Cranberry Apple Pecan Bundt Cake
RECIPE: Delicious Buttermilk Bundt Cake with Cranberries, Apples, and Pecans! Buttermilk gives this holiday cake a softer texture and keeps the cake light and moist while adding a nice, subtle tang. The cake will melt in your mouth! Vanilla, cranberries, apples, and pecans give the bundt cake lots of holiday flavor and crunch!
This Cranberry Apple Pecan Bundt Cake is a perfect coffee cake for the Fall, Winter, and Holiday season! So good with coffee or a cup of tea! It’s very easy to make and looks pretty and sophisticated with minimal effort.
That’s the beauty of using a beautiful bundt pan – it makes all cakes pretty! I’ve used the bundt pan that measures 9 inches in diameter and holds 10 to 12 cups – use any bundt pan of this size and volume!
The particular bundt pan I used was Nordic Ware Non-Stick Cast Aluminum Fleur De Lis Bundt Pan (which was sent to me for free by Nordic Ware – see the disclosure above). I was very pleased with this pan and will describe my experience with it and the tips on how to successfully release the bundt cake from the pan later in this post. Take a look how pretty this bundt pan is:
Apples and bundt cakes go really well together. I’ve made apple bundt cakes before and they were all successful, such as this Apple Cinnamon Buttermilk Bundt Cake or Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake. All these cakes are great recipes to use for your holiday menu, for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve.
How to make apple cranberry pecan bundt cake
First, make the cake batter. Then, add the dried cranberries (previously soaked in hot water and drained), chopped apple, and chopped pecans to the cake batter:
Fold all the fruit and pecans into the cake batter using the spatula. Your cake batter is ready to be poured into the bundt pan!
And, here are my tips on how to best use this (or any) bundt pan to ensure the successful release of the cake. It starts before you even bake the cake. Even though this bundt pan says it’s non-stick, ALWAYS USE THE BAKING SPRAY WITH FLOUR (it’s a special baking spray that already has flour in the spray itself). The proper way to do it is to hold the spray vertically and spray your clean and dried bundt pan along the top edges of the pan, going all the way to the bottom. Keep in mind that a bundt pan with such fine detail as this Nordic Ware Fleur De Lis Bundt Pan, does have a lot of detail, so make sure to spray all of the pan insides, not missing anything! Then, pour the cake batter gently into the prepared bundt pan:
Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven, and put the bundt pan on top of the baking sheet. This ensures that if you have a bundt pan with edges like mine, the pan doesn’t slant. Bake at 350 F for about 1 hour, until the toothpick comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven, let it cool for 40 minutes on a wire rack in the pan:
How to remove a bundt cake from the pan
Here is how to make sure the cake releases from the bundt pan without any cake disaster:
- First of all, let me repeat, you should always use the Baking Spray with Flour and generously spray it all over inside your bundt pan before pouring the cake batter.
- After your bundt cake is done baking, and the bundt pan with the cake cooled off for 40 minutes on the counter, place the bundt pan in the freezer for 20 minutes – it will still be quite hot to the touch (even after 40 minutes of cooling), so use kitchen gloves to handle the pan.
- Remove the pan from the freezer after 20 minutes, invert the bundt pan onto a serving plate, and let it sit inverted for a bit to let the gravity do the work (it could take as little as half a minute or as long as 20 or even 30 minutes, depending on your bundt pan). Here is my bundt pan sitting inverted with the cake inside:
- With this pan, it took at least 20 minutes for the bundt pan to sit inverted like that and then release the cake (also, remember that before even inverting the pan, I cooled off the pan with the cake in it for 40 minutes on the rack, and then put the pan with the cake for 15 minutes in the freezer). I actually heard the sound of the cake being released.
- Be patient – gently lift the bundt pan to check and if your cake is not released, let it sit longer until it releases.
- My cake was released from this bundt pan beautifully, there was only one small piece of cake that got stuck in the bundt pan – I gently removed it and stuck it back on the cake where it belongs! 🙂 You can’t even see this minor imperfection on the photos:
I love-love this bundt pan, the cake looks like it came from a high-end bakery, with minimal effort on my side. With proper handling and patience, the cake will release beautifully!
If you ever had trouble with removing your bundt cake from the pan, read and re-read this post – it has all the tips you need to make sure you have success with your bundt pan this holiday season!
Apple Cranberry Pecan Bundt Cake
Ingredients
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- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter room temperature softened
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar or cane sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 Fuji apple cored, peeled, and cubed
- 1 cup pecans chopped
- powdered sugar for decorating
Instructions
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Special equipment: Use the bundt pan that measures 9 inches in diameter and holds 10 to 12 cups.
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Preheat oven to 350 F.
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Soak 1 cup of dried cranberries in 1 cup of boiling-hot water, covered.
How to make cake batter:
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In a medium bowl, combine 2 and ½ cups flour, baking powder and salt.
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In a separate large bowl, add together the softened butter and sugar and mix, using mixer, on high setting for about 3 minutes until even consistency is reached.
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Add 3 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the butter-sugar mixture and continue beating until well-incorporated and light in color.
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Now we’ll be adding flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture in 3 gradual steps, instead of dumping all of flour at one time. If you dump all of flour mixture into your butter mixture at one time, it will be more difficult to stir and you won’t get a smooth texture. So, we’ll be adding flour and buttermilk in 3 additions:
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With your mixer on low speed, add ⅓ of flour mixture to butter-sugar mixture, beating just a little until all is well combined. Then follow by ⅓ cup of buttermilk. Add the second ⅓ of flour mixture, beating with mixer just to combine. Follow by the second ⅓ cup of buttermilk, beating just to combine. Finally, add the third ⅓ of flour mixture, followed by the final ⅓ cup of buttermilk. Again, beat just enough to combine.
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Make sure to have your mixer on low speed while adding flour, otherwise flour might fly around your kitchen. Make sure to not overmix or overbeat, use mixer just to combine the ingredients.
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Drain the dried cranberries that you soaked in hot water and wring the water out of them. Dried cranberries now should be plump and juicy – it’s OK if they retain some water.
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Using spatula, fold in these dried cranberries (after you soaked them and drained them), chopped apple, and chopped pecans into the cake batter.
How to fill bundt pan with cake batter:
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Spray your bundt cake pan with a Baking Spray with Flour (it’s a special spray that already has flour in it). The proper way to do it is to hold the spray vertically, and spray your clean and dried bundt pan along the top edges of the pan, going all the way to the bottom. Spray every single little detail, especially if your bundt pan has lots of fine detail.
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Pour batter gently into prepared bundt pan. Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven, and put the bundt pan on top. This ensures that if you have a bundt pan with edges like mine, the pan doesn’t slant.
How to bake bundt cake:
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Bake at 350 F for about 1 hour, until toothpick comes out clear. Remove the pan from the oven, let it cool for 40 minutes on wire rack.
Tips on releasing the cake from the bundt pan:
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First of all, you should always use the Baking Spray with Flour and generously spray it all over inside your bundt pan before pouring the batter.
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After your bundt cake is done baking, and the bundt pan cooled off for 40 minutes on the counter, place the bundt pan in the freezer for 20 minutes – it will still be quite hot to the touch (even after 40 minutes of cooling), so use kitchen gloves to handle the pan.
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Remove the pan from the freezer after 20 minutes, invert the bundt pan onto a serving plate, and let it sit inverted for a bit to let the gravity do the work (it could take as little as half a minute or as long as 20 or even 30 minutes, depending on your bundt pan). Then, gently lift bundt pan and your cake should be released. Sometimes, you will actually hear your cake release. Be patient.
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Sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar before serving.
Notes
Looking for a complete THANKSGIVING MENU?
- Be sure to check out my 50 Best Thanksgiving Recipes (The Complete Holiday Menu) – it includes everything: Fall-inspired holiday appetizers, side dishes, salads, main courses, pasta recipes, desserts, and even breakfast. This holiday menu features proven, tried, and true Thanksgiving dishes that have been reader favorites for years (I’ve been publishing recipes since 2012). Most of these recipes can also be re-purposed for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Looking for THANKSGIVING SIDE DISHES?
- I have created a comprehensive recipe collection of 60 Thanksgiving side dishes conveniently categorized by ingredient: Green Beans, Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Asparagus, Broccoli, etc. It’s a great resource to browse through for a last moment holiday inspiration! This side dishes will also work great for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Looking for THANKSGIVING salads?
- I have created a comprehensive recipe collection of 30 Thanksgiving salads – this collection exclusively features Thanksgiving salads that highlight Autumnal ingredients, such as apples, roasted butternut squash, sweet potatoes, beets, Brussels sprouts, green beans, pecans, cranberries, pears, pomegranates, mandarin oranges, pumpkin seeds, and the list goes on and on! These Fall salads will add freshness, colors, and vibrancy to otherwise heavy and creamy comfort food (stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes) that we often cook for the holidays. These salads would also be perfect for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.