This Crock Pot Cranberry Orange Cake rises like a cake, with the consistency of a bar. With each bite you will taste not only the cranberries, but also the orange zest with the sweetness of the orange glaze. The best part is drizzling each slice with the extra glaze!

Crock Pot Cranberry Orange Cake

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Zest from 1 orange
3 cups flour, divided (2 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (12 oz.) package fresh cranberries

Cranberry Orange Cake Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. orange juice

Directions:

Cut wax paper or parchment paper in an oval shape to fit your crock pot, put in bottom of it. (I used a 6-quart crock pot). I removed my liner and flipped it upside and laid a sheet of wax paper on the bottom and cut out the oval.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter together. Then, add one egg at a time, mixing after each egg to incorporate it. After they are all added, mix in the vanilla and orange zest.

To make the orange zest, I used a small hand-held grater and grated the orange peel making sure not to get any of the white underneath.

In another large bowl, mix together the 2 3/4 cup flour, baking powder and salt. Then take this mixture and combine it with the creamed mixture.

Finally, mix in the remaining flour (1/4 cup) and the package of cranberries.

Spread the batter into the crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours until a toothpick when inserted in the middle comes out clean.

When it is done cooking, let it cool completely. Then place an oval plate or platter over the crock pot and flip it over, so that the cake comes out onto the plate or platter. Remove the wax paper.

*Note: Not every recipe I make comes out exactly perfect. This recipe is one of those. The two pictures below show that the cake burnt around the edges and the bottom. Like, every good baker, you should be able to clean up any bad parts and make it look like nothing happened.

What I did was take a sharp knife and cut around the edges taking off the burnt stuff along with trimming up the bottom.

The burnt edges DID NOT affect the taste of the cake. It was still really good.

I’m going to make this recipe again to see what I can do differently so that it doesn’t get burnt edges or bottom. I do know that you need to cook it for the 3 hours, otherwise the center won’t be done.