Eggnog can be frozen if you don’t have time to bake the cake and the eggnog is in danger of going sour.
To make the cake in a standard loaf pan, cut the ingredients in half (use 3 eggs), use a 5×9 or 4×8 loaf pan, and bake for about 50 minutes. It helps to line the loaf pan with buttered parchment paper. You’ll only need about 1/3 of the glaze ingredients.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped
- 1 Tbsp orange zest
- 4 Tbsp brandy (can sub orange juice or water)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 cups white granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 to 4 Tbsp brandy for drizzling on the cake (optional)
Glaze:
- 1 to 2 Tbsp orange juice
- 1 Tbsp brandy or dark rum
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Method
1 Soak the cranberries. Soak dried chopped cranberries and orange zest in brandy in a small bowl for 15 minutes.
2 Preheat oven. Adjust rack to lower third of oven. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Generously butter the inside of a 9 to 10 inch bundt pan.
3 Mix dry ingredients. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice.
4 Cream the butter and sugar. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter until creamy, 30-45 seconds. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape bowl with a rubber spatula occasionally as needed. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.
5 Add dry ingredients and eggnog to butter sugar mixture. Remove the mixing bowl from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to gently add the dry ingredients in 4 additions, alternating with eggnog (begin and end with dry ingredients). Gently fold in orange zest, dried cranberries and any remaining brandy.
6 Bake. Spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan and spread evenly. Bake at 325°F 55-60 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center and pulls away from the sides of the pan. You can also use a bamboo skewer and insert into the thickest part of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done.
7 Cool. Remove from oven and cool upright in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Invert cake onto a rack while the cake is still warm. Let cool completely.
8 Prepare glaze. Once the cake has completely cooled, prepare glaze by whisking together powdered sugar, orange juice, and brandy. (You can sub the brandy with more orange juice or water if you want.)
Make the glaze thick if you would like a thick, pronounced drizzle, or make it more thin if you want a glaze that is somewhat translucent.
9 Glaze cake. Place cake on serving platter. Poke a few holes in the top and drizzle with brandy if you want. Use a spoon to stream the glaze onto the cake in back and forth motions to create a striped pattern. Or, if the glaze is thin enough, you can use a pastry brush to brush on the glaze.
