How to Bake the Perfect Lemon Cranberry Cake
This beautiful Lemon Cranberry Cake is perfect to serve as a breakfast loaf or even at brunch as a sweet side dish. It is perfectly balanced in flavor, being aromatic, sweet, and acidic. Not only is the taste amazing, but the texture is perfect too. This lemon cranberry loaf manages to be spongy and dense at the same time. The cake has a slightly dark color because cranberries are not only incorporated whole into the batter, but are also cooked into a thick puree that is incorporated in the dough.
Butter, cooked cranberries, and Greek yogurt create a moist sponge that is strongly aromatized with a lot of lemon zest. Finally, this loaf is glazed with a lemon cranberry icing. Yum! Enjoy with a cup of coffee, tea or even a glass of almond milk.
Lemon Cranberry Cake Recipe Tips:
+ If you don’t want the cake to be as sweet, you can skip the frosting and enjoy this as more of a coffee cake.
+ Bringing your butter to room temperature makes it easier to mix in and gives the cake the best texture possible. If you need to warm up your butter quickly, follow this easy trick. Fill a glass with boiling water and then dump it out. Put the glass over the butter and let it sit for 5 minutes. It will be perfect!
Lemon Cranberry Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 8 oz cranberries
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 stick butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 tbsp Greek yogurt
Icing
- 2 tbsp chopped cranberries
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- lemon slices, for garnish, optional
Equipment
- 1 loaf pan
Instructions
- Prepare a small loaf pan with parchment, greasing the sides. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- In a small saucepan at medium heat, cook half the cranberries with ¼ cup of water until the cranberries have bursted, reduced and become a thick puree that resembles apple sauce. This will take 10-15 minutes. Allow cranberry puree to cool down. Then add the baking soda and incorporate to the puree. Reserve.
- In a medium sized bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Reserve.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment add the sugar, unsalted butter, egg, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. Whip at medium high speed for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is clear and creamy. Add the Greek yogurt and cranberry puree and mix until combined. Then, add the dry ingredients and mix until the dough is incorporated.
- Take the bowl off the standing mixer and add the second half of cranberries. Mix with a spatula until they are equally distributed in the cake mix.
- Add the cake mixture into the prepared loaf pan and create a flat surface with the back of a spoon. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Allow to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, blend 2 tablespoons of chopped cranberries and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and sieve the resulting liquid. Mix the cranberry juice with powdered sugar. Glaze the cooled cake and garnish with lemon slices.
