Cran we fix it? Yes we cran!

That’s what I  recon Bob the Builder says at home in the kitchen when he is contemplating what to do with his leftover Christmas cranberries.

So basically, that was me. I am trying really hard not to waste any food this year. To use it up before it goes off. Mostly, we are pretty good but there is always room for improvement.

So like an episode of Ready Steady Cook where they give you three random ingredients and 10 minutes and tell you to make something out of it, I looked at what we had leftover from Christmas.

One cup frozen cranberries

One orange

Handful of walnuts

Half a pot of plain yogurt

What could I do with it? Make a cake of course! I had a look on google to gain inspiration and found a variety of ideas.

Some had lots of orange juice (three oranges worth)

Some had no oranges (they used milk)

Some used 2 eggs

Some used no eggs

Some used applesauce

Some used a huge amount of oil

Some used a large amount of walnuts (one cup)

Some used no nuts

Some used enough sugar to put you in a diabetic coma

Some were lightly sweetened

So I just fiddled about and combined what I had and made a delicious cake!

Some orange juice and some milk

No eggs (or egg replacer)

Yogurt in place of oil

 Some walnuts

Lightly sweetened

Cranberry orange leftovers cake

Grease an 8x8 pan and preheat oven to 180C/350F

In a bowl combine:

2 cups wholemeal flour (I used wholemeal spelt, if using spelt add an extra 2TB flour), sifted

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Zest of one orange

½ cup sugar (I used Demerara)

Handful broken walnuts (maybe 1/3  of a cup?)

1 cup frozen cranberries that have been defrosted in the fridge for about an hour

In a separate bowl:

Juice of one orange (about ¼ a cup) and the rest milk to you get one cup of liquid

½ cup plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla essence

Make sure the walnuts and cranberries are coated in flour so they won’t sink to the bottom of the pan.

Wisk the yogurt into the liquid and add the vanilla and then mix into the dry ingredients. 

Spoon into pan and bake for 35 minutes or so or until a toothpick in the centre comes clean. I like to make some slight finger indents on top so the glaze will puddle in the craters, but that’s just me. 

Glaze:

Half a cup sifted icing sugar

A few sloshes of milk to make a runny glaze

Let cake cool about 15 minutes and then pour glaze on and let it harden. Slice cake into nine squares when cool and eat.

The beauty of the cake is that it is lightly sweet with a bit of tangy, juicy berry inside. It is plenty moist with no oil and  a hint of orange. Try it if you’ve got leftovers at home!