Cranberry-Orange Swirl Coffe Cake

This is another recipe I got off of All Recipes - Originally posted by Laura Owen, I took her basic recipe and changed it up a bit - so a big Thank You to Laura!!

Ingredients

1/2 C Butter (room temp)

1 C White Sugar

Zest of 1 Orange

3 Eggs (room temp)

1 teas Vanilla Extract

2 C AP Flour

1 teas Baking Powder

1 teas Baking Soda

1/2 teas salt

1 C Sour Cream

1 16oz Can Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce (or you could use home made sauce)

 Juice of 1/2 Orange

Icing Sugar

__________

Directions

1 - Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)  Grease and flour one 9 or 10 inch tube pan.  I used a 10 inch pan as that is what I have.

2- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  Beat in eggs one at a time then add the Vanilla and the orange zest - mix completely.  In another bowl sift together flour, soda, powder and salt. 

Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream.

3 - Pour 1/2 of the batter into prepared tube pan.  Spoon the cranberry sauce over the batter...

At this point swirl the sauce into the batter and then pour the rest of the batter to cover the cranberry swirl center.

4 - Bake for about 55 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown.  I also checked with a toothpick for doneness and 55 mins was about right.

5- When the cake is completely cooled and popped out of the cake pan you can make a glaze from the orange juice and icing sugar.  I made it pretty thick but you can judge that for yourself.

The cake looks pretty cut ...

and on a platter.....

I have looked for a way to use up the extra cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and I think this is a winner recipe.

Lemon Squares

There are lots of variations of these out there - What I did was I took a few recipes from on line and some of the comment and suggestions to create these tangy bars.

Ingredients

1 C Butter, soft
1/2 C White Sugar
2 C AP Flour
-
5 Eggs, room temp
1 1/3 C White Sugar
1/3 C AP Flour
1 C Fresh Lemon Juice
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1 Lemon
-
1C Icing Sugar
Enough Lemon Juice to make Glaze

Directions -

1- Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9x13x2 pan with parchment paper - spray with Pam.

2 - In a medium bowl blend soft butter, 2 c Flour and 1/2 c sugar - this will make a soft dough, press into the lined pan and cook in oven until golden and firm - this will take about 20 mins, keep an eye on it towards the end of the time.

3 - In another bowl mix together the eggs, 1 1/3 c sugar, 1/3 c flour, 1 c lemon juice, salt and zest and salt. Pour over the baked crust. Bake for an additional 20 or so mins until it looks done. I let it cook until the edges started to turn a bit brown.

4 - The bars will get firm as it cools. After the bars are cooled lift the whole piece out of the pan and cut into squares. Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice to a consistency you are happy with and drizzle over the bars.