Grain-free Almond Flour Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake made refined sugar-free, dairy-free and paleo friendly. This moist, fluffy, perfectly sweet treat is an explosion of citrusy sweet flavors.
If you’re like me and you are coffee cake’s number one fan, you’ll just adore this cranberry orange coffee version.
Fluffy, moist, and perfectly sweet with tart cranberries and zesty orange, we’re left with a beautiful combination of flavors.
I took my classic Almond Flour Coffee Cake recipe and simply added a generous amount of orange zest and some fresh cranberries.
If you enjoyed my Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Muffins or my Grain-Free Cranberry Orange Breakfast Cake, you’ll surely get a kick out of this cake.
Made grain-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free, this healthy recipe is ideal for those with dietary restrictions.
Using less sweetener than standard coffee cake, this healthier coffee cake is a great option for those who enjoy a wholesome treat without as much sugar.
Before we get started, a note.
A common misconception about coffee cake is that it contains coffee. Traditional coffee cake doesn’t contain coffee so you won’t see it in the ingredients list.
Coffee cake gets its name because it was designed to be paired with your morning coffee.
In this sense, there isn’t any coffee flavor here. The combination of cinnamon, orange, and cranberry fits together seamlessly and creates a wild ride for the taste buds.
For a sugar-free coffee cake, make my Dairy-Free Keto Coffee Cake. You can add orange zest and cranberries to this base recipe for low-carb cranberry orange coffee cake.
Let’s discuss the healthy ingredients for this coffee cake.
Ingredients for Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake:
Almond Flour and Tapioca Flour: Taking the place of regular all-purpose flour, we use a combination of almond flour and tapioca flour. These two grain-free flours work magically together to create a texture that is similar to regular flour.
Eggs: Bringing a fluffy texture to the cake, we need three large eggs. I haven’t tested the recipe using flax eggs or any other egg replacer, but in my limited experience with egg-free baking, grain-free recipes often turn out fairly dense.
Coconut Oil: The fat portion of the recipe, melted coconut oil brings buttery flavor and richness. The oil (or butter) makes for a moist cake.
Pure Maple Syrup: Rather than using cane sugar to sweeten the coffee cake, I like using pure maple syrup to keep it refined sugar-free.
Coconut Sugar: While pure maple syrup is used for the cake portion of the recipe, coconut sugar is used in the streusel topping. Coconut sugar is lower on the glycemic index than regular sugar and also has a natural caramel flavor.
Vanilla Extract: A splash of pure vanilla extract brings warm flavor to this cranberry orange cake. If you enjoy almond extract, feel free to add 1/2 teaspoon.
Ground Cinnamon: The star ingredient of coffee cake, ground cinnamon brings a warm flavor that is so cozy and comforting.
We need a couple tablespoons of cinnamon for this recipe, so be sure to check your cinnamon stash before starting the recipe.
Pecans: Crunchy pecans get added to the streusel topping to bring a little texture to the cake. You can swap them out for walnuts or omit them if you don’t like nuts.
Baking Powder: ’The leavening agent here. Baking powder helps the cake rise and bake evenly.
Sea Salt: A pinch of salt enhances all of the flavors so that the cake has a well-rounded flavor.
Orange Zest and Fresh Cranberries: These two ingredients bring the coffee cake to life! The citrus, tangy flavor turns classic coffee cake into a dreamy experience.
We need 1 tablespoon of orange zest, which equates to about 2 large oranges worth of zest. I use navel oranges for the best flavor, but other types of oranges should work well too.
We don’t need the orange flesh or orange juice, so you can juice the oranges or eat them as normal.
Looking to customize this recipe? Here are some options.
Recipe Adaptations:
- You can substitute arrowroot flour for tapioca flour if you’d like. Aside from that, I don’t recommend making any other changes to the flours for the best results.
- Use avocado oil or melted butter instead of coconut oil if you’d prefer. Olive oil works too if you enjoy olive oil cake.
- Swap out the coconut sugar in the topping for regular brown sugar.
- For a coconut flour version, make one of the other coffee cake recipes on this site, as most of them use coconut flour.
- If you have leftover cranberry sauce, stir in 1/2 cup instead of using fresh cranberries.
- Rather than using oil in the cake, you can try using sour cream or greek yogurt to add more tangy flavor.
- Swap out fresh cranberries for 2/3 cup of dried cranberries. This is a great option for making this festive coffee cake any time of the year when bags of cranberries aren’t available.
Now that we’ve discussed the simple ingredients for this grain-free coffee cake recipe, let’s make it!
How to Make Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 8-inch square pan with parchment paper. You can also use an 8-inch round pan or a 9-inch cake pan.
In a small bowl, stir together the ingredients for the streusel topping and set aside until ready to use.
Add the oil, eggs, pure maple syrup, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl and mix to combine the wet ingredients.
In a separate bowl, stir together the almond flour, tapioca flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and sea salt (dry ingredients).
Pour the dry mixture into the bowl with the wet mixture and mix until a smooth batter forms.
Cut the fresh cranberries in half, then toss them in 1 teaspoon of tapioca flour to prevent them from sinking during the baking process.
Stir in the orange zest and cranberries into the coffee cake batter.
Pour half of the coffee cake batter into the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer. Sprinkle half of the streusel topping mixture over the cake batter. Repeat for the remaining batter and the remaining crumble topping.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake on the center rack of the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cake has set up and is golden brown around the edges.
This coffee cake will be fully baked once it reaches an internal temperature of 190 degrees F. You can insert a meat thermometer into the center of the cake to verify for doneness if you have a thermometer on hand.
The baking time changes based on the temperature of the ingredients and whether or not you’re a a high altitude, so I recommend using the thermometer method for the best results.
Allow the coffee cake to cool to room temperature before slicing and serving.
Coffee cake is even more flavorful the next day and the following 2-3 days following baking. For this reason, making coffee cake in advance is never a bad idea.
How to Store Coffee Cake:
For the first 2 days following baking, coffee cake can be stored at room temperature. Simply wrap the pan in plastic wrap.
After the first 2 days, store leftovers in the refrigerator. For the best results, store them in an airtight container so that the cake doesn’t dry out.
You can also store coffee cake in the freezer for up to 3 months in a large zip lock bag.
And that’s it! A delicious citrusy cake with amazing cinnamon sugar swirl to really tantalize the taste buds.
The cranberry orange flavors are perfect for the holiday season and beyond. My entire family loved this almond flour cake, in spite of the fact that we have a lot of picky eaters in the family. We ate the entire cake in less than 24 hours.
It’s a great recipe for Christmas morning. The next time you’re looking for a festive treat, this cranberry cake is a great make-ahead option that can be enjoyed any time of day.
If you love coffee cake recipes, also try out these reader favorites!
More Coffee Cake Recipes:
- The Best Gluten-Free Coffee Cake
- Paleo Apple Coffee Cake
- Keto Blueberry Coffee Cake
- Chai-Spiced Paleo Coffee Cake
- Paleo Blueberry Coffee Cake
Enjoy this leveled up coffee cake!
Almond Flour Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Grain-Free Coffee Cake:
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup coconut oil melted, or avocado oil
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups almond flour leveled
- ½ cup tapioca flour leveled
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 Tbsp orange zest
- 1 cup fresh cranberries halved
Cinnamon Streusel Topping:
- ⅔ cup almond flour
- ¾ cup raw pecans chopped
- ⅔ cup coconut sugar
- 5 Tbsp coconut oil melted or melted butter
- 1 ½ Tbsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 8-inch square pan with parchment paper. You can also use an 8-inch round pan or a 9-inch cake pan.
- In a small bowl, stir together the ingredients for the streusel topping and set aside until ready to use.
- Add the oil, eggs, pure maple syrup, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl and mix to combine the wet ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the almond flour, tapioca flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and sea salt (dry ingredients).
- Pour the dry mixture into the bowl with the wet mixture and mix until a smooth batter forms.
- Cut the fresh cranberries in half, then toss them in 1 teaspoon of tapioca flour to prevent them from sinking during the baking process.
- Stir in the orange zest and cranberries into the coffee cake batter.
- Pour half of the coffee cake batter into the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer. Sprinkle half of the streusel topping mixture over the cake batter. Repeat for the remaining batter and the remaining crumble topping.
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake on the center rack of the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cake has set up and is golden brown around the edges.
- This coffee cake will be fully baked once it reaches an internal temperature of 190 degrees F. You can insert a meat thermometer into the center of the cake to verify for doneness if you have a thermometer on hand.
Nutrition
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This is good, but it took an extra 15 minutes to get to the internal temperature of 190 degrees. It was still very jiggly after 45 minutes.
I did not cut the cranberries in half. That is way too tedious. I used frozen cranberries and chopped them roughly in the food processor.
Thanks so much for sharing, Connie! I’m glad you used the thermometer trick – it really makes a huge difference, as varying brands of ingredients, level of moisture, and varying elevations can impact the chemistry 🙂
This was the best coffee cake I can ever remember eating in all of my 70 years! And that’s a lot of coffee cakes!
I always hate it when a recipe is reviewed and the writer changes half of the ingredients, but I did have to make some subs, which couldn’t have altered the taste or texture by much.
In the cake, I intentionally used kefir instead of the coconut oil. I also couldn’t find any fresh or frozen cranberries, so I found some rather large organic dried cranberries (in my pantry!) and used them. I also LOVE the taste of almond so I heavy-handedly added 1/2 tsp almond extract (my mother taught me to always overflow when measuring with vanilla or almond extracts!) along with the prescribed vanilla.
We had to cut the cake in half and freeze it or my husband and I would have eaten the whole thing today.
Thanks so much for the sweet note! I appreciate you sharing your changes – they sound absolutely delicious and seems like you hit a homerun with your creative swaps. Thanks so much for the feedback! xo
Would it be possible to substitute tapioca flour with rice flour, or oat flour or another starch like corn or potato? Where I live it’s hard to get tapioca or arrowroot flour:(
Hi Tanya! I haven’t tested the recipe with anything other than tapioca flour, but I think the next best replacement out of the ones you listed would be rice flour 🙂 I would start with 1/4 cup of rice flour and if the batter seems too thin, I would add the remaining 1/4 cup. Hope you enjoy!
Hi,
I’m going to try this for sure. Do you think I could use frozen cranberries?
Regards,
G
You can use frozen cranberries 🙂 I’d recommend thawing them first because it will probably be easier to cut them in half when they aren’t so cold. Hope you enjoy! xo