Because I could…

I had a slice of cake before dinner.
I had a slice of cake after dinner.
I also had a slice of cake for lunch.

Being a grown-up doesn’t always suck 🙂

One of my favorite baked goodies that we used to sell at my parents’ bakery was a Cranberry-Cream Cheese Bundt Cake. I’ve also been thinking about the sour cream pound cake, but when it comes to baked goods, rule is that we have to eat what’s here before making something else. So maybe tomorrow?

What do I love about this cake? The cranberries. And the cake. The cake part is moist and a tad on the heavy side, as it should be with all that butter and cream cheese. Right after you turn it out of the pan to cool, it has this kind of chewy, sugary crust.

This goes away when you let it rest overnight covered like you’re supposed to. But I like to cut off any uneven parts from the bottom and eat them right away. Because quality assurance is the most important part of baking. I also like to serve it with a spoonful of sweetened whipped cream with just a hint of vanilla.

The cranberries offer a tart contrast to the cake. Raspberries also work nicely. If I could only get my hands on some superbly fresh blackberries like the ones that used to grow along our fence line as kids…

Print

Cranberry-Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

Moist, tangy cream cheese bundt cake studded with perfectly tart fresh cranberries.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temp
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, tossed with 1 Tbsp flour
• Whipped cream, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a bundt pan with baking spray, coating well.
2. Beat butter and cream cheese until combined. Add sugar and turn mixer to med-high and cream for 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time until combined. Add lemon juice and zest, almond extract, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Turn mixer to low and add salt. Add the cake flour in two batches. Fold in the cranberries.
3. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake 60-70 minutes, until the cake has browned and a skewer inserted in the center comes out with only moist crumbs attached. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a rack and cool completely. Cover tightly overnight (I put it in on a cake plate and cover with a glass dome) and enjoy the next day. (You can certainly eat it the same day but it gets better with an overnight resting period.)

Notes

Yields: 10-12 recipes

Source: Confections of a Foodie Bride

Estimated time: 1 hour 30 minutes