Eggless Orange Almond Pecan Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake … this pound cake is everything good, actually JUST TOO GOOD! I used to bake a really nice orange pound cake when I used to bake with eggs. It had a wonderful crumb and each bite was moist and satisfying. One bite of this eggless pound cake and the memories just came tumbling in. It was exactly as I remembered, ONLY BETTER!!
Addictive, bursting with flavour, rich , indulgent, moist, great dense crumb, sliced beautifully, kept well, travelled well too. It’s not often that you find so much good in a single cake but this one certainly ticked all the boxes. And oh my, the pecans, cranberries and chocolate chips together do create some sort of magic in there.
There’s always been an endless charm about the quintessential pound cake, a connection to the years gone by. When I began baking, a pound cake was one of the earliest things I’d bake on repeat, the history behind this classic European tea cake making the recipe simple to remember … a pound of flour, a pound of eggs, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter it sang in my head!
I used to write a blog on the Times of India eons ago under the pen name of The Rabid Baker and this particular Wholewheat Coffee Chocolate Chip Pound Cake was a very popular recipe, one that I baked often, perhaps too often. Another favourite was the Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake which tasted really lovely topped with lightly sweetened cream ad fresh strawberries.
Other times I’d bake a chocolate pound cake or an orange pound cake that I would always have ready when the kids came home from school. At the time, we travelled to the US often and I carried back a few basic bundt tins and they were perfect to bake a pound cake in.
Another recipe was the Blueberry Lime Buttermilk Pound Cake that I baked occasionally as a very special treat since anything blueberry was hard to come by back in the day. Not so now, since blueberries in every form are very easily available here now – fresh, frozen, dried, dehydrated …
The years went by and my favourite pound cake got forgotten because I stopped baking with eggs. Then last year I made an Eggless Pistachio Cranberry Loaf Cake, essentially a pound cake, and I was smitten! I feel in love with the gentle flavours, the rich delicate crumb, and addictive indulgent taste.
Natural orange as a flavour in cakes is something I truly love, something so easily achievable. This winter, the local bazaar has been flooded with carts of fresh, juicy oranges, called ‘kinnow/keenu‘ locally, a high yield mandarin orange hybrid. I thought instantly of the Eggless Strawberry Orange Tart Cake that I had made a while ago that was bursting with fresh flavour. I definitely had ORANGE on my mind and I wanted to try something new.
I was juicing oranges that morning and decided to bake an orange pound cake since I always like to use the zest. I was pretty excited already at the batter stage when I saw all these flavors and that delicate orange colour come together. I knew this was going to taste good and I wasn’t wrong!
Once the cake cooled down completely, I gingerly sliced it not sure what to expect. It tasted amazing, quite addictive actually. As kids, we used to get something called a sliced Britannia cake in the local market. It was thinly sliced, gently sweet and quite buttery. One bite of the sliced eggless orange pound cake and it took me back to my childhood.
Now that I’ve been baking cakes for too many years, I can well imagine what might have gone into that Britannia Cake! Compared to that cake, my honest to goodness, from scratch, home baked version was a million times tastier! Prettier too. The cake disappeared pretty soon and I was back to juicing oranges and baking pound cakes on repeat!
It’s this particular version, the Eggless Orange Almond Pecan Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake, that I found we loved the most. It has a bit of everything, almost like a Christmas fruit cake and as delicious! There’s something about the pairing of orange, chocolate chips, cranberries and pecans that makes the taste buds come alive. Fresh, exciting flavours, a wonderful bite to the already rich crumb, absolute simple goodness! It’s love at every bite honestly, do try the recipe!
Do tag me on Instagram at Passionate About Baking or share a comment here on the blog if you make this, or any other recipe from the blog. I’d love to see it!
Eggless Orange Almond Pecan Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 100 g clarified butter/ghee
- 150 g buttermilk room temperature
- Zest of 3 oranges
- 150 g khaand /light brown sugar
- 65 g fresh orange juice
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- Pinch salt
- 180 g all purpose flour / maida
- 50 g almond meal
- 25 g dried cranberries
- 50 g chocolate chips
- 50 g pecans chopped
For topping
- chocolate chips
- Pecan halves ,
- dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a 9" X 5" loaf tin with parchment.
- In a large bowl, add the clarified butter/ghee, buttermilk, sugar, orange juice, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda, salt and whisk well.
- Stir the the almond meal, flour, pecans, cranberries and chocolate chips.
- Turn batter into the prepared tin and level. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour until the tester comes out clean.
- TENT THE TOP with a sheet pf aluminium foil after 30 minutes to stop the top from over browning.
- Cool in the tin for 30-45 minutes, then with the help of the parchment paper, remove form the tin and leave to cool on the cooling rack.
- The cake slices best and has a beautiful crumb when it is completely cool
