you don’t like cranberries, many people have had luck with frozen blueberries. Also, this batter can be prepared the night before.
Don’t store it in the pan you plan on baking it in — store it in tupperware of some sort, then transfer to a greased pan in the morning.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- the zest from 1 orange zest
- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 cups (256 g) flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- ½ cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream butter with orange zest and 1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Meanwhile, toss the cranberries with 2 tablespoons of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the cranberries.
- Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35 minutes, then check for doneness by touching the top gently or by inserting a toothpick. If necessary, return pan to oven, check every five minutes or so — it took my cake a little bit over 45 minutes to cook. (Note: Baking for as long as 50 minutes might be necessary, especially if you made the batter in advance.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Cake
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
461 Comments on “Cranberry & Orange Buttermilk Breakfast Cake”
I just have quick question. If I make this ahead, will it work with frozen cranberries?
That’s a great question. I would guess yes. If you give it a go, I’d love to hear how it turns out. Good luck!
I did.make this ahead with frozen cranberries, but I mixed in the cranberries just before baking. It was difficult mixing the cranberries into the cold dough, but the cake worked wonderfully. It is now a very favorite cake. I do wonder what the result would have been if I had mixed in the cranberries first. I was afraid that when they defrosted in the dough that they would turn the dough pink.
Great to hear, Caryn! I think the bake batter might turn a teensy bit pink if you mix them from the start but not an unpleasant amount. Would love to hear your result if you try again but mixing the berries in from the start. Thanks for writing 🙂
This cake was light and wonderful and every bit as good as Panera’s cranberry orange muffins, a favorite of mine.
Great to hear, Susan! Thanks for writing 🙂
What is the information for diabetics. I love these types of breakfast cakes.
Hi! I’m not sure. Very Well Fit dot com is a great site for calculating nutritional info.
Use gluten free flour and Truvia for baking. Truvia is twice as sweet as sugar so you will need to use a 1/2 Cup of Truvia in place of the 1 Cup of sugar.
Do you think I can make this is a loaf pan? If so, how long would you recommend cooking?
Yes! I would bake it at 350ºF for at least 45 minutes. It may take more like an hour (or longer) due to its thickness, so just be patient and check with a skewer for doneness.
Definitely will make this again and again. Not too sweet and the tart flavour of the cranberries are complimented so nicely with the zesty orange.
Great to hear, Iris! Thanks so much for writing and sharing this 🙂
Do you think, or know, if the cranberry orange cake would freeze well?
Yes, it freezes well!
I made it. It was delicious 😋. Thank you so much for recepy!!
Great to hear, Galina! Thanks for writing 🙂
I’m so looking forward to making this bread. The responses to the previous comments have been super helpful. I may have missed this one but can homemade cranberry sauce be substituted for the cranberries ? Thanks !
Hi Niko,
I have not tried using cranberry sauce, so I can’t speak to how that will work out. Cranberry sauce has a lot of sugar, so I think you’d need to cut the sugar back here, to make it work.
Wonderful! This is a perfect breakfast sweet. Love the use of fresh cranberries.
One thing that I did was to take the orange zest and rub it into the sugar first. Really enhances the orange flavor.
Will make it again.
Love that idea!! Thanks for writing and sharing this 🙂
Pamela – Thanks for this suggestion! I tried it and agree that it enhanced the orange flavor a lot! Thanks again for posting your tip.
I made the batter ahead of time and mixed in frozen cranberries. The cranberries did not make the batter pink at all and it was so easy to pop in the oven and make a fresh breakfast cake for friends. This is a great recipe.
Great to hear! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes 🙂
Hello. Can I use GF flour instead of regular all purpose with this recipe?
I would use a gluten-free mix like Cup4Cup, KAF or Bob’s Red Mill.
Ty!
Tried this today in muffin format – so good! I hadn’tnoticed the weight of flour in the recipeand had spooned and leveled it then weighed after the fact wound up with closer to 300g so I used a little more buttermilk to keep the batter consistent. I used frozen cranberries, adding just before scooping into the muffin tin lined with parchment cups. In addition to the vanilla extract & orange zest I added some orange extract as well. I started them at 375 for about 10 mins then dropped them to 350 for a total cook time of about 25 mins. They’re fantastic and I’ll definitely make them again. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Great to hear, Leah! Thanks so much for writing and sharing all of your notes. Love the idea of making muffins! And orange extract sounds lovely 🙂
My family and I love this recipe. This recipe has become a tradition for my kids on Christmas morning. I alternate blueberry and lemon on year and cranberry and orange another.
Can dried cranberries be used for this recipe?
Thank you so much!!
Jenni
So nice to read this, Jenni! Thanks so much for writing. I have never used dried cranberries here, so I can’t really advise to how you would adjust the recipe: they are sweeter and less juicy, so I would not swap them in 1:1… maybe use half as many?
I made this for my husband’s birthday this morning! Had some family in town and it was a hit. Thanks!
Great to hear, Ashley! Thanks so much for writing 🙂
This recipe is fantastic!! I’m not one for using zest, I don’t like the texture. For this recipe I used it as I figured there were enough other textures that it would not be an issue and I was correct. Lastly, this is not too sweet (again, I usually cut back on the sugar in recipes). Because of the cranberries you need all the sugar in this recipe. I served this for Christmas Eve brunch and it was a winner for everyone around the table, so this gets a 5/5 from all of us. Thanks! 🎄
Great to read all of this, Melissa! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes — I agree about the sugar, and more and more these days, I tend to cut sugar back in recipes, but not with this one. Happy holidays to you and your family!
This is our Christmas morning tradition. I love that we can make the batter the night before. This makes Christmas morning go smoothly. Can you please explain the rationale behind keeping it in a different container overnight?
Great to read this, Liz! My thinking is that the cranberries might sink if the batter spends the night in the same vessel and then when it bakes, they won’t be evenly distributed throughout the cake. I also worry that a cold pan might not bake properly. But I could be wrong!
Made this for Christmas morning and it was vigorously approved by all. Delicious the next day, too! My mom loved it so much that she plans to make it for a brunch gathering on Sunday!
Wonderful! So nice to read this, Kristin. Happy holidays to you and your family!
Hi I used almond extract instead of vanilla and sliced almonds. Delicious! no orange zest. Also cut big cranberries in half.
Yum! Love the sound of all of this, Tina. Thanks for writing and sharing 🙂
I had never baked with fresh cranberries for some reason. I was lucky to find this for my first fresh cranberry bake. It is so delicious and I definitely love the pop of tart with the sweetness of the cake and orange zest. I rubbed my orange zest well into my sugar and you can really taste it. This morning is the second time in a week I am making this cake. Thanks for a great recipe.
Great to hear, Deborah! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes. So glad this was a success for you 🙂
We used up the leftover holiday cranberries with this recipe. We used a 7.5″x12″ glass baking pan, set the oven on convection bake @ 335F and baked it for about 40 minutes. The cake turned out moist and delicious.
Great to hear! Thanks so much for writing and sharing this 🙂
I made this quite a few times over the holidays. It was easy to put together & really, really good! I gave a handful as gifts and kept one to eat. Very good. Thanks
Great to hear, Liz! Thanks for writing and sharing your notes 🙂
This was very good – I prepared the cake the night before using frozen cranberries and stored it in the fridge in the glass pan that I baked it in the next morning. I did wait to sprinkle the sugar on in the morning right before baking. Worked perfectly. Baking time was about 40 minutes.
Great to hear, Marcy! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes 🙂
Delicious! I added a handful of chopped pecans. And I’m out of orange zest, which I usually keep in the freezer, so I used about a tablespoon of orange juice concentrate.
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Great to hear, Linda! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes — great tip 🙂
Do you serve this warm or cold? My oven will be in use with egg bakes up to serving time.
Warm or room temperature is fine!
Our family loves this recipe. I now make at least 2 at at time so I can freeze one for a later surprise. It cuts beautifully and they like to pack it in their lunch as a treat.
Great to hear, Michelle! Thanks so much for writing and sharing this. Such a great tip!