Nothing says festive like a recipe with fresh cranberries! This cake comes together quickly and makes the house like a holiday dream, with spices like nutmeg, and cinnamon.
I love this recipe simply because it feels like magic! Fresh cranberries baked with sugar and spices, transform into a perfectly sweet, spiced jelly like layer. Add in a vanilla almond cake beneath it, and you have a bakery quality recipe. Bonus? Your house will smell divine! As far as upside down cakes are concerned, they’re pretty easy and quite impressive…Just make sure you have enough time to let it cool before you flip it, otherwise it becomes a crumbly mess! If you don’t have cranberries, you can easily substitute blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries in this recipe. Even orange slices would be festive and fabulous.
Cranberry Upside Down Cake Recipe
Combine sugar, brown sugar, and spices in a bowl- whisk until combined. Pour that mixture over the cranberries and until all of them are coated, then transfer them to a greased 8 inch cake pan (make sure its at least 2 inches high).
Important: Make sure the pan is greased well! We want it to easily remove itself from the pan once we flip it.
Cake with Fresh Cranberries
Press the cranberries down into the pan (not enough to pop them, just enough to make sure they coat the pan). After that, we’ll make our cake batter. I love a little almond flavor in this cake with the cranberries, but if you prefer vanilla only, that works too. Add a little orange zest if you like!
I like mine a little extra sweet, so I sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of extra brown sugar on top of the cranberries.
Spread the entire cake batter over the cranberries mixture, being cautious not to mix the 2. I recommend using as silicon spatula to spread. After that’s done, it’s ready to bake!
How to Flip an Upside Down Cake
There is a bit of a technique to flipping an upside down cake. If you’ve done it once, you’ll know how to do it forever though.
- Let the cake cool, but not entirely. Give it a rest for about 15-20 minutes out of the oven before you flip it. A cake that is too warm will crumble when flipped. Too cool, and it won’t come out whole.
- Give it some help. Run a knife around the exterior of the cake to help it loosen up before you flip it.
- Use a large enough flat plate to flip it. One that is about an inch or two around the exterior of the cake dish is perfect.
- Place the inverted plate on the top of the cake, and flip!
- You should have a perfect upside down cake if you followed all of these steps.
Serving Cranberry Upside Down Cake
For garnishing this cake, I like to use a simple sprig of rosemary. Here’s a few more ideas:
- Dust with powdered sugar right before serving!
- Add a few large scoops of vanilla ice cream to the center of the warm center of the cake just before serving (this method really only works if you are serving the entire cake, otherwise serve individually if you want in tact leftovers).
- Orange zest with a spiral orange slice is a beautiful color, and flavor compliment to this cranberry upside down cake.
If you’re looking for other desserts for the Winter season, here’s a few more we think you’ll like!
What do you think about this recipe?Have questions?Comment below!Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, and connect with us on Instagram and tag your @Laughingspatula recipes with #laughingspatula,while you’re at it…We love to see your pics!
Cheers to the holiday season! – Kathi and Rachel
Cranberry Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp butter (for greasing pan)
Cranberry Sugar Layer
- 1/4 cup butter (melted)
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 3/4 cup fresh whole cranberries
Cake
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- .5 tsp almond extract
- 3/4 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Heavily grease an 8 inch cake pan with about 1 tbsp butter.
Cranberry Layer
- In a bowl, mix together melted butter, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spread mixture in cake pan. Top with fresh cranberries, slightly pressing down.
Cake
- Using an electric mixer, combine butter, sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix on medium speed until fluffy. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add in wet mixture until a smooth cake batter forms.
- Add cake batter on top of cranberry mixture, and smooth with silicon spatula.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake come out clean.
- How to Flip Cake: Let the cake cool, but not entirely. Give it a rest for about 15-20 minutes out of the oven before you flip it. A cake that is too warm will crumble when flipped. Too cool, and it won't come out whole. Run a knife around the exterior of the cake to help it loosen up before you flip it. Use a large enough flat plate to flip it. One that is about an inch or two around the exterior of the cake dish is perfectPlace the inverted plate on the top of the cake, and flip!
Maureen says
Can you use frozen cranberries?
Kathi & Rachel says
Yes, you can use frozen. No need to thaw.