Tag: oranges

In his national address, President Trump claimed he’s bringing prices down. Here’s what the data shows.

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After nearly two months without new consumer price data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest report Thursday, providing a glimpse at energy costs, food prices and other everyday expenses.

According to the consumer price index, inflation slowed in November, with prices rising 0.2% over the 0.3% observed in September. (BLS could not collect October data because of the government shutdown.)

Still, inflation remains stubbornly high. Compared with a year ago, consumer costs are up about 2.7%.

Thursday’s report came just a day after President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time address from the White House in which he largely discussed affordability concerns, from housing costs to grocery prices, saying the U.S. is “poised for an economic boom.”

“The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before. I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast.”

In truth, of the 11 everyday costs tracked month to month by the consumer price index, only five have decreased since January.

Here’s a closer look at the president’s claims and how prices are changing, or not, during his second term in office.

To see the average U.S. price of a specific good, click on the drop-down arrow below and select the item you wish to view.

Eggs

In the wake of all-time highs set earlier this year, egg prices have collapsed in recent months.

That downward trend continued in November, with the price dropping a whopping 63 cents from September and settling at $2.86 per dozen. It’s the first time since June 2024 that the average nationwide price for a dozen large Grade A eggs registered below the $3 mark.

This steep drop-off in prices is a result of a declining number of bird flu cases in commercial and backyard flocks. In the first two months of 2025, tens of millions of birds were affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza across 39 states, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. With entire flocks culled to prevent the spread of the virus, the egg supply was strained, leading to shortages in stores and record costs for consumers.

Following another spike in cases in the early fall, the number of new infections appears to be subsiding again, with less than 2 million U.S. birds affected in the past two months. More notably, zero outbreaks among egg-laying chickens have been reported in November and December.

Consequently, costs are “falling rapidly” as highlighted by Trump in his prime-time address earlier this week.

“The price of eggs is down 82% since March, and everything else is falling rapidly. And it’s not done yet, but boy are we making progress. Nobody can believe what’s going on.”

While egg prices have dropped considerably from March’s record high of $6.23 per dozen, the difference of roughly $3.37 from March to November represents a 54% decrease — not the 82% cited by the president.

In a statement given to the Tribune, a White House official clarified that he was referring to wholesale costs, not retail prices.

Milk

The cost of milk also saw a measurable decrease from the previous month, falling 13 cents.

A gallon of fresh, fortified whole milk is now priced at $4.00 — that’s 2.5% less than it was in December 2024, before Trump took office.

Bread

The average price of white bread fell in November to $1.79 per pound, marking a three-year low for the pantry staple. Time for bread pudding, anyone?

Bananas

The cost of bananas fell slightly from September’s all-time highs, dropping just a fraction of a cent to $0.66 per pound in November.

Recent price inflation is likely a byproduct of the president’s trade war, with tariffs imposed on the country’s top banana suppliers like Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico — all of which are currently subject to an import tax of at least 10%.

But in mid-November, Trump took action to combat rising grocery costs, announcing that some agricultural products would be exempt from tariffs due to “current domestic demand for certain products” and “current domestic capacity to produce certain products.”

Both fresh and dried bananas were among the listed exemptions, indicating that lower prices may be around the corner.

Oranges

No data on orange prices was available for November.

However, in September, the cost of navel oranges was listed at $1.80 per pound, less than a cent shy of record highs and nearly 18% more than they were at the start of the Trump administration.

Drastically low domestic orange production combined with steep tariffs on foreign growers have been helping to push costs skyward. But, as with bananas, oranges are now exempt from most reciprocal tariffs.

Tomatoes

As of November, the cost of field-grown tomatoes was $1.83 per pound. That price is 8 cents lower than the previous month of data and down roughly 12% since Trump took power.

The change is somewhat abnormal given the growing season, as prices typically rise in the fall and peak in the early winter months, and could be attributable to the Trump administration’s recent course reversal on many of its tomato tariffs.

Chicken

The cost of fresh, whole chicken fell for a fourth consecutive month, to $2.04 per pound — its lowest price in a year.

Rising feed costs and the effects of bird flu on the poultry supply chain have driven persistently higher prices, but with the number of cases dropping again, we could see lower prices in the new year.

Still, the average cost is only about 2 cents less than it was when President Joe Biden left the White House.

Ground beef

Ground beef is getting more expensive.

After shoppers saw some relief in September from climbing costs, the price of ground beef jumped another 18 cents.

Rising costs can be attributed to a confluence of factors. The U.S. cattle inventory is the lowest it’s been in almost 75 years, and severe drought in parts of the country has further reduced the feed supply, per the USDA. Additionally, steep tariff rates on top beef importers also played a part in higher prices stateside, but as of Nov. 13 high-quality cuts, processed beef and live cattle are exempt from most countries’ levies.

Still, since the change of administrations, ground beef costs have ballooned by 18% — translating to $1 per pound price increases at the grocery store.

As of November, a pound of 100% ground beef chuck would set you back about $6.50.

Electricity

Electric costs have also been steadily rising.

At approximately 19 cents per kilowatt-hour, the current price of electricity is a fraction of a cent off August’s high. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average American household uses 899 kWh every four weeks, translating to a monthly bill of about $170.

Thankfully, the White House appears to be working to mitigate mounting costs. In his presidential address, Trump claimed that within the next 12 months his administration will have opened 1,600 new electrical generating plants.

“Prices on electricity and everything else will fall dramatically,” Trump said.

For many Americans, relief is needed. Since last December, the average price of electricity per kilowatt-hour has increased more than 7%.

Gasoline

Declining gas prices were another highlight of Trump’s Wednesday night remarks.

The cost of gasoline has tumbled from the record-setting prices Americans saw three summers ago under Biden, and just last month, the price at the pump dropped more than 10 cents per gallon.

“On day one I declared a national energy emergency,” Trump said. “Gasoline is now under $2.50 a gallon in much of the country. In some states, it by the way, just hit $1.99 a gallon.”

According to the latest CPI data, the average nationwide cost for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is $3.23. And though prices are noticeably lower than they were two to three years ago, that average remains higher than it was just a year ago and up nearly 3% during the Trump presidency.

Prices in Chicago, meanwhile, are about the same month-over-month, costing an average of $3.29 per gallon, according to EIA data.

Natural gas

Bucking its previous downward trend, piped utility gas, or natural gas, is another expense that’s climbing. The nationwide cost jumped 3 cents in November, landing at $1.64 per therm.

On average, Americans are paying close to 8% more to heat their homes, ovens and stovetops than when Biden left office. Year-over-year, that gap is even more drastic: a roughly 10% change or difference of 15 cents per therm.

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Claire Malon

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December 20, 2025
Is Moringa the Most Nutritious Food? | NutritionFacts.org

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Does the so-called miracle tree live up to the hype?

Moringa (Moringa oleifera) is a plant commonly known as the “miracle” tree due to its purported healing powers across a spectrum of diseases. If “miracle” isn’t hyperbolic enough for you, “on the Internet,” it’s also known as “God’s Gift to Man.” Is moringa a miracle or just a mirage? “The enthusiasm for the health beneﬁts of M. oleifera is in dire contrast with the scarcity of strong experimental and clinical evidence supporting them. Fortunately, the chasm is slowly being ﬁlled.” There has been a surge in scientiﬁc publications on moringa. In just the last ten years, the number of articles is closer to a thousand, as shown here and at 1:02 in my video The Benefits of Moringa: Is It the Most Nutritious Food?.

What got my attention was the presence of glucosinolates, compounds that boost our liver’s detoxifying enzymes. I thought they were only found in cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, kale, collards, and cauliflower. Still, it turns out they’re also present in the moringa family, with a potency comparable to broccoli. But rather than mail-ordering exotic moringa powder, why not just eat broccoli?Is there something special about moringa?

“Moringa oleifera has been described as the most nutritious tree yet discovered,” but who eats trees? Moringa supposedly “contains higher amounts of elemental nutrients than most conventional vegetable sources,” such as featuring 10 times more vitamin A than carrots, 12 times more vitamin C than oranges, 17 times more calcium than milk, 15 times more potassium than bananas, 25 times more iron than spinach, and 9 times more protein than yogurt, as shown here and at 2:08 in my video.
Sounds impressive, but first of all, even if this were true, it is relevant for 100 grams of dry moringa leaf, which is about 14 tablespoons, almost a whole cup of leaf powder. Researchers have had trouble getting people to eat even 20 grams, so anything more would likely “result in excessively unpleasant taste, due to the bitterness of the leaves.”

Secondly, the nutritional claims in these papers are “adapted from Fuglie,” which is evidently a lay publication. If you go to the nutrient database of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and enter a more reasonable dose, such as the amount that might be in a smoothie, about a tablespoon, for instance, a serving of moringa powder has as much vitamin A as a quarter of one baby carrot and as much vitamin C as one one-hundredth of an orange. So, an orange has as much vitamin C as a hundred tablespoons of moringa. A serving of moringa powder has the calcium of half a cup of milk, the potassium of not fifteen bananas but a quarter of one banana, the iron of a quarter cup of spinach, and the protein of a third of a container of yogurt, as seen below and at 3:15 in my video. So, it may be nutritious, but not off the charts and certainly not what’s commonly touted. So, again, why not just eat broccoli?

Moringa does seem to have anticancer activity—in a petri dish—against cell lines of breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, and fibrosarcoma, while tending to leave normal cells relatively alone, but there haven’t been any clinical studies. What’s the point in finding out that “Moringa oleifera extract enhances sexual performance in stressed rats,” as one study was titled?

Studies like “Effect of supplementation of drumstick (Moringa oleifera) and amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) leaves powder on antioxidant profile and oxidative status among postmenopausal women” started to make things a little interesting. When researchers were testing the effects of a tablespoon of moringa leaf powder once a day for three months on antioxidant status, they saw a drop in oxidative stress, as one might expect from eating any healthy plant food. However, they also saw a drop in fasting blood sugars from prediabetic levels exceeding 100 to more normal levels. Now, that’s interesting. Should we start recommending a daily tablespoon of moringa powder to people with diabetes, or was it just a fluke? I’ll discuss the study “Moringa oleifera and glycemic [blood sugar] control: A review of the current evidence” next.

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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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August 7, 2025
Citrus Salad
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This beautiful citrus salad is the perfect summer side dish or brunch salad.

Grapefruit and oranges are served over greens with a tangy-sweet lime vinaigrette, pistachios, and fresh herbs.

Simple Citrus Salad
- Healthy and vibrant citrus salad brings a burst of sunshine to the table any time of year!
- It’s perfect for Mother’s Day brunch or any special occasion!
- It’s loaded with vitamin C, antioxidants, protein, and a low-sugar dressing.
- Make it a main dish by adding warm or chilled sliced chicken breasts, shrimp cocktail, or a fancy filet of salmon.
Citrus Salad Ingredients

Citrus – The stars of this salad are grapefruit and oranges. I use two kinds of oranges to make it pretty, but you can use any variety. Cara cara oranges (navel oranges) and Blood oranges are sold in most grocery stores.

Arugula – The peppery bite and thicker leaves work perfectly in this recipe. Replace it with massaged kale or spring mix.

Nuts – Pistachios add a salty, nutty crunch to this citrus salad recipe.

To keep the nuts crunchy and to intensify their flavor, toast them in a dry skillet, stirring frequently, just until fragrant. Cool and add chop.

Vinaigrette – Fresh is best for the lime juice, zest some of the peel for an added garnish before serving, if desired. Honey can be switched out for agave or maple syrup.

How to Make Citrus Salad

This dramatically distinct salad will be a hit all summer long!
1. Prepare dressing and chill.
2. Cut citrus fruits and sliver red onion (recipe below).
3. Place arugula in a bowl and arrange citrus and slivered red onion on top.
4. Drizzle with dressing and garnish with pistachios and mint leaves.
Keeping Citrus Salad Fresh

This citrus salad recipe is so elegant, yet so easy! Prep the fruit and vinaigrette ahead and chill until ready to assemble!

Leftover citrus salad can be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Add fresh arugula before serving.

Our Fave Summer Salads

Did you love this Citrus Salad? Leave us a comment and a rating below!
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Citrus Salad

Bright and colorful citrus salad is the perfect way to enjoy all the flavors of summer!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

In a small bowl, combine dressing ingredients. Whisk and set aside.

Using a sharp knife, cut the skin and white pith off of the grapefruit and oranges. Slice them into ¼-inch rounds. Remove any seeds.

Place the arugula in a salad bowl or on a platter. Arrange the citrus slices and onion on top.

Drizzle with the dressing and garnish with pistachios and mint leaves.

Store ingredients separately if planning on making ahead.
Salad can be stored for up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.

Calories: 222 | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Sodium: 7mg | Potassium: 442mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 2206IU | Vitamin C: 91mg | Calcium: 103mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.

Course Lunch, Salad

Cuisine American

© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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Holly Nilsson

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April 4, 2024
Wait, Why Are Florida Grocery Stores Filled with California Oranges?

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We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.

I’ll never forget the first time I spotted cartoonishly perfect navel oranges stacked in a pyramid at my local Publix. I was 11, and the gleam of the fluorescent lighting bounced off the waxed orange peel — like the Floridian equivalent of Snow White’s apple. I turned the orange over in my hands only to see “California” on the adhered produce sticker. Huh?

It boggled my developing mind that the oranges growing right outside my door were not in stores down the street.

You see, I come from the epicenter of Orange County — the Florida one. My hometown and elementary and high schools are all named after a citrus farmer-turned philanthropist, Dr. Philip Phillips (seriously). The neighborhood in Orlando that I grew up in — called, wait for it, Orange Tree — was once surrounded by neatly lined rows of orange groves. As a kid, I could step outside, twist an orange right off a branch, and walk back inside to make fresh-squeezed juice with the manual juicer — extra pulpy, just how I like it. (It should come as no surprise that I have an orange tattoo, complete with a flowering orange blossom.)

To this day, “most pulp” is still the only kind of orange juice I buy, when I can find it; it has a layer of pulp at the top that you often have to dislodge with a knife to get it flowing, much like a ketchup bottle. It’s about as close to biting into a fresh Florida orange I get, outside of venturing through my childhood backyard.

Florida itself could be considered predominantly orange, too. In 2000 (a few years after the peak of 1998), there were 750,000 acres of orange groves, roughly the size of Yosemite National Park. Using Florida math, that’s about 27 Disney Worlds combined. Over two decades later, Florida still produced 42% of the oranges grown in the United States, with 72% of the country’s Valencia oranges coming from the state. To this day, the Florida citrus industry provides over 32,000 jobs, most of which are in areas that don’t benefit from the state’s new #1 industry: tourism.

Despite the orange mania I grew up in and around, the one place I could never find Florida oranges was in the grocery store.

Where are all the Florida oranges?

Take a carton of orange juice out of the grocery store cooler, and what will you see on the label: Florida, Florida, Florida. Confined to cartons, a staggering 90% of Florida’s entire citrus production (or 184 million boxes) is used for processing (juicing, canning, freezing). The remaining 20 million boxes are sold to the fresh market (like for gift boxes or roadside stands).

Florida oranges are prodigiously juicy, in fact. Just ask the Californians in John Mcphee’s book, aptly named Oranges, who joke about getting into a bathtub before eating an orange from Florida. (Floridians were less kind in return, proclaiming you can’t make a damp spot on pavement with a California orange, even if you run it over with a truck. I agree.) When I was a kid, commercials for Tropicana — the leading orange juice brand in the U.S. — were intoxicating, albeit unrealistic: a pair of hands would effortlessly stick a straw into a whole orange (rind included), promising the freshness of the just-picked fruit in liquid form.

While juicing might seem like a flattering enough job for an orange, for me it feels like second best, not to mention wasteful. Florida oranges are seemingly destined to an anonymous existence, swirling around with the juices of elsewhere (which it absolutely is as of late, with some “Florida”-branded orange juices now being mixed with oranges grown in Mexico and Brazil). What I know to be true is that Florida oranges can more than star on their own, and are worthy of being known in their original form.

Why do California oranges dominate the produce section?

It’s hard to deny that California oranges, which are easy to peel (unlike their Floridian cousins), seedless, and look like the Textbook Definition of an Orange, aren’t satisfying in their own way. In fact, a recent study found that “buying unattractive produce negatively impacts consumers’ view of themselves, causing a drop in self-perceptions.” (So not only are we judging this book by its cover, but doing so also makes us feel better about ourselves.)

Florida oranges do look slightly cursed, like they angered some fruit queen in a past life, forced to exist with an admittedly tricky peel, and color and size that’s less orange than its name suggests. And yet, some unconventional-looking fruits are incredibly commonplace to us: mottled mangoes, dinosaur-egg-esque avocados, and oblong heirloom tomatoes.

Florida oranges deserve their moment in the sun.

In Greek mythology, the nymph daughters of Hesperus (who gives the citrus genus its order name, Hesperidium) would guard the fruit of the garden, often stated as being golden apples, but were more likely to have been oranges. The same is true of Florida oranges, which are also in need of protection, as growers are increasingly selling off their land to cash in on the housing boom, shrinking the acreage of groves down to just half of what they were in 2000.

I have a theory about life that I ascribe to food as well: Things don’t need to be immediately appetizing or palatable to have merit. Thankfully, there’s a boom of enjoying trickier fruits, allowing them to be more widely available, like the lumpy, bumpy Sumo Citrus. Sumos are not too dissimilar to my prized Florida Valencia oranges: sweet, juicy, and a spectacle when you actually can find them in a grocery store. The Sumo gives me a hyper-seasonal burst of hope that Florida’s oranges can stage their own comeback, a glow-up hero’s journey-PR campaign of sorts. So long as their merit does not come from rarity alone.

Perhaps its comeback is not so far away, after all. The other day I got the ultimate treat: I smiled, spotting a crate of shiny, freckled, tie-dye green-orange Florida-esque oranges at my local Asian grocery store. If you can believe it, and I nearly can’t, this is the only place I can consistently get them these days. And wouldn’t you guess that this same grocery store is, ironically, in my new home state of California.

Have you spotted Florida oranges in your grocery store lately? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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Mackenzie Filson

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January 18, 2024
Flavonoid Benefits from Apple Peels | NutritionFacts.org

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Peeled apples are pitted head-to-head against unpeeled apples (and spinach) in a test of artery function.

Regularly eating apples may contribute to a lower risk of dying prematurely. “Moderate apple consumption,” meaning one or two apples a week, “was associated with a 20% lower risk of all-cause mortality”—that is, dying from all causes put together—“whereas those who ate an apple a day had a 35% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared with women with low apple consumption.”

You’ll often hear me talking about a lower or higher risk of mortality, but what does that mean? Isn’t the risk of dying 100 percent for everyone, eventually? As you can see in my graph below and at 0:40 in my video Friday Favorites: For Flavonoid Benefits, Don’t Peel Apples, I present some survival curves to help you visualize these concepts. For example, if you follow thousands of older women over time, nearly half succumb over a period of 15 years, but that half includes those who rarely, if ever, ate apples—less than 20 apples a year. Instead, those averaging more like half a small apple a day lived longer; over the same time period, closer to 40 percent or so of them died. And, those who ate one small apple or about a quarter of a large apple a day survived even longer.

Why is that the case? It seems to be less the apple of one’s eye than the apple of one’s arteries. Even a fraction of an apple a day is associated with 24 percent lower odds of having severe major artery calcifications, a marker of vascular disease. You may think that’s an obvious benefit since apples are fruits and fruits are healthy, but the effect was not found for pears, oranges, or bananas.

Both of these studies were done on women, but a similar effect (with apples and onions) was found for men. We think it’s because of the flavonoids, naturally occurring phytonutrients concentrated in apples. As you can see below and at 2:02 in my video, they’re thought to improve artery function and lower blood pressure, leading to improvements in blood flow throughout the body and brain, thereby decreasing the risk of heart disease and strokes. You don’t know, though, until you put it to the test.

When I first saw a paper on testing flavonoid-rich apples, I assumed they had selectively bred or genetically engineered a special apple. But, no. The high-flavonoid apple was just an apple with its peel, compared to the low-flavonoid apple, which was the exact same apple with its peel removed. After eating the apples, flavonoid levels in the bloodstream shot up over the next three hours in the unpeeled apple group, compared to the peeled group, as you can see below, and at 2:36 in my video. This coincided with significantly improved artery function in the unpeeled apple group compared to the peeled one. The researchers concluded that “the lower risk of CVD [cardiovascular disease] with higher apple consumption is most likely due to the high concentration of ﬂavonoids in the skin which improve endothelial [arterial] function”—though, it could be anything in the peel. All we know is that apple peels are particularly good for us, improving artery function and lowering blood pressure.
Even compared to spinach? As you can see in the graph below and at 3:14 in my video, if you give someone about three-quarters of a cup of cooked spinach, their blood pressure drops within two to three hours. If you instead eat an apple with some extra peel thrown in, you get a similar effect. The researchers concluded that apples and spinach almost immediately improve artery function and lower blood pressure.
What’s nice about these results is that we’re talking about whole foods, not some supplement or extract. So, easily, “this could be translated into a natural and low-cost method of reducing the cardiovascular risk profile of the general population.”

For more about apples, see the topic page and check out the related videos below.

What about dried apples? See Dried Apples vs. Cholesterol. What about apple cider vinegar? Check out Flashback Friday: Does Apple Cider Vinegar Help with Weight Loss?. And what about apples going head-to-head with açai berries? See The Antioxidant Effects of Açai vs. Apples.

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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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January 16, 2024
Cranberry Orange Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting – Oh Sweet Basil
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This cranberry orange cake with cream cheese frosting is bursting with holiday flavors. Perfectly moist with the softest cake crumb – the combination of sweet oranges and tart cranberries makes it perfect for Christmas.

It’s not even Christmas until you’ve had some sort of orange cranberry baked good. Am I right? The flavors and scent of those two fruits together just sings! Have you tried our orange cranberry bliss bars?? Or our cranberry orange bubble bread (perfect for Christmas morning!)?? Now you can try this orange cranberry cake too!

Oh hi there! My name’s Fiona and I’m so excited to meet you! I blog over at Just So Tasty, and today’s my first guest post on Oh Sweet Basil.

I love baking, eating cake, and listening to country music. (Is that embarrassing? The country music part I mean???) And making tasty treats for the people I love is one of my absolute favorite things.

I was so excited when Carrian asked me to share recipes on Oh Sweet Basil, so today I’m starting off with this easy Cranberry Orange Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s a perfectly moist vanilla sheet cake infused with fresh oranges and dotted with tart cranberries. Then it’s frosted with tangy cream cheese icing and decorated with sugared cranberries and orange zest.

What Do I Need to Make Cranberry Orange Cake?

Here is just a quick list of the ingredients so you can get an overview of what you will need. All the measurements and details can be found in the recipe card down below.

Sugared Cranberries
- Granulated Sugar
- Water
- Fresh Cranberries
Cranberry Orange Cake
- Dry Ingredients: Cake Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, and Salt
- Wet Ingredients: Unsalted Butter, Granulated Sugar, Egg Whites, Vanilla Extract, Milk, Sour Cream
- Cranberries tossed in Flour to keep them from sinking in the cake
- Orange Zest and Juice (fresh)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Unsalted Butter
- Cream Cheese
- Powdered Sugar
- Whipping Cream or Milk
- Orange Zest
How to Make Cranberry Orange Cake

There are three different parts to this recipe – the sugared cranberries (used for aesthetic reason and are optional), the cake and the frosting. Here are the basic steps for making this cake:

Sugared Cranberries
1. Dissolve some of the sugar into the water in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat to create a simple syrup.
2. Stir in the fresh cranberries until they are well coated and then remove the berries with a slotted spoon to a wire rack to dry.
3. After they have dried for about an hour, roll the cranberries in sugar. Return them to the wire cooling rack to dry completely.
Cranberry Orange Cake
1. Prep: Preheat the oven and line a 9×13 inch cake pan with parchment paper and cooking spray.
2. Dry Ingredients: Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Wet Ingredients: In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the egg whites and vanilla and beat until combined. Reduce the speed on the mixer and mix in the milk and sour cream.
4. Combine: Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined scraping down the sides as needed. Be sure to not overmix!
5. Coat: Toss the chopped cranberries with a little flour in a small bowl. This helps the cranberries to stay suspended in the cake rather than sinking to the bottom of the cake.
6. Fold: Carefully fold the chopped cranberries, orange juice and zest into the cake batter using a large spatula or wooden spoon.
7. Pour: Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth out the top with an offset spatula.
8. Bake: Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the sides of the cake are pulling away from the pan.
9. Cool: Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1. Cream: Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until softened and no lumps remain.
2. Sweeten: Add the powdered sugar to the butter and cream cheese mixture.
3. Consistency: Add the whipping cream a little at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
  
  Pro Tip: If you want add more orange flavor, mix in a tablespoon of orange zest to the frosting to make orange cream cheese frosting.
4. Frost: You can frost the cake in the pan or turn the cake out onto a plate or stand and frost the top of the cake with a flat-edge knife or offset spatula.
5. Serve: Slice the cake and serve with a few of the sugared cranberries on top and a sprinkle of orange zest.
All of these instructions can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post in full detail.

Now while the cake is straight forward and easy to make, there are a few key ingredients and tips to ensure it turns out perfectly. So here goes:

Tips For Making Cake
- Make sure the butter is room temperature before getting started. This makes the creaming process much easier.
- We’re using just egg whites so our cake is light & fluffy in texture. Egg whites give lift to baked goods.
- Then sour cream and milk add moisture for the perfect moist cake crumb. Make sure they’re warmed to room temperature so you don’t have to over mix the batter.
- Then to keep the cake crumb delicate, we’re using cake flour. It’s important not to pack down the flour while measuring. If you don’t have cake flour on hand, you can make your own with cornstarch and all-purpose flour. See the recipe notes for more details.
- Then for the delicious orange flavor we’re using both freshly squeezed orange juice and orange zest. The orange flavor is natural and delicious when paired with the tart cranberries.
- Finally, for the cream cheese frosting – make sure the butter and cream cheese are both softened to room temperature before getting started. This ensures your frosting is smooth and creamy with no lumps.
Are Cranberries Good for You?

Half a cup of cranberries contains only 25 calories.

The nutrients in cranberries have been linked to a lower risk of urinary tract infections, prevention of certain types of cancer, improved immune function, and decreased blood pressure.

They are low in calories and high in vitamin C, vitamin A, and vitamin K.

Why is Cream Cheese Frosting Lumpy?

There is one way to avoid lumps in your frosting and hardly any cookbooks mention it. You must cream the butter very well in the first step.

Most cookbooks instruct you to ensure the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature before mixing.

If you did this to the best of your ability and still had lumpy frosting what happened is that your butter did not soften up enough first.

Since butter and cream cheese warm at different rates the best method is to cream the heck out of the butter before adding the cream cheese.

Then it’s foolproof.

Creaming the butter for several minutes softens and warms it sufficiently so it combines smoothly with the remaining ingredients.

The flavors are perfect for the holidays and the soft, delicate cake crumb makes you ask for a second piece. Not to mention the cream cheese frosting…. Is there anything more delicious???

I absolutely love this cake for the holidays. The fresh oranges, cranberries and cream cheese frosting make for the perfect flavor combo. And if you need a cake to feed a crowd – this cranberry orange cake is for you.

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Servings: 12 -15 slices

Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Description

This cranberry orange cake with cream cheese frosting is bursting with holiday flavors. Perfectly moist with the softest cake crumb – the combination of sweet oranges and tart cranberries makes it perfect for Christmas.

For the Sugared Cranberries*

For the Cranberry Orange Cake

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

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For the Sugared Cranberries

In a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, dissolve 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar in the 1/2 cup water.

1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar, 1/2 Cup Water

Once the sugar is dissolved, stir in the fresh cranberries until they’re well coated in the sugar water.

6 oz Fresh Cranberries

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cranberries to a wire rack to dry.

After approximately 1 hour, roll the cranberries in the additional 1 cup of sugar.

1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar

Transfer the cranberries back to the wire rack to dry.

For the Cranberry Orange Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.

Line the bottom of a 9×13 inch cake pan with parchment paper, and grease the sides of the pan with cooking spray or grease and flour the entire pan.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt ensuring there aren’t lumps in the flour.

2 1/2 Cups Cake Flour, 2 teaspoons Baking Powder, 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda, 1/4 teaspoon Salt

Set aside.

In a separate large bowl using a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed and fluffy and no lumps remain (about 1-2 minutes).

3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, 1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar

Add in the egg whites and vanilla and continue beating until combined (about 30 seconds).

4 Large Egg Whites, 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Then turn the mixer down to low speed and beat in the milk and sour cream.

1/3 Cup Whole Milk, 1/2 Cup Sour Cream

With the mixer on low speed, carefully beat in the flour mixture. Be very careful not to over mix the batter.

Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a large rubber spatula or wooden spoon.

In a separate medium sized bowl (or the bowl that you used to sift together the flour mixture), toss the chopped cranberries with 2 teaspoons of flour.

2 Cups Cranberries, 2 teaspoons Flour

Carefully stir the chopped cranberries, orange zest and orange juice into cake batter using your large rubber spatula or wooden spoon.

3 Tablespoons Orange Zest, 1/2 Cup Orange Juice

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth the top with your spatula.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean and the edges of the cake are pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Allow to cool fully before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

In a large bowl using a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until softened and no lumps remain.

1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, 6 oz Cream Cheese

Turn down the mixer to low speed and careful beat in the powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time.

2-3 Cups Powdered Sugar

Finally, beat in the whipping cream 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired sweetness level and consistency are reached. You may need to add in a little extra powdered sugar as necessary. The frosting should be smooth, and thinner than peanut butter in consistency.

1-2 Tablespoons Whipping Cream

To Frost the Cake

Invert it from the cake pan and place on a cake board. (Alternatively, you can frost it in the pan and serve it from there.)

Frost the top of the cake with the cream cheese frosting using a flat-edge knife or offset spatula.

Slice into 12-15 pieces, and place a few sugared cranberries on the top of each piece, and sprinkle with additional orange zest.

1-2 Tablespoons Orange Zest

Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to 3 days. Bring the cake to room temperature before enjoying.
*You’ll likely have extra sugared cranberries. These also make a pretty centerpiece.
**If you don’t have cake flour, measure out 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. Then remove 1/3 cup of the flour and replace it with 1/3 cup cornstarch. Whisk the mixture together.

Serving: 1pieceCalories: 607kcalCarbohydrates: 96gProtein: 6gFat: 23gSaturated Fat: 14gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 63mgSodium: 166mgPotassium: 209mgFiber: 2gSugar: 73gVitamin A: 800IUVitamin C: 12mgCalcium: 79mgIron: 0.5mg

Author: Fiona

Course: 500+ Best Dessert Recipes
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If you love cranberries & oranges, why not try this cranberry orange loaf? It’s perfectly moist and drizzled with sweet orange glaze.

Now – I absolutely love anything with white chocolate, and the combination of sweet white chocolate and tart cranberries is even more delicious. How amazing do these look?

Or why not try this white chocolate cranberry pecan fudge? It’s a perfect gift for the holidays.
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Sweet Basil

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December 23, 2023
Easy Ambrosia Salad
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Looking for a sweet and refreshing side dish or dessert?

This Ambrosia Salad recipe is just the thing, it combines pineapple, coconut, mandarin oranges, and mini marshmallows in a creamy base.
What is Ambrosia Salad?

Ambrosia means ‘food of the gods,’ and this version is a family favorite.

Despite its name, ambrosia salad is a a sweet fluff salad that is dessert-like and often served as a side for Easter, Thanksgiving or at potlucks.

This salad, aka 5-cup salad needs just 5 ingredients and 5 minutes of prep.

It’s perfect for holidays and potlucks since it’s best made ahead of time.
Ingredients for Ambrosia Salad

Yogurt/Sour Cream – The creamy base starts with either sour cream or Greek yogurt. Our family has always used sour cream, which is sweetened by the marshmallows. Feel free to try vanilla yogurt or whipped topping (such as Cool Whip) in place.

Fruit – Our family’s recipe for Ambrosia Salad has coconut shreds, mandarin oranges, and pineapple, but you can mix things up with fruit cocktail or canned peaches. For a fresh flavor, stir in fresh fruit like grapes, bananas, blueberries, or strawberries.

Additions – While this recipe is delicious on its own, you can add other ingredients. Try adding maraschino cherries or nuts like walnuts or pecans to give it a bit of extra crunch and flavor.
How to Make Ambrosia Salad

Ambrosia Fruit Salad is a great side to whip up if you are short on time!

Drain the pineapple and oranges (per the recipe below).

Add all ingredients except oranges and mix well. Gently fold in oranges.

Let chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
Tips for Ambrosia Salad

Be sure to make this salad ahead of time to blend the flavors and soften the marshmallows.

Drain the canned fruit so the dish isn’t watery.

Gently fold in the mandarin oranges last, as they can be fragile and break apart.
More Dessert Salads
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Easy Ambrosia Salad

This ambrosia salad recipe is so easy to make, perfectly fluffy and a great holiday side dish!

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Chill Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 10 minutes

Author Holly Nilsson

In a medium bowl, mix sour cream, marshmallows, coconut, and pineapple tidbits.

Gently fold in mandarin oranges.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Serve chilled.

Make this salad ahead and store in the fridge to blend the flavors and soften the marshmallows.

Drain all fruit well so the dish isn’t watery.

Gently fold in the mandarin oranges last, they can be fragile and break apart.

Use Greek yogurt or plain yogurt, or sour cream for the base. I prefer sour cream.

Calories: 150 | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 29mg | Potassium: 225mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 296IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 62mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.

Course Dessert, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine American

© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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Holly Nilsson

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November 17, 2023