A Cake to Chase the Gloom Away

My mom's cranberry-orange cake and some thoughts on the week.

The political year started off at a sprint with all the hijinx in the House of Representatives. So, with our gas stoves threatened (can you hear my eyes rolling?) and a special investigator appointed to read the oil stains on the floor of Joe Biden’s garage like tea leaves, I whipped up a gloom-chaser of an orange-cranberry cake.

Sexual assault. Sedition. Slime.

On my first Secret Life of Cookies podcast of the new year my guest is Dr. Allison Gill, because if anyone can make sense of it all, it is she. Her new podcast is called “Jack,” and with her co-host Andrew McCabe, they take a deep look at special counsel Jack Smith and his investigations into Trump.

(If anyone you know is still trying to draw similarities between the Trump top-secret documents and the Biden case, please take a read of Joyce Vance’s substack. )

Why, the two special counsel cases are so different, it’s like comparing apples and…hmmm…cranberry orange pecan cake.

Swiftly moving on from that painful segue, this here cake is what January needs, packed with cheery, comforting flavors. The recipe is my mom’s and was a favorite of my dad’s. Although she pretty much gave up baking after I left the nest, she did continue to make this because, as she wrote me once at college, “Your dad just glorms it up.”

I think you may glorm it up, too.

A few notes:

• Pecans (or another nut of your choosing) are optional.

• You can substitute lemon for orange and I won’t tell anyone.

• You can use Greek yogurt, plain yogurt or sour cream. Just please use one with some sort of fat content. If you do use nonfat yogurt, just know it won’t be as moist or tender. I don’t want angry notes from people saying it wasn’t lush!

• The glaze is my addition. My mother didn’t have time for glazes. You do you.

Cranberry Orange Pecan Cake

95.5KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Cranberry Orange Pecan Cake

This recipe makes 2 loaf cakes. One for you and one for a friend. Or one for your freezer that you can enjoy later.

What You’ll Need:

1 cup (5 ounces) pecans, toasted (method follows)

2 2/3 cups (11.3 ounces) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (6 ounces) butter, softened

1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar

zest from 2 navel oranges

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon orange extract

(if you don’t have orange extract and don’t feel like buying it, just add 2 tsps vanilla)

1 cup + 2 tablespoons (9 ounces) plain Greek yogurt or sour cream (full or lowfat)

2 cups cranberries (about 10 ounces) fresh or frozen

For the glaze:

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter

2 tablespoons orange marmalade

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (remember those oranges you zested?)

1/4 cup (4 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

What You’ll Do:

1. Toast the pecans in a 300 F degree oven until the nuts become fragrant and darken slightly in color. Nuts can burn faster than George Santos can come up with a lie, so watch carefully. After you remove the nuts from the oven, turn the heat up to 350 F.

2. Grease two loaf tins (Mine were standard size: 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 inches).

3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

4. In a stand- or with a hand-mixer, cream the butter for about a minute. Add the sugar and orange zest and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes until light. Be sure and scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice.

5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each until they’re incorporated. Scrape down the sides once or twice (do you see a motif here?) Add the vanilla and orange extracts.

6. Add the flour in three additions, alternating with the yogurt/sour cream and mix on low speed until just blended. Fold in the pecans and cranberries. Split the batter evenly between the two loaf pans. Bake 40 to 50 minutes until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

7. While the cakes are baking, make the glaze. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the marmalade and orange juice, and stir until the marmalade melts. Whisk in the confectioners’ sugar until the mixture is smooth.

8. Spoon the glaze over the cakes while both the glaze and the cakes are still warm.

9. Yes, this is a cake that gets better as it ages. That’s my kind of cake!

   I rewatched “Talladega Nights” yesterday. Perhaps you all are too intellectual and high-brow for such a film, but dang it, that film is funny. Silly-funny. And that’s just what I needed. What kind of movie or show do you like to escape into? Horror? True crime? Concert films? I spent a good part of Christmas watching any and every old movie TCM had to offer. It was glorious. Tell me your thoughts in the comments. And please, tell me your favorite take on Jim Jordan’s “God. Guns. Gas Stoves.”

   Remember the immortal words of Ricky Bobby’s daddy: “If you’re not first, you’re last.”