Easy Cranberry Apple Cake
This easy cranberry apple cake is so easy (hence the title) and so delicious that you’ll find any excuse to make it!
Sometimes you just need an easy recipe to whip together quickly, am I right? Well that’s this cake in a nutshell. It’s filled with fruit and has a crusty cake top that’s hard to beat.
You first start out with the fruit: fresh cranberries (frozen can be used as well), an apple, and some fresh orange juice and zest. It’s the kind of flavor assortment that’s perfect for this time of year. We’re all craving sunshine and warmth–well this dessert will take you there. Fresh flavors coupled with yummy cinnamon, it’s all the warmth you need to get you through these cold winter days.
This cake is much like a dump cake. You basically dump your ingredients (fruit) on the bottom then mix up your from-scratch cake batter and dump that on top, smoothing it out and sprinkling with cinnamon sugar. Yum. Seriously so good. I made this cake several times and each time it disappeared within hours. It’s one of those cakes that you keep taking slices (or scoops!) of. Until it’s all gone. 😉
I made my cake batter with this Paleo flour. I’ve been using this flour for a while now and I love that I can easily swap it in for regular all-purpose flour. Have no fear if you don’t have this flour though–this cake can easily be made with what you have on hand–all-purpose or even whole wheat flours. Experiment!
I mentioned sprinkling the top with cinnamon sugar. Oh man, you guys. What that little sprinkling does is create a crisp top that’s seriously amazing. You kind of break through the hard(ish) top and scoop out your portion. Can you see the amazingness on the photo below? YUUUUMMMMM.
So make this cake this weekend! It’s easy but so so delicious and is sure to warm you up! Especially if eaten right out of the oven. 🙂 (Note: also very good with ice cream on top. 😉 )
- 1 bag (12 oz) fresh (or frozen) cranberries
- 1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced I used a sweet apple to balance out the tart of the cranberries
- 1/2 cup Golden Barrel Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Tbsp grated orange zest
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup plus 1 Tbsp Golden Barrel organic cane sugar
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup Paleo or all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In medium-sized bowl, combine cranberries, apple, brown sugar, orange zest and juice, and cinnamon. Stir to evenly coat fruit. Set aside.
- In the bowl attached to a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs on medium-high for 2 minutes until somewhat frothy. With mixer on medium, add the sugar, butter, vanilla, and sour cream until just combined. With mixer on low (or by hand), mix flour and salt into batter until just incorporated.
- Pour fruit mixture in pie plate and spread evenly on bottom of dish. Pour cake mixture on top of fruit and spread evenly. Combine the remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon and sugar together and sprinkle evenly over top of batter.
- Bake cake for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out mostly clean and fruit is bubbly around edges. Let cool for about 10 minutes then enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Ina Garten.
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Wow, does this cake ever look lovely? I’m definitely not a good cake maker. This cake is definitely delicious and perfect for Christmas… Definitely can see it making an appearance on my table. Thanks for the recipe!