If you’re still working on your Christmas morning menu, this recipe for Cranberry Streusel Cake would be a good one to consider. The moist, festive cake is both easy to make and delicious. The sweet, brown sugar streusel is a nice balance to the tart cranberries.

To simplify things the morning of, have your cranberries chopped and measured, and your dry ingredients measured and combined. Now all you have to do Christmas morning is mix the  cake (wet and dry ingredients) and bake it.

I didn’t have plain yogurt so I used a combination of sour cream and buttermilk. The cake turned out great and several people asked me for the recipe. Enjoy!

Cranberry Streusel Cake
-recipe from Fine Cooking Magazine

Add the topping 40 minutes into baking rather than at the beginning, when it would sink too far into the cake, or at the end, when it wouldn’t sink in at all. Serves nine.
 
9 oz. (2 cups) all-purpose flour; more for the pan
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. table salt
4 oz. (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, well softened at room temperature; more for the pan
1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup plain, low-fat yogurt (or sour cream)
1/2 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

For the streusel:
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

Make the cake:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 325°F. Lightly butter and flour a 9-inch-square baking pan. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt until blended. With an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until well blended, about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium low and add the eggs one at a time, mixing until just incorporated. Using a wide rubber spatula, alternately fold the flour mixture and the yogurt into the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add the chopped cranberries with the last addition of flour. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Tap the pan gently on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake for 40 min.

Make the streusel:
While the cake is baking, combine the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add the butter and mix, using a fork, until the ingredients are well blended and form small crumbs. Stir in the walnuts and cranberries.

After the cake has baked for 40 min., sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of the cake. Continue baking until a pick inserted in the center comes out clean, another 10 to 15 min. Cool in the pan on a wire rack until warm or room temperature. Cut into squares and serve.

Tags: Breakfast, brunch, cake, Christmas, Christmas baking, cranberries, cranberry, cranberry coffee cake, Dessert, holiday baking, holiday breakfast, holiday brunch, holidays

Cranberry sauce is a must-have with the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Period. You just can’t have turkey and stuffing without a dollop of cranberry sauce somewhere on the plate. With that said, I still can only eat a few tablespoons of this jam-like condiment at a time. It seems that most people would agree judging by the fact that there’s always leftover cranberry sauce after the Thanksgiving meal. So what do we do with all the leftover cranberry sauce? We use it in a coffee cake.

I did a quick search for a cranberry coffee cake recipe and found this one at kingarthurflour.com. It was just what I was looking for. The only thing I did differently was to use a mixture of sour cream and milk in place of the buttermilk. The cake was moist with a light almond flavor, and went perfectly with a hot cuppa joe. If you don’t like almond-flavored treats then just use the same quantity of vanilla extract (it will be just as good). Although the cake was still tasty on the second day, I thought it was best the day it was baked.

Cranberry-Almond Coffee Cake
-recipe from kingarthurflour.com
 
This moist, golden cake hides a double layer of cranberry sauce and a sprinkling of almonds. It’s a lovely cake for Thanksgiving breakfast; and makes a satisfying autumn dessert, as well. This recipe comes from our James Beard award-winning best-seller, “The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion.”

Cake
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) butter
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk or yogurt (low-fat is fine)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (10 3/4 ounces) whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup blanched slivered or sliced almonds, toasted*

Glaze
3/4 cup (3 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

*Spread almonds in an ungreased 9″ round cake pan, and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 10-cup (9″ to 9 ½”) tube pan or bundt-style pan.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar till smooth. Beat in the eggs, then the buttermilk or yogurt and almond extract. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and beat briefly again, to make sure everything is well combined. Add the baking powder, baking soda, flour, and salt, stirring just to blend. Grease and flour a tube pan. Spoon half of batter into pan. Spread half of cranberry sauce evenly atop batter, then spread remaining batter over that. Top with remaining cranberry sauce, and sprinkle toasted almonds evenly over sauce.

Bake the cake for 55 minutes, tenting it with foil for the final 15 minutes. When it’s done, a cake tester inserted into the thickest part will come out clean, and the top will spring back when you press it gently. Remove the cake from the oven, and cool it in pan for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn it out of the pan onto a rack set over a piece of parchment, and stir together the glaze ingredients.

Drizzle the thin glaze over the warm cake. Let the cake cool completely before serving (or serve it warm, if you don’t mind it crumbling a bit!)
Yield: 1 cake, 14 to 16 servings.

I’m linked to:
Homemade for the Holidays

Tags: almond, Baking, bundt, Christmas, coffee cake, cranberry, holidays, leftover cranberry sauce, Thanksgiving