Wednesday, October 11, 2006

This is really, really good

I found this recipe a long time ago in an ad for Nabisco 100% Bran Cereal (Nabisco's version of All-Bran). The ad called it Coffeeberry Loaf, which makes no sense at all since it contains neither coffee nor coffeeberries. Since I don't usually bake it in a loaf pan either (takes too long), it definitely needs a new name. Cranberry-Apricot Cake isn't imaginative, but it will have to do until we can think of something better.

When you take the cake out of the oven, it will smell like a piece of orange cranberry heaven--especially if you use orange-flavoured dried cranberries. The leftovers are very good for breakfast.

Cranberry-Apricot Cake (or Loaf)

2 eggs
1 cup orange juice
1/3 cup butter, melted (I used soft margarine and I didn't melt it first, just beat it around with the other ingredients)
1 cup Nabisco 100% Bran Cereal (or another brand)
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots (I left them out this time and the cake was still good. I love apricots, but the almost two cups of dried fruit is almost too much for the amount of batter here; too many extras tend to make the cake fall apart. You might try 1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped apricots and the same amount of dried cranberries, if you find that's a problem.)
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I use unbleached)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup cranberries: fresh, frozen, or dried (I use Craisins)

Whisk together eggs, orange juice and butter. Stir in cereal and apricots; let stand 5 minutes.

Mix flour, brown sugar and baking powder in a large bowl. Add cereal mixture to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. You may find you need a little more liquid.

Fold in cranberries (do not over-mix). Spread evenly in a greased 9 by 5 inch loaf pan, OR an 8-inch square pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 minutes (in the loaf pan) or less (in the square pan), until a tester comes out clean. (You can bake it in a toaster oven too.) Cool in the pan 10 minutes, and then turn the loaf out onto a rack to cool completely. (If you bake it in a square pan, you probably wouldn't bother turning it out.) If you eat it before it's cooled, it will taste good but be very crumbly.

1 comment:

Jennifer AKA keewee said...

I really like the sound of this recipe. I have a bag of Craisins in the cupboard which need to be used.