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
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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,
After reading all the comments this cake seems to be hit or miss with no real middle ground. I arrogantly thought the negative reviews were simply errors in execution. After baking it myself, I fall into the failed execution category. This cake was a total bust for me. I consider myself a pretty competent baker and very precise, but this just did not turn out well for me. Even with weighing all of my ingredients and trying to be careful to avoid over mixing I still came away with an extremely dense, doughy, and odd cake. This was to be a birthday cake for two people but I will have to figure something else out. The icing however is absolutely delicious. I wouldn’t hesitate to make the icing again in the future but I won’t revisit this cake recipe. I’ve not lost faith in this blog for delicious cakes! I just think there is a fine touch or sense of when to stop mixing with this unusual all wet into dry ingredient method that I am unaccustomed to.
Hey Lindsay!
I am going to make this for my aunt’s birthday and I had a question that I didn’t see answered in the other comments. I don’t have 8 inch pans so I was going to double the recipe and make it in 9 inch pans and use the extra batter to make cupcakes. Could you tell me approximately how many inches deep the batter should be in the pans? Can’t wait to eat this!
It’s really been quite a while since I made this cake, so I’m not sure just how much batter was in each pan. You wouldn’t really need much more though for 9 inch pans.
hello, i hope you dont mind me asking but is there a link for the cranberry cake in grams please? ive scrolled down hoping to find someone else may have asked but i cant see it. id love to make this cake for xmas but we only use use in uk š thank you for any help/advice
this cake is a real stunner š
I include grams in my newer recipes, but not the older ones. However, I have this little conversion chart that should be helpful. š
I see this is to make an 8 inch cake but how many servings should this cake provide? This is what is really important to me when I see a yield, I want to know how many I can comfortably feed with this. thanks!
I would say 12-14 with relatively generous slices. Thinner slices would give you more.
Ā Thanks for the recipe. Your photos are beautiful and I was excited to make the cake. I had several problems. The first was that the cake batter was very thick and did not fill the cake pans Ā I cooked the better anyway and the result was a heavy cake with an irregular dome. The second was that the icing was very hard and dance. I was unable to eat my first attempt but would like to try it again before the holidays. Thank you
Hi Lindsay!
We donĀ“t have fresh cranberries here in Brazil. Do you think it will work with dried cranberries? I was thinking of soaking them in a water and sugar mixture first to rehydrate them.
Hmm, not sure. They could end up a bit chewy.
I made this cake (twice) this Christmas and it was AMAZING! Definitely the most involved recipe I’ve ever done and although it was a little time consuming it was not hard. It was 100% worth the effort. It does taste as good as it looks. The icing is sweet but is balanced with the tartness of the cranberries. I am already thinking how I can modify it and use the cake and icing as a base for another cake. Everyone was impressed when they saw it and enjoyed it, it has already been requested by my brother for his upcoming birthday. Thank you!
I made this for Christmas and what a perfect holiday cake! It is dense as others say but we didn’t have any problem eating it! When I made the frosting I did not use anywhere near the 8 cups of powdered sugar but my frosting still had a nice consistency. No way could I get it smooth like the picture but it’s still pretty with the white and red contrast. It was an unusual cake and people would say what is this – it’s so different, but it’s good! I made it just like the directions said (outside of the frosting and sugar) so no problems following the recipe. It’s strange to me to not cream butter before putting in the dry ingredients but it worked out. Will definitely make this again!
Made this cake for Christmas, 2016, not once, but twice. Ā The first time I had my doubts when I saw the sugar listed with the dry ingredients. Ā Almost every cake I’ve ever baked suggests mixing the butter and the sugar together, but I moved on with the process. Ā The second time, I mixed the sugar with the butter, as I have always done in the past, and then added the rest of the wet ingredients, before adding the dry, with much better results. Both times it resulted in a heavy, dense, cake I feed to the squirrels. Ā The third time I used a recipe of my own for the white cake, then added the cranberries, as you suggested, with excellent results. Ā I had problems with the icing recipe as well. Ā Nine cups of 10X sugar was just too much sweet for me, and it was difficult to pipe. Ā So I cut it back to 3 cups with much better results. Ā I won’t use this recipe again, because I’ve baked cakes for more than 50 years, and just couldn’t find a way to make it work. Ā But what I will take away from the experience if the combination of white cake with fresh cranberries…just lovely. Ā
This is a beautiful cake! I couldn’t find fresh cranberries at the store, so would you recommend using blueberries? Would it work with the frosting and cake flavors in your opinion? Thanks!
I think it’d still taste good. Blueberries may not work as well with the “sparkling” part though. They aren’t quite as firm.
I made this cake last year and it turned out great. I made it again twice this year and have had trouble. It was dense and raw in the middle. I can not figure out what I did wrong. You suggested melting the butter. Do you think I should melt the butter totally and then add it. If that is the trick I will try a third time. Any help would be appreciated.Ā
Hi Deb, I’m sorry you’re having trouble this time. I’m not sure what the issue is, it’s so hard to say without being there and seeing it. It shouldn’t be the butter though.
How many people does this serve? Also does this make 3 layers or one layer of an 8 inch cake?
It’s 3 layers of cake. I’d say it’ll easily serve 12-14.
Hi Lindsay! I want to make a cranberry white chocolate roll cake/buche de noel for Christmas. Since this recipe is a layer cake, do you think it would be possible for me to use this recipe for a roll cake? Would the cake be too dense? Would it crack a lot since the recipe is not supposed to be made into a roll cake?
Thanks!
I haven’t ever made a cake roll, so I don’t know how to advise you on it. I’m sorry!
Do I need to adjust baking times when using 9 inch pans? Also how should this be stored when made a day in advance? Thanks!
Yes, they’ll be thinner cakes, so a little less time. I’m not sure exactly what it’d be. Maybe 25-30 minutes?
Hi Lindsay! Absolutely beautiful cake, I’m going to give it a try for Christmas day this year. Just a quick question – how long would the sparking cranberries last once made? I’m caught for time this year so I was hoping to prepare them on the 22nd, would they last until the 25th? I’m planning to ice it Christmas Eve, I completely agree with you that cakes need the 24 hours to set, it really enhances the flavours!
The sparkling cranberries will really last as long as the cranberries. They’ll definitely last for a few days to be added to the cake later. Enjoy it!
First of all this cake is gorgeous so decided to make it but I needed a 6in cake so I did half the recipe, it looked fine to me, soft and bouncy. I wrapped it and refrigerated it, the next day it was really hard i was hoping it would get softer if it was room tempeture but it didn’t, the feedback I got is that it was dry. š and the icing was too sweet.
So i guess I am trying to figure out what was my mistake, the only thing that I could not do exactly half was the eggs, I used 2 instead of 11/2.
I’m sorry you had that result. I haven’t made it as a 6inch cake before, so I don’t know if that had something to do with it or not. Another possibility is using a little too much flour. Did you use cups or grams? Sometimes people scoop cups differently – be sure not to pack the flour into the scoop. I typically loosen up the flour, then scoop and level.