Cranberry Orange Holiday Layer Cake

This time of year, all the delicious tastes and aromas conspire to make for some amazing cake inspiration.  And that’s exactly how this cake came to be.  What are the holidays without a tasty, can’t-live-without-it cranberry recipe?

This Cranberry Orange Layer Cake recipe is easy and approachable.  We start with basic ingredients, then add fresh cranberries and the juice (and some zest) of one orange.  It takes a bit longer in the oven, but it’s completely worth it.

With the tartness of the cranberry and the mild sweetness of the orange in the sponge, I wanted to  pair it with just the right frosting.  I developed a Cream Cheese Buttercream with a hint of orange…and it struck exactly the right balance of tart, sweet, and richness.  Find that yummy recipe here.

Consider baking these in cupcake or muffin format… considering the cupcake requires frosting and the muffin does not.

This is how the 6″ round, triple-layer test cake went together.

With a filling of cream cheese, I leave it in the cake fridge about twice as long as I leave buttercream filling before working on the final design, approximately 40 minutes.  Ensuring all the layers are well set in important to prevent filling from squishing out the sides.

The cake looks wonky because I snapped this pic at a weird angle.  Happens.

I was a bit anxious/excited about slicing this cake since I wasn’t sure how the white filling would look against the yellow sponge.  I was so thrilled with the many cranberries that were bursting out in each layer!  It would be possible to reduce the yellow of the sponge by replacing two whole eggs with four egg whites.  However, the fresh orange juice would still add some color.