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.