Sourdough Cranberry Cake

This lovely sourdough cranberry cake features a soft yellow cake studded with gorgeous pops of white chocolate and cranberries. With its festive appeal, it’s the perfect Thanksgiving breakfast or Christmas season brunch.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe!

Festive Color – Just like this sourdough strawberry cake, the pops of festive color in this sourdough cranberry cake make it the perfect cake for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Use Up 150g of sourdough discard – this sourdough cake is a great way to use up sourdough discard when you have lots hanging around.

Versatile sourdough cake – this cake can be served for breakfast with a simple dusting of powdered sugar or dessert with a drizzle of orange glaze and whipped cream. It’s also a lovely addition to your brunch table along with this sourdough cranberry banana bread or sourdough carrot cake.

Ingredients

• White Sugar and Vanilla – I’ve only used 300g of sugar in this recipe because the cake also gets sweetness from the white chocolate chips. If you want this to be a sweet dessert, you could add an extra 100g of sugar or serve topped with an orange glaze (similar to the one drizzled over this sourdough braided brioche wreath).
• Butter – I’ve used salted butter, softened at room temperature. You can use unsalted if you prefer.
• Eggs – I’ve used 3 large eggs. If your eggs are smaller, I recommend using 4.
• Greek Yogurt – any plain, unsweetened yogurt is fine to use here. If you really don’t have plain, sweet vanilla yogurt works well too.
• Sourdough Starter – You can use active sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard in this cake. As it uses baking powder for leavening, it doesn’t really matter too much. The only caveat here is if you are using discard, you don’t want to use discard that is too old and sour or it will give your cake an unpleasant flavor.
• All Purpose Flour, Baking Powder and Salt – nothing unusual here, all very standard ingredients.
• White Chocolate Chips – these add a lovely sweetness to this cake. You can use semi sweet chocolate chips if you prefer, or even caramelised white chocolate chips too.
• Cranberries – I’ve used frozen cranberries in this sourdough cranberry cake for convenience, but fresh cranberries work just as well. I recommend tossing frozen cranberries in flour before adding them to the cake batter to stop them from sinking to the bottom during baking.

How To Make Sourdough Cranberry Cake

Grab a cake pan or baking dish (I’ve used a 10″ square pan but this bakes equally well in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish). Grease with butter or line with parchment paper.

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F).

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. I’ve used a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (speed 4), but you can use a bowl and a whisk and do it by hand if you prefer.

Now, add the eggs and vanilla and whisk again until fully combined (again speed 4).

To this add the Greek yogurt and sourdough starter. Whisk this again. When you add the yogurt and sourdough starter the liquid may seem like it has curdled, don’t worry, it will be ok. Once you add the flour it will come back together.

Now add the all purpose flour, baking powder and salt and whisk for 2 minutes (medium speed) until the mixture is light and fluffy. You want lots of air in this mixture.

Now remove the bowl from your stand mixer and add the white chocolate chips and cranberries (remember to dust your cranberries in flour if you’re using frozen).

Add these to the cake batter and fold in using a spatula (this ensures the cranberries don’t bleed too much).

Pour the cake batter into your prepared cake pan or baking dish. You can add some extra cranberries to the top of the batter for color if you want to. Bake for 50 minutes at 180C (350F) or until the cake is cooked through and golden brown on top.

Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before moving to a cooling rack. If you’ve baked the sourdough cranberry cake in a baking pan, you can leave it in the pan to cool and serve.

Serving Suggestions

This sourdough cranberry cake is perfect simply dusted with powdered sugar and served with coffee, but if you’re looking for something a little extra, why not try one of these ideas:

• Add 200g of chopped pecans to the batter along with the cranberries and white chocolate and serve with a dollop of maple whipped cream to really harness those fall vibes. You can see how I make maple whipped cream to top this sourdough pumpkin pie.
  
• Add an orange twist by adding 2 tbsp of orange zest to the cake batter and serving with an orange glaze.
  
• For extra sweetness, sprinkle the top of the cake with granulated sugar before baking.

How to Store + Freeze

This sourdough cranberry cake will last in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. It’s also suitable to be stored in the fridge. If serving from the fridge, allow it to stand at room temperature for one hour before serving, or warm in the microwave.

This cake freezes well. You an either freeze the cake as a whole, or freeze individual slices. Wrap the cake in press and seal or place slices into ziploc bags before placing in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.

Share the sourdough love!