Looking for a different and unusual cake recipes this Holiday Season? Why not try this Candied Cranberries White Cake for a change? It has some amazing flavors and aroma of cranberries, vanilla, and fresh herbs. This is a powerful combination to awake anybody’s senses and commit to memory the event you will be celebrating.
Yes, what we smell imprints a million times stronger in our memory. I broke down the recipe into 5 parts for your convenience. We will prepare the following cake parts: Cranberry Filling, Cake Layers, Vanilla Buttercream, Candied Cranberries, and Garnishes.
Cranberry Filling for Your Simple White Cake Recipe
When you are looking for perfect layer cake this holiday season, a simple white cake can be a dynamite jazzed up with a delicious, citrusy tasting cranberry filling. Bright color of cranberries do add to a festive mood and good appetite.
We don’t eat cranberries every day. Serving these robust berries during a cold season adds more vitamin C storage to cover our body’s needs.
White Cake Layers Are Jazzed Up with Almond Extract
Adding organic almond extract to the white cake will do a few things for you.
First, almond extract is full or proteins, vitamins and minerals. Almonds contain good fats and fiber. Like any nuts, almonds are super beneficial for your skin too. That is why almond extract is used in cosmetic industry to seal in moisture and strengthen skin and hair.
Nuts are Protein Powerhouses to Boost Our Well-Being.
Second, adding this aromatic extract to your recipe will open up your olfactory channels. It means you will be more responsive to other flavors present in the food. When you have a stronger sense of smell, you will enjoy food so much more as well.
Quick And Simply the Best Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
For many, the preferences lie either with the cake layers or frosting. This Holiday White Cake delivers a winner scenario. A smooth texture of the exceptional Vanilla Buttercream is nothing but a seventh-haven for your taste buds.
When a cranberry filling and vanilla buttercream soak through the cake layers, you would find yourself coming back for seconds!
Garnishes of Fresh Herbs and Candied Cranberries to Crown the White Cake
What we forget during our daily cooking is the use of fresh herbs. I would advocate a variety of herb, not just a handful that we are used to.
This Holiday Season is a great opportunity to use one or two herbs that are not on your daily menu.
I used fresh organic rosemary and sage to add to the aroma of vanilla, cranberries and almonds. What we gain is an open and free form of engaging with our food. The olfactory senses take us on a blissful ride to experience the notes and tones of the foods and ingredients we used to prepare a feast.
Feel free to experiment with the fresh herbs during your time in the kitchen. Cook with herbs. Decorate with herbs. Your appetite a sensation of being full will take a different turn for the better.
Sugared Cranberries Are Called Candied Cranberries
No matter what you call candied cranberries, they bring a robust taste to every recipe, sweet or savory.
I love cooking with cranberries during the holidays and beyond. I freeze a few bags of organic cranberries during the in-season. This way, I am never short of this flavorful berry when I cook or make drinks.
Aren’t these candied cranberries the prettiest garnish for your Holiday and family celebrations? Add them to desserts, favorite hot or cold drinks, hot brie and baked goodies.
Swipe a simple recipe of Candied Cranberries made with 3 ingredients!
Candied Cranberries White Cake Holiday Recipe
This Holiday White Cake with Candied Cranberries will be an unforgettable experience for your taste buds. Vanilla buttercream mixed with cranberry filling is to live for!
Ingredients
Cranberry Filling
- 1 cup fresh or frozen organic cranberries
- 1/2 cup (2 oz)dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup cane sugar
- 2 tsp fresh organic orange zest
- 2 Tbsp fresh organic orange juice
Cake Layers
- Organic cooking spray or butter, melted
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups cane sugar
- 7 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 tsp organic almond extract
- 1 tsp organic vanilla extract
- 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup whole milk
Vanilla Buttercream
- 2 cups (16 oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 7 cups organic powdered sugar
- 1 tsp organic vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
- 2/3 cups heavy cream
Garnishes
- Candied cranberries
- Fresh organic rosemary and sage sprigs
- Fresh organic bay leaves
Instructions
Prepare Cranberry Filling:
Bring all Cranberry Filling ingredient to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring often, until cranberries break down and mixture thickens, about 10 minutes.
Transfer to a blender. Process until mostly smooth, about 1 minutes.
Transfer to a Bowl and Cool 2 hours.
Prepare Cake Layers:
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.
Line bottom of pans with parchment paper rounds; spray paper.
Beat butter and sugar with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
With mixer running on low speed, add egg whites.
Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
Gradually add flour mixture to egg mixture above, alternating with milk, in 3 parts, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Beat until blended after each addition.
Divide batter evenly among prepared 3 pans or spring forms.
Bake in preheated oven until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 24-27 minutes.
Cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes.
Invert to wire racks, and cool completely about 30 minutes.
Discard parchment paper.
Prepare Vanilla Buttercream:
Beat butter with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.
With mixer running on low speed, gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth and stopping to scrape sides as needed.
Beat in vanilla and salt.
With mixer running on medium speed, gradually add cream, beating until fluffy and spreadable.
Arranging Cake Layers:
Spoon half of Buttercream into a 16-inch disposable piping bag.
Cut a 1/2-inch opening in tip.
Pipe a 1/4-inch-thick layer of Buttercream in concentric circles on Cake Layer, starting from outside edge and working toward center. Smooth with spatula.
Pipe 1/4-inch-thick ring of Buttercream around outside edge, creating a dam about 3/4-inch wide.
Chill Cake Layer until Buttercream hardens, about 20 minutes.
Stir cranberry Filling to loosen.
Fill center of Buttercream dam with half of Cranberry Filling (about 1/3 cup), and smooth with offset spatula.
Top with 2nd Cake Layer.
REPEAT Buttercream, dam, chilling, and filling process (I do 2 layers back-to-back together and allow them to chill together prior putting a 3rd/last Cake Layer on top).
Place 3rd/last Cake Layer on top of the 2nd layer.
Frost top and sides of cake with remaining Buttercream, smoothing with offset spatula and letting some of cake of the sides show through.
Decorate the Cake:
Top cake with a mound of Candied Cranberries.
Add bay leaves and small springs of rosemary and sage.
Garnish bottom with a wrath of rosemary, sage and bay leaves. Be creative and use your favorite herbs!
70 thoughts on “Candied Cranberries White Cake Holiday Recipe for Unforgettable Memories”
This a great holiday dessert! I love the candied cranberry ingredient.
It’s ALMOST too pretty to eat! Thank you for the recipe!
I would like to make this for Christmas.
Such a great recipe using cranberries.
Candied Cranberries White Cake Holiday Recipe is such a terrific and wonderful cake for the holidays. So festive and before we know it the holidays will be here.
Maryann,
Your comment hit a soft spot: time does run so fast.
And this candied cranberries white cake recipe is worth the time spent making it.
The berries is my really favorite part to cook and to eat.
Wow, this looks amazing. I love the idea of candied cranberries.
What a stunning cake! I also love using almond extract and the flavor it brings to baked goods.
This cake is beautiful! Adding this to my list to bake! I love how you’ve added the candied cranberries! Love ’em!
Oh, my goodness! This looks so delicious! I wish I was good at making cakes. Maybe someday I’ll try this recipe.
That cake, no words!!!! I can’t wait to make it, can’t wait…So good!!!!
He he he, this cake is rich, but, oh, so good!
This looks so good. Candied cranberries are my favorite! Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Heather,
What is really cool about this recipe is that the berries don’t lose the sugar coating. I carefully pack cute small boxes with candied cranberries for my hostess gifts. They look delightful.
Those candied cranberries are looking quite delicious! I’ve never tried something like that before but will definitely do it someday. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Angela,
Cranberries are my favorites in winter. I keep a few small bags in the freezer to cook with the berries year-round.
I am not used to seeing cranberries as a dessert. This intrigues me.
Cranberries are my favorite!! I eat them year round!
Gena,
So do I!
I keep a few bags in the freezer and cook with them year-round.
The cake looks so good! Very unusual being white. I personally love cranberries, it makes the cake even better in my eyes. Saving it for later for sure.
He, he, Lyosha,
You can color the filling cream in whatever color you wish.
I just wanted to go with the white, “snowy” theme.
I saw the blueberry version of this one somewhere, glad that the process is quite similar. That candied cranberries white cake looks absolutely delicious!
This looks so elaborate but I am sure that the end result would be worth all the effort one puts in! Can’t wait to surprise my family with this 🙂
This recipe is a must-try. I will definitely make it for the Holidays to create unforgettable memories with my loved ones.
Wow wow wow. This cake looks heavenly. I would love to try this one sometime!!! I love cranberries!
This is so delicious. I would love to have this dessert on my table any day.
Oh my goodness – this looks amazing! The candied cranberries are so pretty and would be a great garnish for so many holiday recipes. Yum!
Oh my goodness I am all over this, it looks so pretty and delish!
These candied cranberries make this cake even more festive! My family will be happy to make this white cake for Christmas!
To put it simple, this white cake recipe will truly make a great and unforgettable memory. Definitely look delicious and so tasty.
I have dried versions of rosemary and sage herbs with me now! Candied Cranberries White Cake looks so delicious, will try your recipe soon ?
I love how you decorated this cake.. So cute.
Sounds so amazing,so sad we don’t always have cranberries here in Philippines. My wife may try if we do have cranberries..hehe
I would love to be in your kitchen when this was made for the aromas alone! I haven’t had candied cranberries before but I do love cranberries in general. This cake will be a hit for the holidays.
These would be an awesome snack! I would really love to get some of these for the kids.
I bet the tartness of the cranberries taste so good with the sweetness of the cake. It’s very pretty too!
This looks amazing. I need to try it. I’ve never even tried candied cranberries before. I’ve always thought they looked really good though.
This looks absolutely amazing! I love the rustic feel of this cake. It’s perfect for that old fashioned holiday vibe.
This looks unusual but yummy! GOD I LOVE THE RECIPE AND THE CAKE! But whenever I try to bake something it always ends up in a disaster. 🙁
Candied Cranberries White Cake is really unusual! I never made cakes with cranberries before I would love to! Orange zest can be just shaven off from the peel right?
Liked the recipe. I need to check out for cranberries here in India at my place since it’s rare here. I want to make it for my son. He would love it.
I love this different and unusual cake recipe for this Holiday Season. This Candied Cranberries White Cake looks absolutely delicious. I love the amazing flavors and aroma of cranberries, vanilla, and fresh herbs.
These photos make me so hungry) it is an amazing example of a culinary masterpiece. It looks delicious and it is just as good as it looks.
I can’t say I’ve tried this kind of fruit white cake, but I’d love to give it a try this Christmas. We’re hosting again! 🙂
This candied cranberry white cake sounds delicious. Perfect for Christmas celebrations with family and friends.
I love to taste this cake as it is. We don’t have fresh cranberries here so I’m really curious about how this cake will taste.
This looks like amazing cake. I never tried this type of cake. I already taken print out of the recipe. And I will try this weekend
This is some great holiday stuff! One thing, can I use whole wheat flour instead of refined flour? What extra ingredient I should add in that case?
Oh, I love this and this Candied Cranberries cake looks really delicious. I am so excited to make this recipe for this holiday. Thanks for sharing!
There will be small riot in my house for that cake, Loved it. I am going to try this one for sure.
This cake idea sounds great..! I haven’t tried cranberries for cakes, it’s about time to do something different. Thanks for sharing.
This is another idea for me, I like the recipe. I am loving the look of the whole cake.
I am drooling over this amazing cake!!! I thought it would be very hard to bake it, it is not!!! Thanks a lot.
Ooo … candied cranberries with a cake! Yum! Might be too sweet for me but it looks lovely.
This looks delicious. I often make red velvet cupcakes around Christmas time with cranberries on top for decoration, but I never thought of using candied cranberries. Totally stealing that little bit of inspriration!!!
WOW! This cake looks fabulous! I would love to have this at a holiday party soon!
Wow.that cake is beautiful and so unique. I have never had a cranberry cake before but i think this would be perfect for the holidays.
The cranberries are an awesome touch to your great looking dessert! I can’t wait to try your recipe!
These Candied Cranberries makes me think of Christmas! They look divine!
This is a beautiful cake! I love how simple and elegant it looks. I wish cranberry is alaways available here!
This looks like an amazing cake. I can’t wait to try out this recipe. I don’t think I’ve ever had a candied cranberry cake before. I bet it is delicious though.
That cake is absolutely gorgeous! I’ve never had candied cranberries before. I don’t think I’ve ever had a cranberry cake either.
Lisa,
Thank you. You will enjoy the cranberries, fresh and crisp and covered with sugar in maple syrup.
Those cranberries are really festive and pretty! I love how tart and sweet cranberries are.
Amy,
These cranberries are a delight. I have them in my freezer after they disappear from the store when they’re in-season.
I have cranberries in my freezer. So I am going to make this recipe of the candied cranberries as they look so good.
Tara,
I keep cranberries in the freezer all-year-round, too!
I actually live in the cranberry capital of the world (really), so we have more cranberries here than we know what to do with.
Robin,
You’re the lucky one!
I am always in search of cranberries. But what I discovered is that I had to freeze a lot of them to have these delish berries for my meal and recipes prep.
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