Cranberry Christmas Cake Recipe
Tried it? Rate this Recipe:
|
Category: |
Category: |
|
Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour * see note below for gluten-free alternative
12 oz fresh cranberries
|
|
Directions: |
Directions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
With a mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until slightly thickened and light in color, about 5-7 minutes. The mixture should almost double in size. The eggs work as your leavening agent in this recipe, so do not skip this step.
The sugar and egg mixture should form a ribbon when you lift the beaters out of the bowl.
Add the butter and vanilla; mix two more minutes. Stir in the flour until just combined.
Add the cranberries and stir to mix throughout.
Spread in a buttered 9×13 pan. (This pan is my favorite!)
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. (I baked mine for 43 minutes.) Let cool completely before cutting into small slices.
I cut mine into fairly small pieces, about 1″ x 2″ so that they could be easily eaten at a party. |
|
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Yes, you will use fresh, raw cranberries for this recipe. They will soften and burst as the cake bakes. There is a good bit of sugar in this recipe and it balances the tartness of the cranberries.
Yes, you can use frozen cranberries. I buy multiple bags of fresh cranberries every year when they start appearing in the stores. Just toss them straight into the freezer to have them on hand through the year. I use frozen cranberries almost every time I make this cake.
However, the dough will “freeze” up a bit and become even thicker and it will be somewhat more difficult to stir in the cranberries. I find it easiest to let the frozen berries thaw on the counter for a little while as I’m beginning to prepare the cake.
This is a very thick batter that will resemble cookie dough when it has finished mixing. You will need to press it into the pan to spread it out.
There is no baking soda or baking powder needed in this recipe. The extended beating time for the eggs provides the necessary leavening for the cake.
You need to beat the eggs until the batter forms a “ribbon” off of the beaters. Do not shorten or skip the beating process.
The addition of orange zest, orange extract, or almond extract works nicely as well.
|
|
This recipe for Cranberry Christmas Cake is from