I can’t imagine the holidays without this easy Cranberry Christmas Cake! It’s a doubly good dessert or breakfast treat with tangy cranberries and a rich, warm vanilla butter sauce. This cranberry cake is sweet enough to entice a smile out of any grinch. High altitude, gluten-free options and Cranberry Bundt Cake too!
Preheat oven to 350° F (375 for High altitude) and lightly spray a 9x13 inch pan (or 2 8x8 square or round pans). High altitude 375 degrees F.
Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Add cranberries and stir to coat, then add milk, vanilla and melted butter to dry ingredients, mixing well, batter will be thick.
For high altitude you may need to add additional 1-2 tablespoons milk, it should still be thick, but all of the ingredients incorporated, don’t overmix.
Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake for 40-50 minutes (for high altitude check at 35 minutes), until the top is golden brown. A toothpick or skewer inserted should come out clean or with a few crumbs. Cool on wire rack. If needed, cover cake with a loose piece of foil the last 10-15 minutes.
If desired, sprinkle with coarse sanding sugar.
Meanwhile make the butter sauce, In a small heavy-bottomed sauce pan, over medium-low heat, melt the butter, sugar, heavy whipping cream and vanilla. Stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved and has a syrup consistency, bring to boil for about 1 minute. Sauce will thicken as it cools, delicious thin or thick. TIP | It should coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Sauce is best served warm, it will thicken as it cools, so if you need it thicker, allow it to cool until desired consistency.
Notes
High Altitude Cake Recipe Instructions
This recipe is pretty forgiving when it comes to high attitude, but I have a few adjustments for you.
Increase all-purpose flour between 2-4 tablespoons, I increased by 2 tablespoons for 5280 above sea level.
Reduce granulated sugar to 1 ¾ cups
Reduce baking powder to 3 teaspoons
Batter should be thick, if too dry then add a little extra whole milk, water or orange juice a tablespoon at a time, do not overmix. I used an extra tablespoon of milk.
Increase baking temperature to 375F degrees and start checking for doneness at 30 minutes, covering if needed if browning too quickly.
Variations
For a gluten-free cranberry cake, replace the flour with your favorite all-purpose GF alternative. You can also use oat or almond flour. It’s just as delicious this way!
If you can’t find fresh or frozen cranberries, see below for how to rehydrate dried cranberries.
Add 1-2 teaspoons of fresh grated orange zest for a cranberry orange Christmas cake.
Cranberry Bundt Cake | In your favorite 10-cup or larger bundt pan, spray well with a good bakers spray or butter well and then dust with a little flour. You will increase your baking time to about 50 minutes, cake is done when skewer inserted comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
For the best texture cool completely, then if desired to serve warm, rewarm in 150-175 degree oven for 20 minutes.
If you are drizzling with vanilla sauce, then you might also want to make these simple sugared cranberries, they add such magical sparkle!
Serve as is, cooled or even warm from the oven, sprinkle a little sparkling sugar on top.Storage | This cake will keep covered in an airtight container on the counter for about 3 days, in the fridge up to 7 days and frozen up to 3 months.Recipe adapted from Brenda at A Farmgirl's Dabbles