Cranberry Christmas Cake

A Cranberry Christmas Bundt cake with a slice removed is displayed on a glass stand. The cake, topped with white icing, reveals a texture speckled with red berries inside. A cluster of fresh red berries elegantly decorates the center.

5 from 9 votes

Flavored with a hint of orange, this festive cake recipe always comes out tender and moist. It's full of tart fresh cranberries, a swirl of cranberry sauce, and topped with vanilla icing.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Cranberry Cake, Cranberry Christmas Cake

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

cooling 45

Total Time 1 45

Servings

Calories 557

Author Erren Hart

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon salt
2½ cups Brown Sugar packed
½ cup Granulated Sugar
1 cups butter softened
5 Eggs at room temperature
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
¼ cup orange juice fresh squeezed
1 tablespoon orange zest
¾ cup buttermilk at room temperature
2 cups fresh cranberries
¾ cups cranberry sauce jarred not canned

For The Glaze

2½ cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla
4-6 tablespoons milk

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Generously grease and flour a 12-cup capacity Bundt Cake pan (measuring about 10 inches in diameter) and set aside.
Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter, brown sugar, and Granulated sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, and mix in the vanilla, orange juice, zest, and buttermilk until incorporated (the batter will be quite thick). Fold in the cranberries.
Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan, spoon the cranberry sauce evenly over the batter then top with the remaining batter.
Bake for 60 to 75 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

For The Glaze

Sift the sugar into a large mixing bowl to avoid lumps.
add the melted butter, vanilla, and 4 tablespoons of the milk. Mix well and add more milk as needed for the desired consistency. Drizzle over the cooled cake.

Video

Notes

Don’t have fresh cranberries? Use thawed frozen cranberries (that have been strained) or dried cranberries that have been soaked for 10 to 15 minutes in hot water and then strained. Soaking will help them become plumper, juicier, and softer.
Prepare the Pan – Be sure to grease and flour all the crevices in the pan with shortening so the cake will release easily, and the design is defined.
Use Good Quality Ingredients. Cheaper brands of flour use harder wheat, making the cake heavy. Off brands of sugar are often more ground than quality brands, yielding more sugar per cup, which can cause your bake to fall. Cheaper butter brands can contain more liquid fat, affecting a bake.
Beat softened butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. This step is important because it whips air into the cake batter and rises during baking.
To prevent the batter from curdling, alternate wet and dry ingredients with the liquid, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until blended after each addition; overmixing at this point can create a tough, rubbery cake.

Nutrition