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| Served a la office |
This one nearly got made in that sweet spot between Thanksgiving and Christmas when cranberries abound - even in the UK. In fact I bought and threw out two bags of cranberries because I didn't get around to making it. Had I know that I could have easily frozen them...
At any rate, Waitrose stock frozen cranberries so this cake is an any day of the year cake. Which is lucky because it is amazing. Even more amazing is how quick and easy it is. Assuming you remembered to order the frozen cranberries on your weekly shop.
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| Caramel colour - tick |
First off make a caramel, which has lemon juice in it. I have to say I am not sold on the lemon juice I could definitely still taste it in the final cake. I left out the lemon zest for that exact reason. I like lemon in a lemon cake, anywhere else I am a bit dubious in my old age.
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| Don't worry about my wrinkle, I fixed that up after I took the photo. |
Onto the caramel you tip 100grams of cranberries, which looked a bit sparse, so I tipped in 200 grams of cranberries which looked on the generous side of "about right". This is a 20cm pan, not sure what the recipe called for now!
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| Stacked highish |
The cake mix has a sour cream and butter base with the usual flour, sugar and leavening. Such a great cake mix.
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| All mixed up with somewhere to go |
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| Smoothed onto the frozen cranberries |
The cake then went into the oven for about forty minutes (memory failing me now) I know it was slightly more than recommended.
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| In situ (and how I love my oven!) |
Out of the oven and it smelled amazing and looked pretty good too. A little bit of cranberry juice bubbled through to the top. It definitely took longer than expected - see all those test holes in the top of the cake?!
Rose recommends to tip this out immediately - hardened caramel would definitely result in a less than smooth evacuation of the cake.
See, I did as I was told and lost a few cranberries to the tin. All was resurrected though within seconds as I scooped them out and returned them to their rightful home.
The final cake is then brushed with some melted raspberry jam and whilst it will never win prizes for the prettiest cake in the book, it tasted pretty incredible. The sharpness of the cranberries was offset by the caramel and the softly tart cake. This one made it into work and there were lots of positive comments. Pretty much the only cake that is consumed at work is either one that I have made or the ones that make their way around on the cake trolley once a week. Yes, we have a cake trolley - always a tray bake. My cakes seem to be more widely consumed amongst our team than those proffered by the cake trolley. This may be because mine taste amazing. But more likely it is because mine are free and the cake trolley is £1.50 a piece.
Look how lovely your cake turned out! This is such a great cake. Really want to give it a go with rhubarb.
ReplyDeleteYour cranberries very red and beautiful! Our supermarts here waitrose brand here too..but I don't see the frozen cranberries though..
ReplyDeleteMan, I wish I worked someplace that had a cake trolley. Although I wouldn't need anything from it until this bake through is complete. I love that you doubled the cranberries, I crammed in as many as I could in a single layer but next time I'm piling them in like you did!
ReplyDeleteA cake trolley is both a fantastic and a terrible idea. A friend of mine had a holiday job in an old style government department where they had a tea lady who brought cuppas and biscuits round for morning and afternoon tea, and the people packed up their desks and stood by them while they waited for the clock to reach 'home time'. I work in the government and sadly those days are gone.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think this cake looks less 'bloody' and more fruity with more cranberries
Love the way your cake presents . Color and texture -
ReplyDelete