White Chocolate Cranberry Cake
A great alternative to Christmas fruit cake.
Ingredients
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250g Unsalted Butter
-
250g Caster Sugar
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1 tsp Vanilla Extract
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4 Eggs
-
250g Self Raising Flour
-
Pinch Salt
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2-3 tbsp Milk
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Buttercream
-
400g Icing Sugar
-
125g Unsalted Butter
-
4 tbsp Milk
-
300g White Chocolate
-
Cranberries
-
250g Cranberries
-
100g Caster Sugar
-
500ml Water
Directions
I made this white chocolate cranberry cake for a Christmas eve party as a change from the traditional fruit cake. It still tastes and looks Christmassy and fits in with your Christmas food table just as well as fruit cake. I decided on white chocolate butter icing and cranberries. Despite the nod to Christmas, this cake could just as easily be eaten in summer because of the berries and you could even swap the cranberries with strawberries or raspberries.
Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Beat the butter with a wooden or electric mixer in a large mixing bowl spoon until creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar, then vanilla, until the mixture is lighter in colour and fluffy. Add the eggs a tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition. Add a tablespoon of the weighed flour with each of the last two portions of egg (this prevents curdling).
Sift in the remaining flour and salt and gently fold in using a metal spoon. Fold in enough milk so that the mixture drops off a wooden spoon when lightly shaken. Divide the mixture between 3 x 20.5cm greased tins. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.
Cranberries
Heat half a litre of water and 100g sugar in a pan until the sugar dissolves. Put a large handful of cranberries in and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the cranberries to a sealed container with enough syrup to cover them. Put this in the fridge to cool.
Add the rest of the cranberries to the remaining syrup in the pan and simmer. Squash the cranberries slightly to make a sort of jam. Once thickened slightly, sieve to remove excess water and juice and leave to cool in a fridge.
Buttercream
Mix together the butter, milk and icing sugar to make a simple butter icing. Melt half of the white chocolate. Mix in the remaining chocolate until it has all melted. Add the white chocolate to the buttercream and mix well.
Working quickly spread about 2 tablespoons of the icing onto the bottom layer of cake and spread on enough cranberry ‘jam’ to cover this thinly.
Place the middle cake layer on top of this and repeat.
Add the top cake layer and spread the remaining icing over the top and sides of the cake (you can add a little more milk if the icing is becoming too thick already).
Last of all add the whole cranberries to the top to decorate. You could also dust with icing sugar but make sure to do this at the last minute or else it will mix with the liquid in the cake and become runny.
Ingredients
| 250g Unsalted Butter | |
| 250g Caster Sugar | |
| 1 tsp Vanilla Extract | |
| 4 Eggs | |
| 250g Self Raising Flour | |
| Pinch Salt | |
| 2-3 tbsp Milk | |
Buttercream |
|
| 400g Icing Sugar | |
| 125g Unsalted Butter | |
| 4 tbsp Milk | |
| 300g White Chocolate | |
Cranberries |
|
| 250g Cranberries | |
| 100g Caster Sugar | |
| 500ml Water | |
