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This Sparkling Cranberry White Chocolate Cake recipe is no doubt a new favorite – especially for Christmas! The cake is incredibly moist and flavorful and the cranberries add the prefect burst of fruity flavor.
This weekend was crazy busy, but so fun! We finally started turning our “formal living room” into my office. We’d already cleared the room, so this weekend we steam cleaned the carpets and got the main pieces of furniture. I still want to get a few other things and some decorative pieces, but the big stuff is there and I’m ready to get organized!
We got the furniture at IKEA and I love it! It took us forever to get through the store though. I got three pieces of furniture – a desk, shelves for all my props, and a table to use for taking photos on. It took awhile to pick everything out since IKEA has all these things in different rooms. I was taking a lot of pictures and trying to picture them all in a room together.
The hubs didn’t really realize IKEA was so big and had so much stuff, so he was pretty excited to realize they had so many decorative things and stuff beyond just furniture. I think we’ll be making another trip soon.
If you’ve been before, you know you collect the boxes at the end of the trek through the store. One of our items – the table – was back where only IKEA employees could get to it so after we checked out, we had to wait at the pick up area for it. It took longer than we expected though, so the hubs started wondering around near the food. Next thing I knew, he came back with ICEEs and cinnamon rolls. ICEEs are one of his all-time faves.
“The cinnamon rolls had just come out of the oven and were only $1,” he said.
Oh, how well he knows me. Besides, it’d been so long it was dinner time and we were hungry. Those cinnamon rolls didn’t last 30 seconds. And they were good too. So fluffy!
Kind of like this cake. 🙂
How To Make This White Chocolate Cake
The cake itself is a little modification of my vanilla cupcakes, doubled. Dang is it good. It is so moist and the flavor is to die for. I love that it’s one bowl and everything just gets mixed together. One note about the mixing – you don’t want to over mix the batter. Once everything is combined, you only want to mix until it’s smooth. No longer.
The cranberries get stirred in after the mixing. This was my first time ever baking, or even tasting, fresh cranberries. I didn’t realize they were so tart! But baked into the lightly dense cake, they are sweeter and delicious! I love the pop of fruit in the cake.
The icing is full of white chocolate. It’s made basically by making white chocolate ganache, then adding butter and powdered sugar. Delicious.
Decorating Your White Chocolate Cake with Sparkling Cranberries
And I was totally in love with the sparkling cranberries. They are just so festive! Because of them though, the cake takes a little planning. The cranberries sit in a simple syrup overnight so they get nice and sticky. Then they’re covered in sugar. I waited until the cake was all made and iced before moving onto the cranberries and that was silly of me. It was whole other day before I could finish off the cake with the cranberries and dig in.
It was worth the wait though.
I used some of the remaining sugar that had clumped together on top of the cake. It felt so snowy and wintery.
Growing up, my younger brother and I always wished for a white Christmas. I don’t think we’ve ever had one, but this cake would definitely make up for it. 🙂
This Sparkling Cranberry White Chocolate Cake was a hit with everyone! I’m so glad too, because I needed help eating it. I knew if I didn’t get it out of the house soon enough, I’d devour the whole thing. Yummy!
You might also like these recipes:
- Sparkling Cranberry White Chocolate Cupcakes
- White Chocolate Cranberry Fudge
- Sparkling Cranberry White Chocolate Bundt Cake
- White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
- Cranberry Bliss Bars
Sparkling Cranberry White Chocolate Cake
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Servings
- Category: Cake
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Sparkling Cranberry White Chocolate Cake recipe is a new Christmas fav! The cake is incredibly moist & flavorful with colorful sparkling cranberries.
Ingredients
SPARKLING CRANBERRIES
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 1 1/2 cups (310g) sugar, divided
- 1 cup (240ml) water
CRANBERRY CAKE
- 3 1/3 cups (433g) all purpose flour
- 2 cups (414g) sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups (336g) salted butter (336g), room temperature
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240ml) sour cream
- 1 cup (240ml) milk
- 3 cups fresh cranberries
WHITE CHOCOLATE ICING
- 12 oz white chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup (180ml) heavy whipping cream
- 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8–9 cups (920-1035g) powdered sugar
- salt, to taste
Instructions
SPARKLING CRANBERRIES:
CRANBERRY CAKE:
WHITE CHOCOLATE ICING:
TO PUT THE CAKE TOGETHER:
Notes
I think most cakes are best if they are allowed to settle for at least 12-24 hours after icing. It allows to flavors to settle. This cake will stay moist for several days after being iced.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 1067
- Sugar: 130.3 g
- Sodium: 222 mg
- Fat: 45.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 159.9 g
- Protein: 8.5 g
- Cholesterol: 143.9 mg
Categories
Enjoy!
The cake looks absolutely divine! How would I adjust the recipe to a 9×9 inch square pan?
I haven’t made that size, so I’m not sure. Are you still looking to make a layer cake? If so, how many layers?
Can you give an approximate mixing time?
Do you know if this cake will freeze well as a whole cake? I am making for an auction and I think people would want it for Christmas. I have made this numerous times and absolutely love it but never have frozen the cake.
I haven’t ever frozen it either, so I can’t say from experience. I do think it’d be fine though. However, if you’re including the sparkling cranberries on top, the sugar would probably “melt”.
Glad to hear you enjoy it!
We can’t get fresh cranberries in NZ. Can I substitute packet cranberries?
Do you mean dried cranberries? I don’t think those would work well. Frozen cranberries would be fine.
My family loves it and so I wanted to make it for my son’s 1st birthday but with strawberries instead of cranberries. Would that work?
I’m glad you enjoy it! I haven’t ever tried strawberries. I would assume it’d be fine.
Hi!
I made this cake twice a couple of Christmases ago and both times was a big hit! I loved it, too! It’s also fun to make. I would make it every year but my husband likes me to serve different desserts every year. Thank you for the recipe!!!
I’m so glad it was a hit!
This is my favorite cake! We love it so much, and have made it several times. Question though, I want to make it for a dessert auction but cranberries are out of season, any substitute suggestions (I can’t find frozen either)? Or can I just make it without berries like a vanilla cake or add sprinkles like funfetti?
So glad you enjoy it! I think you could do it either of the ways you suggest, or with another fruit.
Mine didn’t raise much. Cake layers are about a half n inch. My baking powder was fresh. So will frost it tomorrow and hope for the best. Batter tasted really good
Hi! Can I make the cake layers and freeze for a day or two before I’m ready to serve?
Sure, that should be fine.
I bake birthday cakes for my co-workers as a tribute to my husband. This was a hands down favorite ! It was absolutely delicious, and a number of people asked for the recipe. The only changes I made were to bake 2 9″ layers instead of the 3 8″ for ease of transportation, and I used oat milk because that is what I keep in the house. Fantastic tasting and lovely looking cake ! Thank you for the recipe
So glad it was a hit!
Saying 1/2 cup sugar is all that’s needed to coat cranberries is misleading. I had to toss the sugar out 3 times and restart because it gets clumpy coating the cranberries. I would use cake flour instead of all purpose.
I made this last year and the cake was really dense, any ideas on what I did wrong? I want to make it again
I’m not sure that you did anything wrong. It’s a very dense cake. I’ve considered adjusting the recipe, but people love it so much that I’ve left it alone. If you’d like cake layers that are lighter, consider my the layers of my cranberry fudge layer cake. You could use those cake layers and then the frosting and decor from this cake.
I am looking forward to baking this and want to know the adjustment in time/temp for 2 9″ cake pan. Thank you
I haven’t made it that size, so I’m not sure of the exact bake time. I’d use the same temperature.
Hi, I’m looking forward to baking this for thanksgiving. Do I need to add all of the cranberries to the syrup mixture?
The ones for the cake layers don’t need to be added to the syrup. The ones added to the syrup are just for decorating, so you can use less if you like. Depends on how many you want to use to decorate.
Your recipe doesn’t say that! I coated all my cranberries in sugar. Is my cake going to be too sweet now?
I don’t know where you’re seeing an issue. There are 2 cups of cranberries listed for the sparkling cranberries and a SEPARATE 3 cups of cranberries listed for the cake. They are separate, so that should be clear.
Do you know of any adjustments that should be made to make this into a cake pop instead of an iced cake?
I’m not sure. I don’t really make a lot of cake pops.
This cake is so delicious!!! Do you store it in the fridge? Or just on the counter?
So glad you’re happy with it! Buttercream should be refrigerated after about 24 hours at room temperature, so yes, you’d likely need to refrigerate it.