Holiday Cranberry Cake

The timing of this month’s #CranberryLove hop was perfect. I just received a big bag of these gorgeous, ruby red fresh cranberries in my weekly CSA share. My 5 year old couldn’t resist their shine and bit into one. And promptly spit it out when that super duper tartness hit her tongue!

A little background on the humble cranberry:

• A good source of Vitamin C, fiber, manganese and antioxidants (a lot of goodness packed into such a tiny berry.)
• Primarily cultivated in America and Canada
• 95% of cranberries are processed into juice, sauce or dried cranberries – this fact blew my mind! It’s kind of a shame that more of us don’t cook with fresh – there’s NOTHING like homemade cranberry sauce – and it’s pretty simple to make (here’s a variety of basic cranberry sauce & relish recipes compiled by Cooking Light Magazine.)

I really wanted to go beyond the sauce – I tried to figure out another savory dish but in the end, baking a cranberry cake won out.

This recipe is a simple tube pan cake – it was inspired by a labor of love cookbook called Cooking Healthy Across America, which was produced by the Food & Culinary Professionals – a 2,000+ group of food loving dietitians. I tweaked a recipe for Orange-Glazed Cranberry Cake developed by my colleague and dear friend, Barb Pyper. You could jazz it up by adding other dried fruits like cherries or raisins. For topping, I simply used powdered sugar but it would also be divine the way Barb made it – with a citrus glaze.

Holiday Cranberry Cake

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• Yield: 16 servings 1x

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup greek style nonfat plain yogurt
• 2 cups cranberries
• Powdered sugar

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a bowl for a standing mixer (or bowl using hand mixer), whip together brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well.
4. Alternatively add flour mixture and yogurt to butter/sugar mixture, beating well until everything is mixed together.
5. With a wooden spoon or spatula, mix in cranberries.
6. Pour batter into a 10-inch tube cake pan or Bundt pan coated with cooking spray.
7. Bake for 40- 45 minutes or until cake tests clean.
8. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 15 minutes.
9. Remove cake from pan to a wire rack and cool completely.
10. Before slicing and serving, dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

And by the way, you really don’t have to wait until the holidays to have an excuse to make this.

From some more Cranberry 101, here’s great clip from CookingLight.com that gives cranberry buying, storing and cooking tips.