Christmas Parties
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DIY Christmas and Holiday Crafts
Recipes
Recipes Christmas and Holidays
Pink Cranberry Christmas Cake & DIY Cake Topper
Did you see the pink and copper Christmas party we styled this year? If not, head to this post for all the eye candy!
Well, today I'm sharing the delicious cranberry Christmas cake I baked for the occasion, with lashings of pink Mascarpone frosting! Aren't you lucky?! 😋
At Christmas, we always bake some sort of fruit cake in our house. My kids love helping along, and it's one of the wonderfully satisfying Christmas traditions that I am happy to pass down to them! I mean, we have tons of fun baking, the house fills up with delicious aromas, and of course, we get to eat our creations afterward! What's not to love?!
And because this year we styled a pink and copper Christmas party, the cake or at least the frosting, had to be pink!
But I hate overly sweet frosting or cakes. And for Christmas at least, I try to go the natural route when it comes to food. So I even dabbled in using natural fruit juices to color my icing pink, which turned out super effective and pretty in pink delicious!
Be sure to use raspberries for the juice though, since I tried it with mixed frozen berries and the result was more purple in color than pink...
The recipe I used is my own variation on a classic bundt cake from this article. But since I didn't have a large enough bundt cake pan, I baked it in a loose-bottomed tin. And added my own frosting recipe. In pink, of course!
It is super easy and fast too, so I hope you feel inspired to give it a go! 😊
Cranberry Christmas Cake Recipe with Natural Pink Frosting
Ingredients: Serves 14 - adapted from this article.
* 250 g or 9 oz dried cranberries
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1 tsp ground pumpkin pie spice
* zest and juice of 1 tangerine (about 50 ml of juice or 2 fl oz)
* butter for greasing
* 125 g or 5 oz unsalted butter
* 125 g or 5 oz caster sugar
* 3 medium eggs
* ½ tsp sea salt flakes
* 125 g or 5 oz plain flour
* ¾ tsp baking powder
For the natural pink frosting:
'Natural' here refers to the color of the frosting 😉
* 250 g or 9 oz Mascarpone cheese
* 500 g or 18 oz icing sugar (confectioner's powdered sugar)
* 2-4 tbsp raspberry juice for the color ( I defrosted in the microwave some frozen berries and strained to get the juice)
* 1-2 tbsp dried cranberries for the decor
Directions:
This cake can be made up to 3 days ahead; frosted and decorated the day before serving.
1) Place the cranberries into a bowl and soak in warm tangerine juice (warm it up in the microwave for about 30-50 seconds) with all the spices, for at least 1 hour, ideally overnight.
2) Preheat the oven to 180°C or 356°F, fan 160°C, gas 4. Grease a 25 cm or 10 inch cake tin with butter.
3) In a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs gently to incorporate and add the sea salt. Sift in the flour and baking powder and beat very gently to combine.
4) Add the soaked dried fruit mixture and mix gently to combine.
5) Transfer the mixture to the greased cake tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.
6) Leave to cool completely in the tin, then turn out onto a cake stand or serving plate before frosting.
To Frost your cake:
1) Whisk the Mascarpone with the icing sugar for 2-3 minutes until smooth and evenly incorporated.
2) Add the fruit juice slowly, a little at a time to reach your desired hue of pink. You can add a couple more tablespoons of icing sugar to make it firmer, if you like.
3) Spoon the frosting over the cooled cake, and smooth with a palette knife or spoon, making it drop slightly over the edges.
4) Sprinkle with chopped up dried cranberries on top. Decorate with a cute DIY cake topper!
DIY Merry Christmas Cake Topper
Materials:
* 1 x 'Merry Christmas' ornament sign
* hot glue gun
* 2 x wooden sticks
* 2 x cute pink straws
* pliers
* scissors
Directions:
1) Using your scissors, trim any string from your ornament.
2) Use pliers to cut off excess parts.
3) Hot glue 2 wooden sticks to the back of the sign. Trim the length of your sticks to fit your cake size.
4) Insert cute straws to cover the sticks, and display atop your cake just before serving!
Hope you like the ideas and feel inspired to get baking and crafting!
Now, head over to The Baker's Shop to continue the hop!!
For more pink Christmas party ideas see this page!
This post Pink Cranberry Christmas Cake & DIY Cake Topper appeared first on Bird's Party Blog
I love this pink and copper Christmas design! What a fun non-traditional color palette that works so very well! This cake looks delicious and I love that you used natural fruit dye. I'm a big fan of clean and natural eating. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis pink party is such a beautiful take on Christmas! That looks so delicious and the topper is perfection!
ReplyDeleteBird, this party is absolutely beautiful and so is this cranberry Christmas cake! I love the DIY cake topper too! Can't wait to try this recipe! You're always inspiring me! XOXO, Sarah
ReplyDeleteThat cake looks delicious and loving the topper, so adorable. I love pink so this post made me so happy!
ReplyDeleteThis is so beautiful! Love your pink take on Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThat cake topper is super clever! I'll have to try to find an ornament that would work!
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait to make the recipe you shared!! Looks so yummy!!
ReplyDeleteCant wait to try the recipe!!
ReplyDeleteYour Pink Cranberry Christmas Cake looks so pretty. Lots of great ideas here. Hope you have a fantastic week and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas
Miz Helen
Bird, this is so FABULOUS!!! Love all the pink this year!!
ReplyDeleteLove those gilded wreaths, the topper, the cake. Love it all.
ReplyDelete