Cranberry and Orange Cake: Sweet Punch for February 2011

 Our Sweet Punch for February  is by Divya of Easy Cooking.  The Actual recipe was Currant and Apple Slices.  I change both main ingredients, instead of currants I have used dried cranberries and  I replaced apples with orange.  Finally since I din't cut them into perfect slices I just named it as cake.  Whatever  the name is the cake was very light and fluffy and it tasted absolutely amazing. As always an amazing recipe by Sweet Punch.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
Plain flour- 85 g
Sugar- 85 g
Butter- 85 g
Egg-1
Dried Cranberries- 75 g
Orange juice- 150 ml
Baking powder- 3/4 tsp
Cinnamon stick- 1/2 inch stick
Grated orange zest- 1/2 tsp

Method:
For orange juice I used some freshly squeezed orange juice, you can also use the shop bought .  Add the orange juice and cranberries to the pan, bring to boil, let it simmer for 2 minutes.  Take it off from heat, let it rest for whole night or more than 5 hours.
The next day drain the juice completely by passing through the sieve, press well to remove the juices from the fruit.  Keep the juice and fruit separately.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius.  Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the egg and beat well again.  Sift the flour and baking powder, also added the grated orange zest.  Mix well with a wooden spatula until it looks smooth.  Fold in half of the cranberries and 2 tbsp of juice and mix it well again.
Grease and line a 8 cm round cake tin,  pour the prepared batter and level the surface.  Sprinkle the remaining cranberries on top of the batter.  Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
 Meanwhile prepare the syrup by boiling the orange juice and cinnamon stick together in a pan. Boil it in medium heat until the liquid is reduced to half and looks syrupy.
Take the cake from the oven, cut it into slices, serve warm with the syrup.  I served the cake with the syrup, cream and peaches.  Without any patience I immediately sliced the cake, so the edges weren't that perfect.  Otherwise the cake tasted absolutely delicious.

This recipe goes to Ally's Delicious Desserts