A well known scenario: Your hubby asks you at the last minute ‘What cake are you making for so-n-so’s house?’ and your reply is ‘What cake?’ Uh-oh. Time to pull out all the stops and open up a cake mix! That is right, a cake mix. However, I could not simply bake a cake mix, I had to make it my own and feel like I am making something a bit healthier so let’s toss in some OJ and for a sweetener, not sugar but my new buddy, agave nectar. Bake this and fall in love.
Ingredients for cake:
Spray to mist/flour pan (baker’s joy or Pam for baking)
1 yellow cake mix with pudding
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 tablespoon light agave nectar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (Madagascar)
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries (finely chopped)
Ingredients for glaze:
agave nectar or
1 cup of confectioners’ sugar, sifted (yes, you must)
3 tablespoons water or 1% milk
orange zest
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Mist the bundt pan and set aside. Mist a knife with the spray and chop the cranberries into small pieces. I say a cup but if you want lots and lots of cranberry in there, you go ahead and toss in more. Now place a tablespoon of the cake mix into a bowl along with the cranberry pieces and mix until the berries are coated*
2. Place the following into a large mixing bowl: cake mix, OJ, oil, agave nectar, and eggs. Mix on low speed for 1 minute or so. Scrape down the sides and mix on medium to medium-high for 2-3 minutes. The batter will look light and well mixed. Fold in the cranberries and pour into the bundt pan.
3. Bake until a lovely shade of golden brown and the cake starts to pull away from the sides, about 43-47 minutes. Remove and place on rack to cool. Carefully run knife around edge after 25 minutes or so , invert and allow to rest until completely cool.
4. Concurrently, you can decide what you want to do for the glaze: You can either lightly drizzle nectar over it and top with zest OR mix the confectioner’s sugar and water/milk and top that with the zest. Your choice.
*Why coat the cranberries with cake mix? It helps to keep them from all sinking to the bottom during baking.
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