Happy Valentines Day, almost. And happy birthday to M! If you like cranberries, you’ll appreciate this cake. It is very similar to the Upside Down Apple Cake, with the added tartness of the cranberries.
It’s more of a light occasion cake, so if you’re looking for a sweeter Valentines treat, try some of these.
Cranberry Upside Down Cake
To avoid the cake getting soggy in the middle, use a large pan (9 inch pan), and bake until it is completely browned (as long as possible). Another thing you can do to reduce the moisture is to reduce the amount of yogurt and/or butter. Also, use dripped yogurt (or Greek yogurt). Save the cranberry sauce from the first few steps and pour it on the cake after it’s baked, or on yogurt or ice cream. If you’re trying to reduce the amount of fat in this recipe, you can leave out the 3 tablespoons of butter from the batter. I accidentally left it out once and the cake came out fine.Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups fresh or defrosted cranberries
- 2 tablespoons butter for the cranberry mixture, and 3 tablespoons of butter for the batter
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/3 cup honey plus 2 tablespoons
- 1/2 cup yogurt (I use dripped yogurt quite often; see Upside Down Apple Cake recipe for how to drip yogurt)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- pinch of salt (in the cake batter)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups almond flour
Method
- Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C, or gas mark 2).
- Place the cranberries, cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of honey in a large frying pan and cook about 5 minutes, until the cranberries just slightly tender.
- In a bowl, blend yogurt, eggs, 1/3 cup of honey, and vanilla together. Next, add 3 tablespoons of melted butter and blend well.
- Add all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and pinch of salt) to the wet mixture, and blend well.
- Separate the cranberries from the juice that formed when cooking. In a buttered baking pan (I used an 8 inch spring-form pan) or spring-form pan (I also add a circle cut-out of parchment paper to the bottom of my pan) place the cranberries on the bottom. Lay them out fairly evenly.
- Next, pour the batter over the cranberries until covered. Even out the batter.
- Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the center is not wiggly. The top will be starting to brown and a toothpick will come out clean. Cool completely and turn over on to a plate.
I just took the cake out of the oven.I substituted cherries for the cranberries, though. A lovely Valentine’s weekend treat.
Thanks for all your delicious recipes!
Babette, lovely! I was thinking of try peaches or plums next. This cake is so versatile. Thanks for sharing!
This is a beautiful cake!
Thanks Tracee!!
That’s a really nice shot and the cake looks delicious!
I’ve been wanting to make this for so long. I better run out for some cranberries before the season is over.
This looks so good! LOVE that it’s gluten free and I can make it with any kind of fruit!
My boyfriend can’t have sugar or any sugar-kind ingredients…can you substitute the yogurt for anything?
Yes, I believe at least one person has substituted coconut oil and non-dairy yogurt. See here in the comments: https://comfybelly.wpengine.com/2008/12/upside-down-apple-cake.html
I substituted the yogurt for a half cup of sugar free apple sauce and it tasted GREAT!!! We LOVED the cake and it went really well with cherry soy ice cream from Trader Joe’s!
Jenny, that’s great to know. Thanks!
I tried the recipie and it over-flowed and did not cook through. I did not use any substitutions. Any suggestion to what may have happened? It looks delicious and everyones comments made me excited to try it!
Janet, strange. I wonder if you added to much baking soda by accident? If it doesn’t bake all the way through, you probably need to lower the heat and leave it in longer (assuming it’s baked on the outside). In general, it does sink a bit in the middle, but it should bake well. Remove as much liquid as possible as well (from the cranberry mixture to avoid it staying wet in the middle.
Thanks Erica, Makes sense!
We loved this recipe but wondered why mine turned out more “wet”. It was not really cake like – perhaps from the amount of butter or honey? Also, I used homemade yogurt. Thank you so much for the recipes – they are healthy and hopefully assisting with my Crohns!
Katie – you might need to drain more of the cranberry juice before placing it in the bottom of the baking pan. Or possibly bake it longer. It is a bit unbaked for me sometimes in the very middle – it means I needed to let it bake a bit longer.
I had trouble getting the cake to bake completely too! Very soggy and wet in the middle after cooking for an hour. I used an 8 1/2 inch pan which should have been just fine. The cake was cooked around the edges and was over the top! I simply adored it but alas, I had to waste almost all of it. I have actually had this issue with almond flour on several other occasions, wonder if it has something to do with the density of the grain. I will try it again because it was simply wonderful.
I know – you can tell from my picture the cake sinks a bit for me too. I added some tips to the post to help out, but the two things I have found to be effective for this problem is to reduce the amount of moisture (dripped yogurt, less of it, less butter), plus bake it longer. Also, use a pan with a wide diameter (at least 9 inches). Hope that helps.
Made this tonight after bookmarking it a while back. I had the cranberries cooking when I realized I was out of yogurt – so because I wanted to make it NOW I tried sour cream, and it worked great! I found you looking for low carb recipes. I would rather use raw honey than a sugar substitute anyway. This cake was delicious – even the kids loved it – we will be making it again! Next I can’t wait to try the crackers. 🙂
Yum – it probably delicious with sour cream! Glad it worked out 🙂
For your readers who want to avoid honey: I subbed Truvia sweetener for the honey in both the cranberries and the batter portions. I used the same proportions, 2 tablesppons for the berries, and 1/3 cup for the batter. I added 1 2/3 tablepoons water to make up for the liquid loss. I also used sour cream for the yogurt to avoid the carbs in the yogurt. The cake was perfect, and delicious! It baked beautifully, and was cooked nicely all the way through. No problems with sinking in the middle. Thanks for such a great recipe!
Thanks for sharing this!
If you were to use coconut and almond flour, what ratio would you use? Would you need to add more eggs? Also, if substituting with rapadura instead of honey, would you need to add in some liquid? If so, how/how much? Thanks for sharing all of your great recipes. Yours is my favorite blog!
Linda, so sorry. Just came upon this message :(. sorry I don’t know the answer to your sub questions, but you can use my “Baking with coconut flour” post as a guide. Eventually I’ll get around to doing this with coconut flour and almond flour. Best wishes, Erica