...With Chai-Spiced Orange Cranberry Sauce *whew*

Both recipes I found in the November/December 2010 issue of Yankee Magazine :3

*optional ingredients

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter (for preparing the mini-bundt tin/loaf pan...used cooking spray)
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temp (I used unsalted myself)
2 cups granulated sugar
3 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for pans (again...cooking spray :P)
* 1/2 cup ground flaxseed (think Im getting addicted to this stuff XD)
1 teaspoon table salt
* capful of vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)

~ 1 teaspoon baking powder ~

~ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda ~

~ 3/4 cup low fat buttermilk ~

~ Now: here, I did not have buttermilk on hand (low fat or otherwise) so, I used the stored leftover yogurt from my banana bread recipe as a substitute.

...The thing is: Yogurt, by itself, has enough of its own acidity; that, IF you used baking powder, it would ruin the baking/rising. (Found this out on About.com)

So INSTEAD, -IF- you happen to use yogurt as I did, use MORE baking SODA (1 1/2 teaspoons) and -DONT- use baking powder at all!

1/3 cup unsweetened cranberry juice
5 large eggs, room temp
1/2 cup dried cranberries, finely chopped (had some Craisins lying around)
* 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

For the glaze: 4-5 teaspoons unsweetened cranberry juice and 2 1/2 cups sugar....no, Pangy don't play that, so see below for the sauce recipe :3

So to make:

Set the oven rack as low as it can go, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Use some cooking spray on the mini-cakes or loaf pans and set what you're going to use aside.

Cream butter and sugar on high with an electric mixer (make sure the butter is warm enough folks- if not, you can always nuke it for about 30-35 seconds) until fluffy, about 6 to 8 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl every once in a while.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Also set aside (since this recipe leans to a wet/dry method).

With the butter/sugar bowl, add in the capful of vanilla extract, then add in the eggs one at a time until they're all mixed together. Add half the buttermilk/yogurt and cranberry juice, and with the mixer set on low (or just stir by hand preferably) and 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix them both briefly.

Repeat with another third of the flour mixture, then the yogurt/buttermilk, then the flour and mix until smooth- don't over-mix!

Then with a spatula (or handy wooden spoon) fold in the chopped cranberries and pecans (or walnuts, or if you don't like nuts just don't add them in) and then spoon the batter into the mini-cups of the pan, or spread evenly in the loaf pan.

Bake until nice and brown, or just use a toothpick to check if its done enough- if it comes out clean, its done all right :P Takes about 45 to 55 minutes- if you're using the mini-bundt pan I would actually say 40 to 45 minutes, especially on the lower rack!

Let them cool for about 5 minutes...

While you're baking these guys (and this recipe makes about 15 cakes, so its good enough for a large holiday family gathering) NOW is the time to make the cranberry sauce!

Its VERY simple-

1 1/2 cups water
4-5 bags black chai tea (I used the less stronger green chai tea, we'll see how that goes)
*zest from one orange
2 cans cranberry sauce with whole berries
1/4 cup fresh orange juice

In a four quart pot over high heat, pour in the water and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium low and put in tea bags...Simmer exactly 2 minutes then remove the teabags with a slotted spoon.

Add the two cans of cranberries, orange zest and increase heat to medium high. Keep it good and hot until it starts to thicken, then bring to a simmer and add in the orange juice.

Let it thicken some more- about 10 to 15 minutes- then remove from heat, cool for a bit and spoon the sauce right over the tea cakes :D

Enjoy :D