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I’m dreaming of a white Christmas with cranberry white chocolate cakes! These snow-capped mini bundt cakes showcase a jeweled ribbon of cranberry Amaretto sauce for a truly festive seasonal treat.
Flavored with Amaretto (almond liqueur) and pure almond extract, the golden cakes bake up beautifully in mini bundt pans. Depending on the size of your pan, the recipe makes 6 to 8 mini bundt cakes.
For easy layering, I like to pipe both the cake batter and the cranberry filling into the molds. Bake cakes until golden, drizzle or dip the tops in white chocolate, and enjoy!
More cranberry recipes you’ll love:
- Cranberry Crumb Bars
- Cranberry Walnut Meringue Pie
- Cranberry Upside-Down Cakelets
- Cranberry Orange Cream Scones
Cranberry White Chocolate Cakes
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 26 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 6 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 mini bundt cakes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Festive cranberry white chocolate cakes are perfect for Christmas!
Ingredients
Cranberry Filling
- 1 1/2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp Amaretto
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 tsp arrowroot starch (or cornstarch)
Cakes
- 2 cups cake flour (see note below)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup reduced-fat buttermilk, at room temperature
- 2 Tbsp Amaretto
- 3/4 tsp pure almond extract
Topping
8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- For the filling, combine cranberries, sugar, salt, Amaretto, and water in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until cranberries begin to split open. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until fruit has softened. Add arrowroot starch and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, until mixture has thickened. Transfer to a bowl and chill until ready to use.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a mini bundlette cake pan generously with nonstick spray. Whisk together cake flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and beat in eggs and egg yolk until combined. Combine buttermilk, Amaretto, and almond extract. Beat in flour mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk mixture (begin and end with flour mixture), just until incorporated.
- Spoon batter into a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip and fill each cavity 1/3 full. Top with a layer of cranberry filling, then top with more batter until each cavity is 2/3 full. Smooth batter with an offset spatula and tap pan sharply to reduce air bubbles.
- Bake for 24 to 26 minutes, until cakes are golden, spring back to the touch, and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached. Cool cakes in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting onto rack to cool completely.
- For the topping, place white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat chocolate in 20 second intervals, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth (about 1 1/2 minutes). Drizzle white chocolate over cooled cakes, tapping the cooling rack gently to help chocolate drizzle down the sides of the cakes. Chill in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to set chocolate.
Notes
To make your own cake flour: place 2 tablespoons cornstarch in an empty 1-cup measure, then top up with flour. Sift the mixture several times to evenly distribute the cornstarch.
Baking pan: I used this Nordic Ware Brilliance Cakelet Pan.
Hi, any replacement for amaretto?
Hi Mary! You can omit the amaretto and use 1 teaspoon of pure almond extract instead.
If I wanted to make these as one large cake, would it work, and what would the timing be? Or would I need to double the batter? Thanks, Kathleen
Hi Kathleen, I know that doubling the batter would be too much for a 10-cup bundt pan. While I developed this recipe specifically for a mini pan, you could make this full size bundt instead: https://tutti-dolci.com/cranberry-orange-bundt-cake/
Omit the orange zest/juice, and add the Amaretto and almond extract instead. The cranberry filling recipe would stay the same. I think that will give you a better idea of potential baking time. Hope that helps, and let me know if you have any other questions!
Thanks, I’ll give it a try and let you know.