Easy Cranberry Apple Cake

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Easy cranberry apple cake is a rich, tart start to your holiday baking. Think cobbler meets pound cake and you can  whip one up in no time. 

Waiting for cranberries at the grocery store was tough this year. Week after week, I kept looking. Because I wanted to make this cake! It’s not my mastermind, but that other Contessa’s–the barefoot one–Ina Garten. Even though she’s in the Hamptons and I’m in the land of cows and tobacco, we like a lot of the same flavors and approach food in a similar way.

I know she tells you to use vanilla beans that have been imported from Abu Dhabi and cheese straight from France (that’s only a slight exaggeration), but in the end she’s just encouraging you to use the best, most quality ingredients you can find. Don’t knock her for that part because I totally agree.

Your recipes will taste better if you don’t take too many cheap-o shortcuts. And this cake is a great example. It’s a tangy-tart, rich, dense little bit of wonderful. I thought you might like to try it in the weeks ahead as part of your holiday meal. I’m always looking for a little something new to add to our family favorites.

And this is SO easy. You’ll be glad you made it.

A couple of notes: First, I turned mine out just for the sake of pictures, but Ina’s recipe was never intended to be inverted onto a plate. You can just bake it and scoop it right out of the dish. That’s truly easy.

Second, this recipe calls for all purpose flour and no leavening agents besides the eggs, so don’t panic when it doesn’t rise. It’s not supposed to. The cake is so, so tender and moist though. You won’t care.

Third, use fresh cranberries, granny smith apples and real oranges. If you don’t, you might as well just do what I do with things that flop and feed it to your chickens. Don’t let the chickens win.

Easy Cranberry Apple Cake

Easy cranberry apple cake is a rich, tart start to your holiday baking. Think cobbler meets pound cake and you can whip one up in no time.

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings: 8

Calories: 558kcal

Author: Rachel Ballard

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Ingredients

• 12 ounces fresh cranberries rinsed and checked for stems and squishy rotten ones, one bag
• 2 inch small Granny Smith apple peeled, cored and diced into about 1/2 cubes, 1 large
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest
• 1/4 cup orange juice from the orange you zested
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt or table salt reduce this if you are using salted butter

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
• Lightly grease a 9-inch cake pan, or 10-inch pie plate.( A 10-inch is better, or see note below*)
• In a medium bowl, mix the cranberries, apples, brown sugar, orange juice and zest, and cinnamon and toss to coat. Set aside and make the cake.
• In another bowl, beat the eggs until lighter and fluffier--about 2 minutes. Add the sugar, butter, vanilla, and sour cream and mix well.
• On low speed, add the flour and salt slowly and mix just until no pockets of flour remain.
• Pour the fruit into the bottom of your baking dish.
• Spread the batter over the fruit as evenly as possible. It will be thick.
• Bake until the fruit is bubbly and hot and the cake is set--45 to 50 minutes or so. Check it with a toothpick--if it comes out clean it's done. Great warm or at room temperature.

Notes

For the sake of pictures, I made this recipe in a bundt pan. You can do the same if you want to with the same baking temperature, and bake it just until a toothpick comes out clean--that was between 50 and 60 minutes for me, but just start checking it at 40 and see how it is.

Allow to cool 10 minutes in the pan, then loosen the cake with a knife and invert it onto a plate. If any fruit is left behind, just scoop it out and pile it on the cake.

Nutrition

Calories: 558kcal