This Easy Cranberry Cake is delicious served at Christmas or Thanksgiving, although once you taste it you will want to bake it year-round! A simple cranberry cake recipe with a tender moist crumb studded with fresh cranberries throughout – simply delicious served plain or with a simple buttery sauce.
Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and mist a 9x13 inch rectangular pan with cake release and line with baking paper.
Put the dry ingredients – flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.
Add the softened butter, eggs, milk and orange zest and beat with an electric hand mixer. Start on a low speed setting, increasing the speed as the ingredients combine. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed.
Toss the cranberries in sugar and fold into the cake batter. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and level. Dot with the cranberry sauce – this is totally optional by the way – and swirl it into the batter.
Bake for 45-40 minutes, or until the cake is golden, springy to the touch and coming away from the edges of the tin.
Lift the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely and slice. I cut my cranberry cake into 24 fairly small squares – you can cut into bigger and more generous servings if you like!
Make the sauce. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, add the sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves – do not allow it to boil! Stir in the cream and almond extract until you have a velvety golden sauce. Pour the warm sauce over the cake just before serving.
Notes
Unless specified otherwise all your ingredients including butter eggs and milk should be at room temperature in order to achieve a smooth batter. If one or more of the ingredients are cold they will cause your batter to split or look curdled.
If your milk is cold from the fridge then heat briefly in the microwave or saucepan until just tepid. Make sure the milk is body temperature - not too hot!
Place cold eggs into warm water for five minutes to bring them back to room temperature.
Cut cold butter into cubes and leave for an hour on your counter to warm up or use margarine (Stork).
This is a great cake for bake sales and parties as it serves a big crowd. It keeps well in an airtight container for 2-3 days if you want to keep it all to yourself!