Before I get any letters or people shaking their heads at me, yes, I know I did a large swath of cranberry recipes this winter, and here I am sharing yet another one with you.
I couldn’t help myself.
If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of cranberry desserts, but for those of you who are sick and tired of those little red berries, rest assured that this coffeecake would be great with blueberries, too, so if you’d rather use fresh fruit than frozen now that spring is knocking at the door, I’d go that route.
But regardless of whether you like cranberries or not, there’s no denying that they make for a beautiful dessert. There’s a great wow factor when it comes to those bright red spots poking through.
I took this coffeecake to a gathering with family, and we devoured it.
I found this recipe on the blog “Lemon Tree Dwelling.” You can find the original at https://www.lemontreedwelling.com/cranberry-pecan-coffee-cake/. I changed up the spice mixture, doubled the vanilla and decided to skip making a glaze for this coffee cake. It’s moist and perfect without it.
Cranberry-Pecan Coffeecake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons butter, divided and softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup fresh cranberries or blueberries or thawed, drained frozen berries
- a scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup pecans coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a tube pan and set it aside.
- Cream together the 1/2 cup butter, sugar and vanilla.
- Beat in the eggs.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sour cream and beat until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine the remaining butter, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and pecans.
- Pour half of the batter into the tube pan and spread it out evenly. Top with half of the cranberries and half the spice mixture.
- Spread the rest of the batter evenly into the pan and top with the remaining cranberries and spice mixture.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out dry.
- Cool completely before removing the cake from the pan. Store in an airtight container.
I threw some extra whole pecans on the top of my coffeecake, too, to give it a prettier top.
And, yes, I probably have a cranberry addiction, but there are worse things, I suppose. I’ll try to give you more variety in my ingredients going into spring and summer, but I probably can’t make any promises.
This piece first appeared in print on March 14, 2019.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
