Cranberry Cake Recipe

This cranberry cake recipe makes a fluffy, lightly spiced cake studded with fresh, tart cranberries! A simple brown sugar streusel adds a little sweetness and crunch to the top. 

This is a light and fluffy spiced cranberry cake with an incredibly tender crumb. This cake is not too sweet and has pops of tart cranberries throughout! I used a whole pound, and I am so happy that I did! There were cranberries in every bite, accompanied by a hint of extra sweetness and crunch from the brown sugar streusel on top! 

Holidays and cranberries go hand in hand! Once the weather gets cold, it’s time to start making large batches of cranberry chutney and cranberry sauce! For more delightful holiday treats, try these cranberry cinnamon jam bars or these apple cider cupcakes. 

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar adds sweetness and improves the texture stability of the cake. If you plan to substitute brown sugar, I recommend substituting only half. 
• Sour Cream: I use full-fat sour cream for the softest, most moist cake! You can also use Greek yogurt or crème fraîche.
• Whole Milk: Whole milk adds fat and moisture to the cake, enhancing its texture and flavor. You can use your favorite milk substitute, but be aware that it may slightly alter the taste of the cake. 
• Ground Cinnamon & Ginger: The ground cinnamon and ginger add the perfect spice to this cake, complementing the cranberries. You can also try this cake with my apple pie spice or speculoos spice mix. 
• Cranberries: Could someone explain to me why the bags of fresh cranberries are 12 ounces, but the frozen ones are 16 ounces? I would really love to know. I used a bag of frozen Massachusetts cranberries, which are some of the best I’ve ever seen, by the way! You can use any size bag that you find. 

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations for Cranberry Cake 

• Top with frosting or buttercream. Top this cake with cream cheese buttercream frosting, ermine frosting, maple frosting, or caramel swiss meringue buttercream! If you add a frosting, I would omit the crumble on top of the cake and use baked streusel topping instead to serve on top of the buttercream.   
• Change the fruit. You can use dried, reduced-sugar cranberries, like I do in my cranberry orange shortbread cookies, but you won’t have that same pop of tartness. You can also substitute half the cranberries for diced Granny Smith apples or D’Anjou pears! This cake can also be made with frozen blueberries or mixed berries. 
• Add some flavor. Try adding some orange zest to the sugar before mixing the cake batter for a spiced orange cranberry cake. If you’re looking for more crunch, toast some walnuts or chopped pecans and add them to the batter or sprinkle them on top of the cake with the streusel. 
• Change the size. This cake can be baked into 24 cupcakes, a rectangular 9×13-inch baking dish, or a round 2-layer cake. 

Professional Tips 

• Use room temperature ingredients. Ideally, all the ingredients should be at room temperature. However, I have also made this cake by letting the eggs sit in warm water while I prepare the streusel and measure the remaining ingredients. The batter will emulsify nicely even with cold sour cream and milk. 
• Don’t open the oven for the first 20 minutes. This cake has a delicate crumb, and adding the cranberries makes it even more fragile. We need to give the cake time to develop a crumb structure before disturbing it. Even then, when rotating, you want to be gentle. 
• Don’t add too much butter to your streusel. I find the consistency of the crumble topping is perfect, but you can also add a little bit of butter if you desire. If you add too much butter, it will separate from the flour when baked, causing your cake to become greasy. 

How to Make Cranberry Cake

Use these instructions to make this sweet cranberry cake! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Prepare the baking dish: 

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F (either convection or regular). I prefer no fan when using frozen cranberries. Spray the baking dish and line the bottom with parchment paper, and set aside. 

Prepare the streusel: 

Step 2: In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir to combine. It is easiest to mix by hand by squeezing the mixture together. Set aside.

You can add more melted butter, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, if desired, but I prefer this consistency for topping this cake. 

Prepare the cake: 

Step 3: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt; set aside. 

Step 4: In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream and milk. Set aside. 

Step 5: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

Step 6: Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the bowl and attachment or beaters after the second and third eggs. Add the vanilla with the last egg. 

Step 7: Alternately add the milk mixture and dry ingredients, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Stop the mixer before the last addition and scrape out all the remaining sour cream into the mixer, and add the last bit of the flour mixture. Resume mixing on the lowest speed until just incorporated (photo 1). 

I always finish mixing the batter by hand, just the last few folds to ensure the batter isn’t overmixed. 

Step 8: Fold in the cranberries (photos 2 & 3). I reserved some for the top, but that is optional. 

Mine were frozen, so they stiffened the batter, making it more difficult to mix and spread. 

Bake the cake: 

Step 9: Scoop the batter into the prepared pan, and spread it out with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula (photo 4). 

Step 10: Sprinkle on additional cranberries and the streusel topping if using (photo 5). 

Step 11: Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, approximately 45-55 minutes. Rotate the pan gently after 20 minutes, being careful not to disturb the bubbles! 

Step 12: Allow the cake to cool before slicing (photo 6). 

Recipe FAQs 

Before You Go

I hope you enjoyed this perfectly spiced holiday cake recipe. Check out our other cake recipes like this pumpkin cake or this easy moist chocolate cake recipe!