Christmas cranberry bundt cake

With Christmas approaching it’s nice to bake something really Christmas-y. This year I chose to bake something I’ve never baked before: a bundt cake. A Christmas cranberry bundt cake.

For this I used a classic baking tin by Nordic Ware, something I’ve wanted for such a long time. The tin is excellent and when used properly i.e. greasing with butter and sprinkling with flour, the cake just falls out of the tin when ready.

Baking is always a joy, but baking at Christmas is special. The best thing about baking Christmas cakes is that the house smells like Christmas.

Ingredients for a 1400ml tin

170g fresh cranberries
200g flour (gluten free would work as well)
180g softened butter
170g sugar
1 pinch of salt
½ tsp vanilia paste
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs mixed spice
1 tbs ground cinnamon

For the glaze:

200g icing sugar
2 tbsp milk
Sugared cranberries and fresh rosemary

Sugared cranberries

For the decoration you can prepare the sugared cranberries the day before you bake the cake.

First make a sugar syrup by using same amount of water and sugar. I used 100ml water for 100g sugar.

Boil the water with the sugar until the sugar is completely melted. Leave it for 10 minutes to cool down.

Put the washed fresh cranberries to the syrup and let them soak for a few minutes.

Remove the cranberries and leave them on a baking rack to dry a little.

Put some sugar on a plate and roll the sticky cranberries in the sugar until they are all coated.

Now on to the cranberry bundt cake.

First grease the tin with butter and sprinkle it with flour. Then put the mold to the fridge.

Pre-heat the oven top and bottom heat function to 170C.

Mix the butter with the sugar and vanilla paste until the mix is fluffy. Then add the eggs, one at the time and mix it for 30 seconds.

Now mix the dry ingredients: the flour, spices, baking powder and pinch of salt. Once mixed, add half of it to the wet mixture and mix it well. Then add the rest of the flour and mix.

Put a few tablespoons of batter to the mould and smear it to the side of the tin. This will help to keep the cake’s surface intact from the cranberries.

Now add the fresh cranberries to the batter and mix.

Pour the batter into the mold and bake it for 35-45 minutes. Use a toothpick or a meat pin to chcek if the cake is baked. Once the toothpick comes out clean, it’s ready.

Remove the cranberry bundt cake from the oven and leave it for a few minutes in the mould to cool down, but not too long as the cake will bake further in the hot mould and it may dry out.

Turn the cake out of the tin onto a cooling rack and leave it to cool down completely.

The glaze

Make the glaze. You can use milk or any liquid of your choice: wine or a fruit juice. I used milk and icing sugar. I started with 100g icing sugar and a tablespoon of milk. Depending how much glaze and consistency you’d like, you may need another 100g of icing sugar and some more milk. Add the milk gradually as the icing sugar doesn’t take up much liquid, meaning the glaze can be quite thin.

Once you got the right consistency, pour it onto the cake and decorate it with the sugared cranberries and fresh rosemary.

It’s best serving the cake when it’s fresh, but it can be stored for a few days.

Enjoy your Christmas Cranberry Bundt Cake.