White chocolate cranberry celebration cake
Several Christmases ago I treated myself to a Nordic Ware Holiday Tree Bundt. It’s the perfect vessel for this white chocolate cranberry celebration cake. It was a bit of a lavish expense and so I’m always looking for an excuse to dig it out. I’ve tried everything from a coconut cake to a coffee and walnut cake in this tin. But with its festive appearance I thought I’d try my favourite Christmas combination of white chocolate and cranberry.
The recipe I use is similar to the recipe that came with the original tin, just with a few tweaks and the addition of some Xmas ingredients. The recipe you have here is my second attempt. I was a little mean with the cranberries the first time round (I was worried they were all going to clump). However, I found that there wasn’t quite enough cranberry tartness to bite through the richness of the white chocolate and therefore increased the amount of fruit.
Centrepiece
White chocolate cranberry celebration cake looks just as good as a centrepiece as it does sliced! Of course, if you don’t have a holiday tree Bundt then any large Bundt tin will do the job and will look just as enticing once decorated!
Instead of the sparkling snow topping you can just use icing sugar. But, especially around Christmas, most stores sell small decorating pots of icing sugar with the addition of a silver sparkle. I always have some of this sitting in my cupboard for such an occasion as this and it works perfectly on this cake.
Ingredients
- 8¼ ounces / 230g unsalted butter, softened + extra for greasing
- 10½ ounces / 300g caster sugar
- 12¼ ounces / 350g plain flour
- ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
- 6 large eggs
- 8¾ fluid ounces / 250ml yoghurt
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
- 7 ounces / 200g dried cranberries
- 4½ fluid ounces / 125ml double cream
- 10½ ounces / 300g white chocolate chips
- sparkling snow topping
Method
Firstly, and most importantly, grease the inside of your tin. And I mean REALLY grease it! You don’t want your beautiful cake to fall at the first hurdle if it gets stuck in the tin, so feel free to go crazy with the butter here! I use a latex glove – grab a good lump or two of butter, and really rub it into the tin. I then finish the job off with a pastry brush to make sure it’s in all those nooks and crannies.
Preheat your oven to 180°C / 356°F (160°C / 320°F fan).
Mixing
Put your butter and sugar into a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment and beat until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl sieve your flour, bicarb, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Now, add one egg at a time to your mixer, each time adding a dessert spoon of your flour mix to the batter to make sure it doesn’t split.
Once all of the eggs are mixed in you can add the rest of your flour mix and beat until smooth.
Add the yoghurt and vanilla and continue to beat until fully combined.
Finally, with a metal spoon fold in the cranberries.
Baking
Transfer to your Bundt tin and cook in the oven for 50-60 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean).
Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 20 minutes (until you can handle the tin). Gently pry the bottom of the cake from the edges of the pan (I use the corner of a spatula) and then place a plate on the bottom of your cake and tip it upside down. Pat a few times until your cake (hopefully!) slips out of the tin.
Leave to cool completely.
Decoration
Once your cake is cool, heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just comes to the boil. Put your chocolate into a small bowl and pour over the hot cream, beating with a whisk until it melts thoroughly and you have a smooth ganache.
Use the whisk to drizzle the ganache over your cake.
Leave the ganache to cool before sprinkling with the snow topping and delighting your family and guests with your white chocolate cranberry celebration cake.
Tips
When I add the eggs to my white chocolate cranberry celebration cake I break them into a small jug first rather than directly into the bowl. It’s easier to spot if there are any rogue pieces of shell trying to escape!
If you find your chocolate ganache is still a little thick, feel free to mix in a little more double cream. Although the usual mix for this kind of ganache is one part double cream to three parts chocolate, I find that the brand of chocolate I use can impact upon how thick the final result is.
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Print this RecipeTRY WHITE CHOCOLATE AND CRANBERRY CHRISTMAS COOKIES
