Stephanie's Ego Bread (Cranberry Walnut)

These lovely photos are the result of a weekend of ego-boosting bread baking. They are cranberry-walnut mini-bundts, and they go delightfully with tea! I made several of them for a bake sale fundraiser, and the DH provided the marvelous packaging. The first day, I contributed 5 packs. They sold for $5 a piece, within the first hour. Well, this stroked my ego for sure, so I made another batch on Friday night to sell on Saturday. I've listed the recipe below...read all the way to the bottom to see my variations for the mini-bundts. My favorite thing about this recipe, aside from the mini bundts being very pretty, is that it uses fresh cranberries. Enjoy!

Stephanie's Ego Bread (AKA Cranberry-Walnut)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chopped cranberries (they chop up really well in a hand nut chopper)
1/2 cup water (plus a couple of tablespoons, if needed)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Loaf Instructions
Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Grease and lightly flour a loaf pan.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs with an electric mixer. Stir in the water, vanilla, and cranberries.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in the wet mixture and chopped nuts. Add a couple of tablespoons of water if the batter seems too dry. Pour the batter into a loaf pan. Bake for ~50 - 55 min. Test with a toothpick.

Mini Bundt Instructions
I have a mini-bundt pan (6 molds) with a dark nonstick surface. Because of this, I reduce the oven temp by 25 degrees to 325.

Grease well the insides of the bundt pan, going slowly to get all the crevices. (The instructions with the pan suggest a light flouring, too. I forgot to do this, and it worked just fine.)

Follow the instructions above to make the batter. Spoon the batter into the mini-bundts.

Cook for about 35 minutes. Start checking with a toothpick about 32 min.

Remove the mini bundt pan from the oven and let it cool for at least 20 minutes before trying to remove the bread. Turn out the mini bundts onto a wire cooling rack. Let cool completely, then dust with powdered sugar (it looks like snow!).