Cranberries are a staple of the holiday season and there are so many different ways you can use this fruit. So many so, that we used it three different ways just in this one cake. We used our vanilla cake as the base and mixed in fresh cranberries to create the cranberry cake. The tartness of the cranberries pairs perfectly with the subtleness of the vanilla cake.
We knew we wanted to make a white chocolate cranberry cake for the holiday season and had mentioned this to our friend that works for Sigona’s Farmers market located in California. A few days later we received a wonderful surprise in the mail that contained a bottle of Sigona’s Cranberry-Pear Balsamic. We knew this would be the perfect additional to our cranberry cake. We decided to use the balsamic to make a cranberry compote for the filling. From our experience we find it’s best to make our compotes the day before so it can cool and thicken before filling the cake.
The third and final cranberry component to this cake are the candied cranberries. We wanted the décor of the cake to be simple and resemble a classic winter wonderland. The candied cranberries are so easy to make but do need to sit overnight. We recommend making the compote and candied cranberries together the night before.
Both the compote and candied cranberries recipe made more than we needed for the cake so both recipes can easily be cut in half. We however, took advantage of the remaining ingredients and used them in other holiday dishes. We used the extra compote in a baked brie appetizer and to top pancakes. We also made a cranberry champagne cocktail and garnished it with the candied cranberries.
Thank you for stopping by our blog. We hope you enjoyed this recipe and we would love to know what you think. Feel free to comment below and give us a follow on Instagram. Happy baking!
Candied Cranberries
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 1 1/2 cups sugar divided
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Bring 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a simmer in a saucepan. Simmer until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Pour simple syrup into a heatproof bowl and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
- Add cranberries and stir to coat.
- Refrigerate cranberries in syrup overnight.
- Remove cranberries from syrup and roll in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. You’ll need to roll them a few times to get a couple layers of sugar on them.
- Set cranberries aside to dry for a hour.
Cranberry Balsamic Compote
Ingredients
- 12 ounce bag cranberries fresh or frozen (3½ cups)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup apple juice
- 1/4 cup Sigona’s Cranberry-Pear Balsamic or similar
Instructions
- In a saucepan, combine the cranberries, sugar, apple juice, and balsamic.
- Bring to a boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries begin to burst and the sauce thickens, about 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely before using.
- We like to make this the might before and refrigerate overnight.
Vanilla Cranberry Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2/3 cup egg whites
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups fresh cranberries coated in flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray three 6 inch pans with cooking spray and line bottom with parchment.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until combined.
- Cut butter into one inch cubes. With the mixer on low speed add the cubes of butter one at a time.
- Add the egg whites and continue to mix on low until incorporated.
- With the mixer still on low speed slowly pour in the buttermilk.
- Add the vegetable oil and vanilla and mix until fully combined.
- Stir in the flour coated cranberries. The flour will help the cranberries not float to the top while baking.
- Divide the batter evenly between the three prepared pans.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
White Chocolate Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 lbs bag powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the heavy whipping cream and white chocolate chips into a heatproof bowl. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute.
- Let the white chocolate / heavy cream mixture sit for 1 minute to allow the heat from the bowl to continue to melt the white chocolate chips.
- Whisk until smooth, then set aside to cool for about 10 minutes. If you have any bits of chocolate left unmelted, heat for additional 10 second increments and stir until the mixture is smooth.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth.
- Add in the vanilla extract and salt, and beat on low.
- Pour in the cooled white chocolate and heavy cream mixture, and mix on a low speed.
- With the mixer remaining on low, add in the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time.
- Once all the powdered sugar has been incorporated scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula and then starting with the mixer on low bring the speed up to high and beat for 5 minutes. Stop the mixer once or twice throughout to scrape down the bowl.
- Use immediately or store in an air tight container in the refrigerator.
Hi Ami and Tara!!! This cake looks great! I would love to try it! In your instructions for the white chocolate buttercream, you mention adding the powdered sugar one cup at a time, but powdered sugar is not in your list of ingredients. I was just wondering how much total powdered sugar does the recipe call for? Thanks … and Happy Baking!
Hey! Sorry that got missed. We just updated the recipe. It’s a 2lbs bag of powdered sugar.