Cranberry Cake with Butter Rum Sauce
Cranberry Cake with Butter Rum Sauce is a simple recipe that is easy to prepare yet so sinfully delicious your guests would never believe it!
This recipe for a Cranberry Cake with Butter Rum Sauce has been given a new lease on life. I have so many old recipes in the archives from days when this blog was a simple website of family favorites.
I would like to think one day they’ll all have photographs and be presented beautifully but that will most likely never happen. Luckily this one made the cut and I updated it a bit too while I was at it. This delicious cake followed me to Colorado from North Carolina where we lived when my kids were little.
It came into my life one holiday when we had Christmas dinner with an older couple that lived in the same apartment building. Alma was a great inspiration to me and I still use some of her recipes.
I will NEVER forget that she introduced me to Quiche Lorraine for the first time. It felt so sophisticated…my husband at the time and I were a couple of Midwestern kids from large families. I may have taken French in high school but I had never touched a bite of French food…it was truly Bon Appétit!
I still have those two handwritten recipe cards from Alma for Quiche Lorraine and this Cranberry Cake in an old binder…they are so personal it is very hard to get rid of them, so I don’t.
I had forgotten about this lovely little cake though and I wonder how I did that. It is so easy, so pretty and seasonal, and best of all? It is so damn good!!
It looks simple and it is easy to make. But I get raves from guests when I serve it; it’s sort of the perfect combination of a great yellow cake with tart cranberries topped by the sweet, buttery, rum flavored glaze; they are the perfect marriage.
I revised the original just a bit though. Yes, I’m the one who added rum. If you know me you are not surprised. I think I use more booze in cooking than in cocktails. I have another very old recipe on this blog for a Bacardi Rum Cake; the only one I have yet to modify from WAY back when…I had no problem using a cake mix and never even thought to make a cake from scratch.
The Butter Rum Cake is equally good but it’s that butter, sugar and rum sauce that is poured into the cake that makes it amazing so that sauce became my inspiration for this cake. Avoiding liquor? Simply delete the rum from the ingredients; it’s still great.
The rum makes a subtle difference but with alcohol, subtlety is a must. You do not want family or guests to keel over; you want just enough rum to elevate the flavor profile of the cake.
The other revision I made, guess these are actually additions, was to top it with a big spoonful of sugared cranberries. I have such an easy (and not overnight) way of making Sugared Cranberries.
They are heated on the stovetop in sugar water just until you hear the first one pop. As a result the fruit gets a bit softened, and then they’re drained and put in sugar until they dry. Crispy and sweet but sort of like cranberry jam inside? Be careful; they are absolutely addictive little orbs on their own.
I first served this Cranberry Cake with Butter Rum Sauce a couple of years ago at a Christmas Party I held for my neighbors; it was simple and it cut into a lot of slices so it’s perfect for a larger group and easy to serve too. I was surprised at the response; I swear if every dessert I make could be this easy and generate those kind of oohs and aahs, I would be a happy camper.
If making for a holiday get together, you can make the cake portion of the Cranberry Cake with Butter Rum Sauce a day or two ahead and wrap for re-warming.
It’s important if you’re doing the berries to not do them more than one day prior to serving. It’s also imperative that you DO NOT refrigerate them, else you’ll find them in a puddle of cranberry syrup!
Give this a try; it was so well received at my holiday Christmas parties and is one dessert that has a spectacular finish without killing the cook to get there! Happy Holidays!
Love cranberries like I do? Here’s some more holidays desserts we love with them:
PIN IT! ‘Cranberry Cake with Butter Rum Sauce’
Cranberry Cake with Butter Rum Sauce
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoon butter melted
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
For the Sauce
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup cream or half-and-half
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ cup rum use white to keep the sauce light
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 13-by-9-inch glass baking pan. Cut a piece of parchment or waxed paper to fit the bottom of the pan; put in place and lightly grease the paper.
To Make the Cake
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.
- Put the sugar in a large mixing bowl and add the butter; beat on medium speed until well blended.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg.
- Add dry ingredients and milk alternately; starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix well.
- Stir in cranberries and pour into baking pan; make sure the cranberries are evenly spaced in the batter.
- Bake 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Let cool, remove from pan, making sure to peel off parchent paper, and arrange on a plate or stand.
To Make the Sauce
- Combine all ingredients in saucepan over medium heat and cook until all the sugar and butter melts and everything has blended. Turn up heat and boil for one minute.
- Poor hot sauce over warmed cake.
- Top with sugared cranberries (optional)
Thank you for posting this recipe! I have been looking for it for several years. My grandmother used to make it during holidays, then my mother, and then myself as my children were growing up. Then I lost the recipe! We had always called it “Cranberry Dessert” so I didn’t know the real name. It is so simple but so rich and good. Whenever I served it to guests, they raved. It’s great to have it again.
I’m delighted you found it Mia! I love it because it’s really simple to make but it is absolutely delicious and something everybody expects every year when I have a holiday party. Cheers!
Thank you for this amazing delicious cake recipe . This is perfect for holiday parties and the butter rum sauce on cake was a super hit!! Thanks again.
So happy to hear…you know my reputation wasn’t just on the line with this one! 🙂 It was fun; let’s do it again sometime!
This cake is so striking with the contrasting colors! I want to grab a fork and take a bite.
That is EXACTLY what I want you to do…and it’s easy too!
I am so glad you looked through the archives to find this recipe and I love the addition of rum to the butter sauce. I think it is a brilliant idea!
This is the time of year when archive diving is most appropriate isn’t it Betsy? So many family favorites hidden away that I must bring to light again! The Rum? Well, I do have a reputation to uphold. 🙂
You definitely weren’t kidding – that cake looks and sounds fabulous!! Almost makes me think of a plum pudding but a LOT less work!!! When I was young, we always had plum pudding for dessert with homemade rum butter sauce… YUM!!! Hmmm…. may make this instead of getting a plum pudding (for me!) since we always have birthday cake (hubs bday and all!!)
The ease of making is sure enticing but the combination of the three components really makes for a great dessert. One that is not too rich either; I know as much as I love desserts the last thing I want after a big meal is a super rich one. This was a huge hit at my party…so it’s coming with me for my dessert offering at Christmas too!
I’ve never tried sugared cranberries before. They sound delicious! I love that you can make this recipe ahead of time.
Wendy I think most people make them because they are such a pretty garnish but I also just love to eat them. The brief cooking period is just enough to soften the inside a bit without bursting the skins on all but a few and the addition of the sugar on the outside is enough to balance the tartness of the berry. It’s like a little piece of candy you bite into and are presented with a surprise inside! And I love the advance prep part too. I’ve got one cake made and in the freezer and will make another today so I’ve got enough for a crowd for Christmas but no work that day except to warm something. I can do that. 🙂 Have a great holiday!