Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Fresh cranberries are placed in the bottom of a cake pan with a brown sugar caramel mixture. Topped with a deliciously moist vanilla batter, this Cranberry Upside Down Cake is a perfect dessert for any holiday meal. Garnished with cranberries and fresh rosemary sprigs, it really couldn’t get any easier or any more delectable!

If you love the tartness of fresh cranberries, you’re going to simply adore this Cranberry Upside Down Cake! The sweet cake batter is the perfect vessel to carry all of those tart cranberries once baked and flipped upside down! Oh, and this cake has a bit of milk in it too, so you know this one is going to be soft and moist!

This is one of those no-fuss cake recipes. That basically means that not only is the cake itself easy to make, but it doesn’t need any fancy decorating. I would consider serving a slice with ice cream especially if the cake is still warm. Yum!

BAKING A FRESH CRANBERRY CAKE

In terms of baking, you will need to bake this Cranberry Upside Down Cake in a 10″ spring form pan. Using the spring form pan will allow you to flip the cake onto a cake stand, easily remove the side of the pan and then the bottom. I also like to line the bottom of the spring form pan with a circle of parchment paper to make sure my cranberries do not stick. Once you remove the pan, you can easily peel back the parchment to reveal the beautifully, sticky cranberries.

You cannot bake this cake in a Bundt pan, because by the time the cake batter cooks all the way through in the middle, the outer edges of the cake will be browned too much, or worse yet, burnt. The cranberries have a lot of moisture and that will affect the cake and how it bakes. If the cake batter is piled into a bundt pan, or a smaller cake pan with higher walls, the moisture in the cranberries will cause the batter to steam. You don’t want that!

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND NEVER MISS ANOTHER RECIPE!

So, welcome, Dear Reader, to my annual holiday-themed recipes. Traditionally, every year I share a series of recipes that you might already be familiar with. For example, I’ve previously shared 12 Holiday Trifles, 12 Holiday Bars & Squares, and even these 12 Edible Holiday Wreath recipes! Also, some of my favourite recipe collections from previous years are my 75 Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen, my 50 Make Ahead Freezer Friendly Christmas Recipes, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

This year I’m doing it differently. Rather than sharing multiple back to back series, I’m sharing a new holiday-themed recipe almost every day from now until Christmas Eve. For those of you who have followed my annual Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series, don’t worry, you will still get lots of new cookie recipes this year too. I will not, however, be publishing the cookies back to back in a 24-day series. This would have been my 8th year running the series and it becomes very exhausting. Also, we have a vacation booked in what would have been the middle of the series, so this year, I’m spreading the recipes out so that I’m not sharing the same type of recipe every day.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! And, just in case you’re curious, you can see previous annual posts for my 24 Cookies of Christmas Series here!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Flour – Regular all-purpose flour was used. I have not tested this recipe with any other types of flour.
• Baking Powder – This is used to increase the volume of the batter and to add texture as well.
• Salt
• Sugar – There’s one and a half cups of sugar in this cake, but you need the sweetness to offset the tartness of the cranberries.
• Brown Sugar
• Eggs – It’s always a good idea to make sure your eggs are at room temperature before baking. Sit them in a small bowl on your countertop for 10-15 minutes before using.
• Salted Butter – Your butter should be at room temperature and softened. If you don’t have salted butter, just add 1/2 teaspoon of salt when you add the flour.
• Milk – I always use whole milk when baking.
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies. 
• Cranberries – Wash them and dry them.

HOW TO MAKE A CRANBERRY UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

For the cranberry base, measure the butter and brown sugar into a saucepan. Over medium heat, whisk until the brown sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the butter and brown sugar mixture into a well-greased 10 inch spring form cake pan. Add the fresh cranberries to the pan in a single layer. Set aside.

For the cake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes.) Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and milk. Beat into the sugar and butter mixture until just incorporated. Set aside. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add this mixture to the wet ingredients and beat until just mixed.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Once you remove the cake from the oven, it is very important to leave the cake in the pan. Place the pan on a wire cooling rack. Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a cake stand or serving plate. Allow the cake to cool. Garnish and serve.

O CRANBERRY, CRANBERRY, WHEREFORE ART THOU CRANBERRY?

Have you been reading my blog for any length of time? If you have, you will already be aware of what I’m about to discuss. If you haven’t, it’s important that you understand how frustrating it can be to be a food blogger at times. Food bloggers are always working ahead of schedule. When it comes to Christmas recipes, for example, we are baking cakes and cookies as early as September! In fact, I finished this cake recipe and the photographs you see here in November 2024!

We do this so that we can test the recipes to make sure that they will work for you at home. The recipes need to be plated and styled. Photographs need to be taken. We have to write up the post and make sure we please the folks at Google, otherwise, our recipes run the risk of being buried in cyberspace somewhere. There are many other steps that I’m skipping here, but all of it is to say that we need the time to get the recipes out to you a few weeks before you need them.

Now, as a huge fan of Christmas baking – the 200+ Christmas recipes here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen are proof of that – there’s one thing that frustrates me every single year. There’s a tremendous lack of things like fresh cranberries for many months of the year. Don’t even get me started on holiday confections like Hershey’s chocolate or candy canes! All of this is to say that you cannot use frozen cranberries in this cake. There is just too much moisture and you run the risk of a deflated cake center. Fresh cranberries only for this recipe, folks!

THIS CAKE DEMANDS TEA OR COFFEE!

Maybe it’s my British heritage, or maybe it’s because I know a good thing when I see it! Afternoon sweet treats with a cup of tea or coffee have always been a part of my life.  An afternoon hot beverage is very common in Newfoundland, and I still have coffee almost every afternoon.  On the weekends, particularly, I love to have my coffee with a scone, a biscuit, or a piece of cake.

That’s what I love about this Cranberry Upside Down Cake. It’s a cake that has no fuss about it. And, you don’t need to do anything fancy with it to fully enjoy it. Slice off a wedge and sit back with a hot coffee or tea. Nothing can beat that! How long is it going to take you? Ten or fifteen minutes? I think everyone deserves a little downtown once in a while. And, while you’re at it, have a piece of cake! Life is short; enjoy it!

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down to follow me and never miss another recipe!