A sweet buttery cake with the flavor of tart cranberries, white chocolate chips and pecans.
Today I have a delicious Christmas Cake to share with you! I have several bags of fresh cranberries in my freezer, so I needed a new recipe to use some of them up. I plan on making Christmas jam with a few of the bags, but I thought a festive Christmas Cranberry Cake would be nice.
I found this recipe a couple months back and pinned on Pinterest to make over the Christmas Holiday. I love cake and I love cranberries, so I thought it was the perfect combination. This cake also calls for pantry staples that you probably already have on hand.
I did adapt the original recipe from the Barefeet in the Kitchen blog after reading through several of the comments. Most of the readers were stating that the cake was dense, dry and heavy using only all purpose flour and no baking powder, salt or baking soda.
I tweaked the recipe a bit by substituting with self rising flour, adding milk, and white chocolate chips to balance out the tartness of the cranberries. I also sprinkled a bit of regular sugar on the top of the batter just before baking for added crispness.
This cake turned out fabulous!!!!! I loved it so much that I made one to take for Thanksgiving with our family, and everyone raved about it and wanted the recipe. I think the little changes I made worked out perfectly and the cake was moist, and fluffy. I also ♥ loved ♥ the addition of the white chocolate chips. I hope you'll give this recipe a try because I think this is the perfect holiday cake.
Yield: 10
Cranberry Christmas Cake
A sweet buttery cake with the flavor of tart cranberries, white chocolate chips and pecans.
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 1 Hour
Ingredients
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup buttermilk or whole milk
- 2 cups self rising flour (do not substitute) this makes the cake soft and fluffy
- 1 bag (12 oz) fresh cranberries
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup pecan pieces, optional
- powdered sugar for dusting or crumb topping
Crumb Topping:
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons softened butter
- 6 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with baking spray with flour. In a large bowl or using your kitchen aid mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together for 5 minutes.
- Add the butter, vanilla extract and milk: Beat until well blended. Add the flour and mix to combine. In a separate bowl add the fresh cranberries and toss them in a bit of flour (this keeps the cranberries from sinking to the bottom of the cake).
- Fold in the fresh cranberries, white chocolate chips and pecans if using. Batter will be slightly thick. Using an offset spatula spread the batter into prepared pan. If using the crumble topping prepare the topping and sprinkle it over the top of the batter.
- In a small bowl add the flour, sugar and butter.
- Using a pastry blender or a fork cut the butter into the flour sugar mixture until it resembles a coarse meal.
- Sprinkle the crumble mixture evenly over the cranberry cake batter just before baking.
- Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove cake to baking rack and cool completely before slicing. If dusting with powdered sugar omit the crumb topping.
Notes:
This cake also freezes well. I prepared, baked, and froze this cake a week before Thanksgiving and it tasted as fresh as the day I baked it when I pulled it out of the freezer.
I only bake this cake using Self-Rising Flour. I cannot say how this cake will turn out if you substitute with another flour.
Inspired by: Barefeet in the Kitchen
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