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 āformal living roomā into my office. Weād 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 Iām 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 didnāt 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 weāll be making another trip soon.
If youāve 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.
āThe cinnamon rolls had just come out of the oven and were only $1,ā he said.
Oh, how well he knows me. Besides, itād been so long it was dinner time and we were hungry. Those cinnamon rolls didnāt last 30 seconds. And they were good too. So fluffy!
Kind of like this cake. š
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 itās one bowl and everything just gets mixed together. One note about the mixing – you donāt want to over mix the batter. Once everything is combined, you only want to mix until itās smooth. No longer.
The cranberries get stirred in after the mixing. This was my first time ever baking, or even tasting, fresh cranberries. I didnāt 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. Itās 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 theyāre 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 donāt think weāve ever had one, but this cake would definitely make up for it. š
This Sparkling Cranberry White Chocolate Cake was a hit with everyone! Iām so glad too, because I needed help eating it. I knew if I didnāt get it out of the house soon enough, Iād devour the whole thing. Yummy!
More Cranberry Dessert 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
save this recipe
Enter your email & we’ll send it to your inbox. Plus get new recipes from us every week!
Ingredients
Sparkling Cranberries
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 1 1/2 cups (310g) granulated sugar (divided)
- 1 cup (240ml) water
Cranberry Cake
- 3 1/3 cups (433g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (414g) granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups (336g) salted butter (room temperature)
- 3 large 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
- Bring 1 cup sugar and 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, stirred a couple times to coat with syrup.
- 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 or so.
Cranberry Cake
- Preheat oven to 350ā. Prepare three 8-inch cake pans with baking spray and parchment paper in the bottom of the pans.
- Whisk together flour, sugar and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
- Add butter, eggs, vanilla extract, sour cream and milk and mix on medium speed just until smooth. Do not over mix.
- Gently stir in cranberries.
- Spread batter evenly between the three cake pan.
- Bake 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs.
- Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to finish cooling.
White Chocolate Icing
- Place white chocolate chips in a metal bowl.
- Microwave heavy cream until it starts to boil. Remove from microwave and pour over chocolate chips.
- Cover bowl with saran wrap for 5-7 minutes.
- Whisk chocolate and cream until smooth.
- Allow ganache to sit until mostly cool. It should be thick.
- Beat the ganache with a mixer for about 2-3 minutes, until smooth and fluffy.
- Add butter and beat until it is fully combined.
- Slowly add powdered sugar and beat until it is fluffy and the right consistency. Add more cream if needed.
Put the Cake Together
- Remove cake domes from cakes with a large serrated knife.
- Place first layer of cake on cake plate. Spread about icing on top in an even layer.
- Add second layer of cake and add more icing on top in an even layer.
- Add final layer of cake on top and ice the outside of the cake.
- Top the cake with sparkling cranberries and add some around the edge, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutrition facts provided are calculated using a third-party tool and are estimates only. Actual nutritional content may vary based on the ingredients and brands you use, as well as portion sizes. For accurate results, please consult a registered dietitian or nutritionist.
Enjoy!
Categories:
Cakes and Cupcakes, Christmas, Fall and Holiday Favorites, Holidays, Recipes, Sweets and Treats,
I want to make his cake for Christmas this year, you mention to let it settle for at least 24 hours does that mean inside the refrigerator correct? Sorry if that’s a dumb question but I’m knew to baking and is thought I’d give it a shot with this recipe!
Yes, you’ll want to refrigerate this cake with the cranberries on it. And the 24 hours is certainly not a requirement. I just find that often after frosting a cake, the moisture from the frosting settles into the cake over time and makes it even better.
I’m going to try to figure out a dairy free way to make this. I want o make it on Christmas Eve but my mom is allergic to dairy. I’ll keep you posted!
First let me say the cake pictured is beautiful but…..the cake I made from the recipe was not the same and I don’t know why. I made the cake for a work event but was so disappointed with the extreme density that I decided not to serve it to anyone. It seemed almost undercooked but I know it was not. I plan, though, to try it again with a few modifications of the recipe.
do you think this recipe would be affected if i used gluten-free flour? looks delicious!
My guess is yes, but I haven’t used gluten free flour before.
Did you try it with the gluten-free flour? If so, what type/brand did you use? I’d love to make it for Christmas, but my father-in-law is gluten-free. Thanks!
Have you thought of using agave nectar and water for the sparkling cranberries then dusting them with sugar? I did that for another recipe I made and they only needed 3 hours chill time instead of an over night because it was a thicker liquid. Then I used that agave nectar blend for making cranberry sauce, nothing wasted. Just a suggestion.
I hadn’t thought of that, but what a great suggestion! I’ll have to try that next time.
Hello, i have just baked this cake, however i am feeling so insecure about it.
rather than diving it into 3 different tin, i had all the batter in one….. so after about 3 hours of it in the oven, im still feeling its not completely cooked in the middle….wheni shake it, it wobbles a bit like hard jelly.
also i think all the cranberries raise to the top during baking, now the top layer looks a bit too burn, and it has an arch with cracks..
im just wondering did you have to trim it so its flat? also by the way im describing it, its a fail right..?? š
I’m sorry Amy, but I don’t think it’d bake very well all in one pan, which is probably what you noticed. The batter ends up quite thick and by the time the inside bakes, I’d guess the outside is overcooked. I’d try again with it in 3 pans. And yes, I do cut the domes off the top of the cakes so they are flat.
This looks amazing, and I’m hoping to make it this year for my family, for Christmas!
My mum is allergic to cranberries unfortunately, so I was wondering if the recipe would work the same if I added Raspberries instead?
Beautiful blog!
Yes, raspberries should work great. Thanks Annie!
We had so much fun making this cake! It looks soo good, can’t wait to slice it on Thanksgiving.
How do you get the frosting so smooth? Looks like fondant
Hi Juli, I actually have a great tutorial here.
This cake is a favorite! Iāve looked for the tutorial on smoothing the icing and itās not there. Can you share your secret?Ā
I’m glad you enjoy the cake! Here is the tutorial.
I meant to make the cake for a Christmas party, but hadn’t read the part about soaking the cranberries overnight, so I didn’t have time. Ended up making it for another event. The cake itself was incredible and WILL be made again. I used two 8″ pans instead of 3, but will probably dig out a third one next time. I won’t do the white chocolate or the sparkling cranberries again, though. I’m a cranberry fanatic, and live on cranberry baked oatmeal all winter, but the sparkling cranberries were inedible and the white chocolate, nice as it sounded, didn’t lend anything useful to the cake. I have a tried & true buttercream recipe I’ll use, or maybe even a cream cheese frosting.
Hi…made this for New Years. The sugared cranberries are awesome, the frosting is great, and overall it was a hit, but my cake was very dense and not at all cakey. I’m guessing I overbeat the batter, but the way the recipe goes even if the butter is soft at the start all the other cold ingredients harden it and it is lumpy so you beat more. Next time I would do the classic butter and sugar first, eggs, then dry ingredients. Hope this helps someone because the overall recipe is great!! Thank you and happy new year!
I made this cake for my brother and his wife and kids a couple of days ago when they were visiting. They liked it. Thank you for creating this. It was beautiful. š
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Robert!
i can’t wait to make this for a family get-together on New Years Day
How did you avoid lumps in your cake batter? I was always taught to add dry ingredients to wet ones.
This batter can be kind of lumpy. You can melt the butter before adding it to the batter, if you prefer. Adding dry ingredients to wet ones (and alternating them) is a common method, I just used a different one for this cake. š
This clarification is super helpful! I just put my cakes in the oven and was feeling very insecure about the ālumpyā element. Decided to err on the side of ādo not overmixā rather than get all those butter lumps out.Ā
Dear K- No one ever adds butter to the flour along with the wet ingredients. To beat it enough to get the butter to soften up, the flour would develop so much gluten it would be tough. Butter and sugar should be creamed, then wet ingredients added, then dry. Or butter can be melted and beaten with wet ingredients and sugar, then flour added. Yes, sugar is dry, but you add it in with wet ingredients to reduce mixing time for flour, again, to reduce gluten formation. If you notice, almost all these comments are about how beautiful it LOOKS and how they want to make it, not feedback from people who actually baked it. Sad.
Win – you correct as far as mixing goes. As for appearance and taste from those making it, plenty of people have commented on taste who have made it. And what you can’t see in the comment section on the blog is the hundreds of times I’ve been tagged in photos of this cake on Instagram from those who have made it and people definitely love the taste, as well as the appearance. I hope you get a chance to try it. Thanks!
I made this beautiful cake last night, just prepared the cranberries and waiting for them to dry to decorate! I noticed two things about the recipe that I wanted to point out. First thing is in the recipe for the cake it calls for 2 tbsp of vanilla extract, I think that might be a typo. I used 2 tsp and the cake tasted perfect( the domes ;)) . Last thing is when it came to making the frosting in the ingredients there is no mention of vanilla but in the description you say to mix the powder sugar and vanilla in. I ended up leaving it out, would you recommend putting it in? I love the way this cake looks, although I was not great at frosting it! Do you recommend any special method to frost the cake so it will come out as smooth as yours?
HI, I am going to make this dessert for my in-laws house for Christmas. Have you ever put white chocolate chips in the batter?
I haven’t, but I’m sure it’d bake fine. You just might have a little crunch in your cake. š
Gorgeous cake! I’m making it for our dessert on Christmas Day. I noticed that the instructions for the frosting say to add in the vanilla extract but I don’t see the amount listed in the ingredients list. How much vanilla should go in the frosting? Thanks!
The vanilla is actually not needed in the this recipe, sorry about that. I’ve removed it from the instructions. I hope you enjoy the cake! Merry Christmas!