The Best-Ever Cranberry Coffee Cake Recipe

This combination of sweet cake and tart cranberries is absolutely perfect. If you are looking for a fairly easy and delicious recipe for a cranberry coffee cake, you will love this one.

This coffeecake recipe is definitely a favourite in my family and, while we would all be happy to eat it every day, we save it for special occasions like Christmas day, New Year's day or when we have overnight company. The cranberries seem especially suitable in the fall and during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons.

We know that you will impress your family and friends whether you choose to serve this coffee cake today or to save it for a special occasion.

TOPPING

To prepare the topping, put the brown sugar, 1/3 cup butter and 1/4 tsp cinnamon in a small saucepan on the stove to boil. Once it has boiled, pour the mixture into a GREASED 9-inch springform pan. Sprinkle with the cranberries and pecans.

CAKE

1. In a large bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar until they are fuffy. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.
2. Stir the flour, baking power, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.
3. Pour half of the flour mix into the wet mix, then stir in the sour cream and finally add the remaining flour mix.
4. Add this batter on top of the cranberry and pecan layer in the pan, pushing the batter a bit higher around the edges.
5. Wrap the bottom of your pan with foil and put it on a baking sheet.
6. Bake in a 350F oven for an hour or until your tester comes out clean and the cake springs back when you touuch it lightly.
7. Let cool for ten minutes and then turn out on a serving platter and serve warm.

This Nordic Ware pan does NOT leak, which is what you really want if you are going to be making this cake frequently. However, if you are using a pan that leaks, I recommend either wrapping the bottom in foil or placing it on another pan when you place it in the oven. Either measure should help avoid a messy oven. If you need a new pan, make sure that you buy a good one so that you will not have to deal with this issue when you make this or any other coffeecake.

For some coffee cakes, I prefer to use my Corning Ware 2.5 quart French White casserole dish because is it sized appropriately and because it cleans up beautifully in the dishwasher. I can make my coffeecake ahead of time, freeze it and simply warm it when my guests arrive. This is certainly the simple method since you can serve directly from the casserole dish although using a spring form pan allows you to display your cake on a lovely cake plate. Obviously, this will not work with coffee cakes that need to be turned over after they are cooked.