Cranberry-Pecan Corn Bread with Cardamom

This is one of those crazy magazine clippings I've been toting around our whole married life!  It's from Bon Appetit and I've been wanting to try it for years!  As you may have noticed, I love cornbread-love having a few different recipes to change it up a bit.  This one's definitely a winner-the cranberry, orange, and cardamom go so well together!  If you don't have a springform pan, any pan will do, just make sure it is well buttered.

1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups light sour cream
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter,
melted, cooled slightly
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

Combine dried cranberries and orange juice in a small bowl.  Let stand until cranberries soften slightly, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.  Drain and discard the juice.  Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees.  Generously coat a 10-inch springform pan with butter.  Wrap the outside of pan with foil.  In a large bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, cardamom and baking soda.  Whisk eggs in a medium bowl to blend.  Add sour cream, maple syrup, melted butter and orange peel to eggs and whisk to blend well.  Add sour cream mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until blended.  Mix in pecans and cranberries.  Transfer batter to prepared pan.  Bake corn bread until golden brown and cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely in pan.  Using a sharp knife, cut around bread to loosen; release pan sides.  Cut into 12 wedges.