Recipe for Christmas cake
Recipe for a unique cake perfect for Christmas
I invite you to try the recipe for a Christmas cake that combines an extraordinary blend of flavors. Composed of layers of red velvet cake and spinach cake, this cake emphasizes the holiday spirit. The delicacy of mascarpone cream and the juiciness of cranberries add a unique character to this festive dessert. Try this recipe to create an unforgettable cake that will surprise and enchant all household members and guests.
Table of content
Christmas cake recipe step by step
If you’re looking for a unique cake recipe perfect for Christmas, then you must try this one!
Christmas Cranberry Cake Recipe with Video
Wyposażenie
- 22 cm diameter baking pan.
Składniki
ingredients for the spinach cake for the torte
- 75 g spinach
- 1 egg (size L – at room temperature)
- 150 ml buttermilk (at room temperature)
- 1,5 tablespoons lemon juice
- 40 ml oil
- 150 g wheat flour (- 1 cup)
- 1,5 teaspoons baking powder
- 75 g sugar (- 1/3 cup)
ingredients for the red velvet cake for the torte
- 375 g wheat flour (- 2.5 cups)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
- 250 g sugar (- 1 and 1/4 cups)
- 240 ml oil
- 360 ml buttermilk (- at room temperature)
- 2 eggs (size L – at room temperature)
- approx. 2 tablespoons red food coloring
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or essence)
ingredients for cranberry fruit filling
- 200 g cranberries
- 100 g sugar
- approx. 150 ml orange juice
- 1 teaspoon potato starch (+ a little water)
ingredients for the mascarpone cream for the torte
- 500 g mascarpone cheese (well chilled)
- 70 g powdered sugar (- 1/2 cup – or to taste)
- 250 ml heavy cream (well chilled)
Instrukcja
How to make spinach cake for the torte
- Blend together spinach, egg, buttermilk, oil, and lemon juice into a smooth mixture.75 g spinach, 1 egg, 150 ml buttermilk, 1,5 tablespoons lemon juice, 40 ml oil
- In a larger bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and sugar.150 g wheat flour, 1,5 teaspoons baking powder, 75 g sugar
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix or blend.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan – I greased my baking pan with butter and dusted it with flour.
- Bake the spinach cake in an oven preheated to 170 degrees (convection) for about 30 minutes – until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- After baking, cool the cake.
How to make red velvet cake for the torte
- Into a large bowl, sift together flour with baking soda and cocoa, add sugar and mix.375 g wheat flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa, 250 g sugar
- In a second bowl, briefly blend oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar.240 ml oil, 360 ml buttermilk, 2 eggs, approx. 2 tablespoons red food coloring, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones..
- Briefly mix the ingredients together or blend.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan – you can divide the batter into two portions and bake in separate pans.
- Bake the red velvet cake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees (top/bottom heat mode). If you bake the cake in two separate pans, bake it for about 35-40 minutes. If you bake the cake all at once in one pan, bake it for about 55 minutes – until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- After baking, cool the cake.
How to make cranberry fruit jelly
- Transfer the cranberries to a saucepan (if using frozen, you don’t need to thaw them beforehand), add sugar and orange juice.200 g cranberries, 100 g sugar, approx. 150 ml orange juice
- Cook the cranberries over low heat until they start to burst and soften, and the juice slightly reduces.
- Mix the potato starch with a small amount of water until it becomes liquid.1 teaspoon potato starch
- Add the starch to the boiling cranberries and stir vigorously. When the cranberries thicken, remove them from the heat and let them cool.
How to make mascarpone cream for cake
- Briefly blend the mascarpone cheese with powdered sugar.500 g mascarpone cheese, 70 g powdered sugar
- Pour in the cold heavy cream and blend on high speed until you get a thick cream.250 ml heavy cream
Christmas Cake – Assembly
- Cut off the domed top of the red velvet cake with a sharp knife – you can eat it :)
- Lightly cut off the top of the spinach cake and finely blend or thoroughly crumble the cut-off part.
- Slice the red velvet cake into two layers of approximately equal thickness.
- Place the bottom layer of red velvet cake on a flat plate or cake board and put a cake ring around it – if you don’t have a special cake ring, use the ring from the springform pan in which the cake was baked.
- Spread approximately 1/4-1/3 of the cream onto the cake.
- Layer half of the cranberry fruit jelly onto the cream, making sure it doesn’t touch the edges.
- Place the spinach cake layer, spread approximately 1/3 of the cream on it, and the rest of the cranberries.
- Place the second red velvet cake layer on top.
- Spread a thin layer of cream on top of the cake and put the cake (with the ring) in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Take the cake out of the refrigerator and carefully remove the ring.
- Even out the sides of the cake – if you still have some cream, you can gently spread it on the sides.
- Sprinkle the top of the cake with crumbled spinach cake, decorate with pomegranate seeds and fresh cranberries.
Film
Uwagi
Wartości Odżywcze
Christmas cake – notes
This time I prepared a unique cake that will be perfect for Christmas, but of course not only then. This festive association is mainly due to the cake’s color scheme, which is kept in red and green. I came up with the idea for this cake while talking to my daughter. She had been asking me for some time to bake forest moss cake – she loves spinach cakes, or red velvet cake. I told her I had to prepare something new and festive, and that’s how I came up with this cake. Because it’s a combination of both these cakes – there’s a layer of spinach cake and two layers of red velvet cake. Together they create not only a wonderfully looking cake, but also a very tasty one. You must try it!
Essential ingredients for preparing Christmas cake
The list of ingredients for the cake might seem long and require many products, but many of them are repeated for both cakes, so in total, you don’t have to do incredibly large shopping. Below is a condensed list of basic ingredients needed to prepare the cake and possible substitutes.
- spinach – for the spinach cake, I used frozen spinach in small cubes; it needs to be thawed beforehand, or you can use fresh spinach.
- buttermilk – I used buttermilk for both the red velvet cake and the spinach cake; it helps activate baking soda – baking soda works better in an acidic environment. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can use kefir or natural yogurt instead – but a thinner one.
- baking soda – baking soda is a powerful leavening agent that allows heavier cakes – such as red velvet – to rise nicely. If you don’t have baking soda, you can substitute it with baking powder, but use more of it; for every teaspoon of baking soda in the recipe, use 2 slightly heaped teaspoons of baking powder.
- food coloring – red food coloring is essential for red velvet cake to give it its color. It’s best to use gel or powder food coloring here. I used gel coloring. It’s best to add it gradually, but for a nice color, you need a bit more. Food coloring can be bought online, but now it might be available in regular stores along with baking decoration products – like sprinkles.
- mascarpone – the cream for the Christmas cake is made with mascarpone cheese. You can easily buy it in stores; it’s also readily available in discount stores like Biedronka or Lidl. Sometimes, mascarpone cheese with white chocolate is available at Biedronka. You can also use it, then add less sugar to the cream.
- whipping cream – I used liquid whipping cream from a carton with 30% fat content. You can also use 36% whipping cream.
- orange juice – for the cranberry fruit filling, I used freshly squeezed orange juice (from two oranges) and also added orange pulp. You can also use carton juice here, or as a last resort, plain water if you don’t have either.
How to make a festive Christmas cake – tips
Preparing the cake itself is not difficult, although it might seem so at first glance. To make the cakes, you don’t even need to get out a mixer, as you can manage without it. To make the work easier and more efficient, it’s best to bake the cakes in advance – I baked them the day before and stored them wrapped in cling film. Spinach and wet ingredients for the forest moss cake are best blended with a blender or food processor, and then you just need to mix the ingredients with a spoon and pour the batter into the baking pan. You can prepare the red velvet cake entirely without a mixer – I mixed the ingredients with a whisk. That’s perfectly sufficient.
You can also make the cranberry fruit filling a day in advance, especially since it needs to be completely cooled before applying it to the cream. For the fruit filling, you can safely use frozen cranberries – you don’t need to thaw them beforehand. Transfer them to a saucepan, add sugar and orange juice, and cook until the fruit softens.
Both the red velvet cake and the forest moss cake used for the tort are quite heavy cakes, so the cream for layering must also be more stable. That’s why I used as much as 500g of mascarpone cheese (which must be thoroughly chilled in the refrigerator beforehand) and to give it fluffiness, I mixed it with 250ml of whipping cream. Such a cream turns out nicely thick and does not leak under the weight of the cake.
Can you make fruit filling in a different flavor?
If you don’t like cranberries, or can’t find them anywhere, prepare a fruit filling with raspberries – you can use frozen ones, or with strawberries. If you use raspberries, add less juice to them, because raspberries are usually very juicy. Add about 60 ml of juice or water. Preparing raspberry fruit filling is the same as with cranberries.
How to assemble a Christmas cake?
It’s best to assemble the cake in a cake ring. I used a special adjustable cake ring here. This cake turns out tall – mine was 12 cm high, so a tall cake ring is very useful here. The ring facilitates even layering and provides stability to the cake. If you don’t have such a ring, it’s not a problem. Place the detached ring from the springform pan, in which the cakes were previously baked, onto the bottom red velvet cake layer. These springform pan rings are lower, and the cake will stick out slightly, but it will certainly streamline and facilitate the work.
Can Christmas cake be made with sponge cake?
Yes, you can make this cake with a regular sponge cake. I won’t hide that this cake is heavy – mine weighed a little over 3 kg – and dense. But despite being kept in the fridge, the cake doesn’t harden – thanks to the use of oil and buttermilk. However, it is quite caloric. If you prefer light and fluffy cakes, you can prepare it with sponge cakes. Here I suggest baking one thin layer of sponge cake with green food coloring and a taller sponge cake with red food coloring, which can then be cut into two layers.
Watch my short video and see how to prepare a thin sponge cake for layering with creams.
How many calories does a cranberry cake have?
This Christmas cake, prepared with my ingredients, had about 290 kcal per 100g. Not too bad for a cake, seemingly. But ….. as I mentioned above, my cake weighed 3 kg, so in reality, one serving, if the cake is divided into 15 portions, will already have about 580 kcal. So, if you’re counting calories, it’s better to cut yourself a narrow slice of cake. Fortunately, this cake is easy to slice thinly ;)
How to decorate a Christmas cake?
For my decoration, I also focused on combining two basic colors – green and red. Despite very simple ingredients, the decoration turned out beautiful and greatly emphasized the festive character of the cake. What can you use in a Christmas decoration?
Firstly – spinach cake – cut a thin layer from the top of the baked forest moss cake and blend it into a powder, or finely crumble it. Then you can sprinkle it over the top of the cake – I didn’t sprinkle the entire top, only around the perimeter. I wanted to create a decoration resembling a Christmas wreath.
Secondly – red elements – for contrast with the green cake crumbs, I added red fruits – here, pomegranate seeds, which you can now easily buy in stores, and fresh cranberries will be perfect. I “frosted” my cranberries, which gave these fruits a nice winter character. If you want to make such frosted cranberries, see my tips on this topic in the Christmas meringue recipe.
Thirdly – green sprigs – for decoration, I added small spruce sprigs – of course, these are inedible decorations, so they must be removed from the cake before eating. You can also prepare some of them in sugar, like cranberries. Instead of spruce sprigs, you can use fresh rosemary sprigs.
What else can be used besides these decorations? If you don’t want to stick to this color scheme, you can use dried or candied orange slices, small gingerbread cookies, or small Christmas chocolates in various shapes. It’s up to you how your Christmas cake will ultimately look. The most important thing is to have fun with it!
P.S. If you’re looking for inspiration for festive sweet baked goods, be sure to check out my compilation of 60 Christmas cake recipes, where I’ve selected recipes perfect for the holidays. There are delicious cheesecakes and poppy seed cakes, ideal cheesecake-poppy seed cakes, gingerbreads, cream cakes, festive cookies, and cupcakes. All in one place! Be sure to check it out.
I found the recipe for the red velvet cake itself on the Somethings wanky website.
Recommended Christmas cake recipes
The blog also features other delicious cake recipes that are perfect for Christmas. Here I recommend, among others, these three recipes:
Popularne Przepisy
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Christmas Cake Recipe
Check out my detailed recipe for the perfect Christmas cake. This step-by-step guide includes preparation photos and a short video, ensuring that baking the cake layers and assembling the whole thing will no longer be a challenge. Surprise your family and friends this year with such a unique cake!
Take a look at my tips and discover how to make a cake that is both easy and enjoyable to create. Break your work into stages so that preparing your Christmas cake is a pleasure rather than a stress!
