christmas cranberry cake

Looking for perfect, delicious and easy Christmas dessert recipe? Then you should try this decadent pound cake with cranberries, white chocolate and cream cheese frosting! Your family would love to have this cake for Christmas, for sure!

Christmas Cranberry Pound Cake

cake

baking powder

salt

cranberries (fresh

(5 oz.) white chocolate chunk

(1/2 cup) unsalted butter-softened

sugar

heavy cream

mascarpone cheese

eggs

vanilla extract

Tablespoons browned butter

(1/4 cup) unsalted butter-softened

(4 oz.) cream cheese-softened

cranberries

vegetable oil

white chocolate chips

Preheat the convection air oven to 325 F (if you don’t have convection air oven raise the temperature to 350 F and you will have to rotate the pan half way through the baking time)

Butter and flour 8.5 x 4.5 x 3 (or 9 x 5 x 3 )inches loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.

Combine cake flour, baking powder and salt and sift it three times, set aside.

In a small sauce pan over medium heat brown 2.5 Tablespoons butter until it’s nice amber color, remove the foam and set aside to cool.

Whisk the egg with vanilla extract and set aside.

Mix the butter on medium speed until it’s creamy, slowly add sugar and continue beating until it’s creamy.

Add heavy cream and mascarpone, and beat on medium speed.

Turn mixer on low speed and gradually add dry ingredients alternately with eggs.

Add handful flour in chocolate chunks and toss them to cover evenly. Toss cranberries with a handful flour to cover them completely.

Add chocolate chunks in the batter and stir well, then gently stir in cranberries

Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan, smooth the top and gently tap the pan on working surface to remove the air bubbles.

With a butter knife draw a line down the center of the pound cake and pour browned butter into the line.

Bake until the top of the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean (about 55 to 65 minutes).  If you don&#8217;t have convection air oven, baking time might be about 10 minutes longer. If the top starts browning too much tent the cake with aluminum foil

Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool on the rack.

When the cake is completely cooled prepare the glaze.

With a mixer, cream together softened butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar and beat until smooth, mix in vanilla extract. Spread on top of the cake.Place the cake in the fridge until the frosting is set.

Glaze:

When the frosting is set melt 1/2 cup white chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a small sauce pan over low heat until it’s smooth( cool if it’s too thin)

Sprinkle the cake with dried cranberries and drizzle with chocolate. (You can drizzle the chocolate with a spoon or transfer it into small zip-lock bag, cut off the corner and pipe the chocolate over the cake).

Garnish:

I was lucky enough to be gifted this cake last Christmas! OMG. It was one of the most delicious cakes I’ve ever had. And I consider myself discerning! I do love most cranberry things, though. Pulled the recipe up to make it this Valentine’s. The gifter makes it every year, as written, so that’s what I will do as well. It is unique, beautiful and perfect!! Thank you so much for sharing! ❤️ ?

I saw that you didn't use the orange zest.  I don't like the "strands" zest can leave.  However, I did add an orange liquor  to the cake.  Thought it complimented the cake nicely.

Bonnie, I love your suggestion for using orange liqueur. I love cranberries a and orange zest together, myself, but the liqueur sounds yummy too.

Hi i made this tonight changing out the flour to gluten free baking mix i use because i am celiac. I made it using a silicone mini loaf pan,. my question is my loaves sunk in the middle once they cooled. Is that normal or is it because of my gluten free mix. Smells heavenly and after I ice then who will know right LOL

Can you make and freeze this cake.  Frost after thawing?

Can I use dried cranberries for the entire recipe? Do you have another suggestion instead of the mascarpone cheese if it's unavailable?

Excellent cake - I used wild Newfoundland Partridge Berries - they are like a cranberry but have tarter taste. Thanks

Lynette, In the states the "cake flour" is Swan Cake Flour, in a red &amp; white box in the baking isle at your local grocery.

Great flavor on this cake; but mine sank in the middle also...I think 350 is too hot, will try 325 with a cover on top next time.

So u made 4 of these today, as gifts. I followed the directions to a T, except I sifted out the extra flour after coating both the white chocolate and cranberries. For my first cake, I put a small well in the top and added the brown butter, but it overflowed as my well wasn't deep enough. I baked it for 60 minutes, then tented the top with foil and baked it an extra 10 (I have a very old oven, definitely not a convection) and it turned out perfectly, until I tried to flip it onto a cooling rack and threw it across my kitchen table. On the plus side, it allowed me to taste the cake and it was AMAZING, and this is unfrosted! My second cake, I made the well bigger to hold the brown butter, but this prevented the center from cooking fully, even after 70 minutes, so I took a knife and kind of cut into the middle to give the butter somewhere to go, and baked it an additional 20 minutes and it too, turned out perfect. This one, I kept in tact. For my 3rd and 4th cakes, I just poured the butter on top and they were perfect in 70 minutes of bake time. I will frost them tomorrow, but I cannot wait to give these as gifts!

I used mini loaf pans, and they baked in about 45 minutes. I covered them with aluminum foil at 25 minutes, and they didn't over-brown. 

I don't like desserts that are too sweet, so I left the frosting off and dusted the cakes with confectioners sugar. They were lovely

This recipe is a fail! I followed the instructions EXACTLY. Exact measures. Its weird to me because I've baked hundreds of pound cakes and regular cakes and have lots of experience and NEVER have I heard to "rotate" the pan halfway. If your making any sort of cake you should never open the oven while baking or cold air rushes in and makes it fall, and then the center never bakes, and it stays jiggly and only the top bakes and ends up burning, with unbaked batter in the center! I decided to follow this recipe exactly and rotated it halfway and right after that the cake stopped baking, its been baking for forever now and the middle is still jiggly, the outside is only browning. Very unreliable recipe, definatley would not make again. If anyone still wants to make this, don't open the oven!! Your cake will fall, like mine and never bake in the center. Toothpick kept coming out wet and its been going for more than an hour, way more than a pound cake should even be in the oven, do not make this recipe, I've had to put tin foil in hope of it baking in the center.

Exactly the same happened to me.  Wet in the center having to overcook...ugh, disaster.  I think the size of the loaf pan may have been the culprit because otherwise the cake has an amazing taste.  I am going to try this again, but will try smaller, mini loaf pans and follow my instinct instead of this recipe.  Just a little tweaking, but this is beautiful as the picture and does taste wonderful!  Little trial and error, but worth it!

I've tried this recipe twice now and both times it has not been successful.  I have had the same problems as Nicole K., Sandy and Nicki, in that the cake was never truly done.  I followed the directions very carefully, including checking the measurements of my pan.  Both times, the batter in the centre was still mushy and the last time I made this recipe, the batter over-flowed the pan onto the bottom of my  oven.  Quite a mess!  I don't think I'll try this recipe again.

I wish I would have read all the comments before I bought all the things to make this.
It's been in the oven for a while now and it's not done. I wonder if it will even cook through.
I wonder if I try muffins instead, if it'll cook. 
So far it's a waste of money and time. Ugh!

My first attempt was a disaster.  I am an experienced baker and thought maybe the middle wasn't cooking because I had used a LeCreuset stoneware loaf pan instead of metal.  So I tried a second time with the metal pan and had the exact results.  There is something not working with this recipe unfortunately.  I covered the loaf with foil and lowered the conventional oven temp to 325 for the last ten minutes.  It helped but it is a tad too dark anyway.  Not sure I'm going for a third attempt.  Bummer.

I also had the problems stated above. I think mine is due to the fact of me not understanding my new stove. Who reads the manuals? Haha
My old stove wasn't convection so I'm new to that. I set the temperature for convection at 325 when I should have set it to 350 because my stove automatically sets it 25 degrees lower.
After 50 minutes my middle was too jiggly and that's when it dawned on me. I reset the temp and checked every 10 minutes until no more jiggle. The outside is darker than I would like but it still tastes amazing. I can't wait to try it the correct way!

This cake is beautiful!  It tastes amazing!  It is now my husbands favorite cake.  He has put in a request to have it for his birthday.  I have made it twice now, the first time i used a loaf pan, it took about 80 minutes to cook.  I am not a fan of convection cooking.  The next time, I used a bundt,  it took 50 minutes with conventional oven.  I loved this cake, the process, and outcome were well worth the work!

MY FIRST POUNDCAKE! And it turned out better than I imagined. I plan to make it every new year.

Question: how to properly store this poundcake, refrigerated? Or is counter okay?

It came out very good. I followed the recipe with only one change, I did not use the melted butter at the end. It cooked in about 70 minutes,  the first 30 min on regular bake at 350 degrees, followed by convection at 325 degrees for the remainder of the time. I had an oven thermometer in there so the temp was accurate, I checked it several times. People who are complaining about it not cooking may not be using convection, which usually decreases cooking time by about 20-25%. But I weighed the the flour and sugar, and used volume measurements for the rest. Can't understand anyone saying you mixed up the measurements when you give both weight and volume measurements, and they can use whatever they are comfortable with. I decided to weigh the flour and sugar because of all the recipes fails reported here, and weighing is so much more accurate. Does cake flour really need to be sifted 3 times? Can this be made like a standard pound cake, adding the eggs and vanilla to the creamed butter and then alternating flour and cream? I hate making more dirty dishes than I need to! After all that it tastes delicious! Just wish it was simplified a bit and put together a little more like a standard pound cake. But I WILL make this again. Yum!

I just finished making this for the 3rd year in a row.  It has become a Christmas morning tradition to open gifts and eat Christmas Cranberry Pound Cake.  This year, I make 2 batches. One for our family and 4 mini loaves to share with neighbors.   Thank you for this amazing recipe!

Printing your recipe with blank spaces where the ads were turns your recipe into a 4 page print out. The 4th page is blank,  1st page has a huge empty space, 2nd page also has a huge blank space, moving some of the instructions onto the 3rd page.  Poor design.

So I made 4 of these today, as gifts. I followed the directions to a T, except I sifted out the extra flour after coating both the white chocolate and cranberries. For my first cake, I put a small well in the top and added the brown butter, but it overflowed as my well wasn’t deep enough. I baked it for 60 minutes, then tented the top with foil and baked it an extra 10 (I have a very old oven, definitely not a convection) and it turned out perfectly, until I tried to flip it onto a cooling rack and threw it across my kitchen table. On the plus side, it allowed me to taste the cake and it was AMAZING, and this is unfrosted! My second cake, I made the well bigger to hold the brown butter, but this prevented the center from cooking fully, even after 70 minutes, so I took a knife and kind of cut into the middle to give the butter somewhere to go, and baked it an additional 20 minutes and it too, turned out perfect. This one, I kept in tact. For my 3rd and 4th cakes, I just poured the butter on top and they were perfect in 70 minutes of bake time. I will frost them tomorrow, but I cannot wait to give these as gifts!

Christmas Cranberry Cake topped with a sweet butter sauce is perfect for Christmas or any occasion! Easy homemade cranberry cake recipe uses fresh cranberries for a delicate, flavorful dessert. 

CHRISTMAS CRANBERRY CAKE

TBSP butter

evaporated milk

TBSP baking powder

flour

tsp salt

cranberries (or frozen, not thawed.)

salted butter (1 stick)

vanilla

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour bundt pan, then set aside.

 Cream butter and sugar. Add milk. Mix in dry ingredients. Fold in berries.

Pour into your greased pan (it is thick!).

Bake in bundt pan at 350°F for 20 minutes. Decrease heat to 325 °F and continue baking 40 additional minutes. Insert a toothpick in center of cake to check for doneness.

For butter sauce, heat ingredients slowly in a small saucepan. Bring just to a boil, then remove from heat and let cool slightly. Serve the sauce warm over the cake. 

Delicious. Was in the mood for a simple cake and happened to have a bag of cranberries in the freezer.  This cake was so easy to make and it is so delicious! The simple vanilla cake and tart cranberries are the perfect combo and the butter suace takes it over the top. Saving this to make again at Christmas.

Ok, I broke down and made it. WOW. I am super impressed. You are right, you HAVE to make the sauce, and you HAVE to take it to a party, or else you will hide in your kitchen and eat half of it yourself....not that I&amp;#39;m speaking from experience or anything ;)This is the first recipe I&amp;#39;ve actually tried on here, and I&amp;#39;m glad I did. Guess that means I better try out a few more!

It looks delicious and juicy. My husband adores such kind of cakes full of sauce. I just have a question about eggs. No eggs in the recipe? Or it&amp;#39;s a mistake?

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Top 2 christmas cranberry cake recipes from across the web

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