Cranberry Pound Cake


 Used to make this yearly and will be making it this year with a few changes. I cannot get fresh or frozen cranberries so I'm going with Granny Smith apples and blueberries. No almond paste or proper sour cream, but I do have the Costa Rican version of quasi cream cheese that's not quite cream cheese I'm going to use instead. You want a sweet dense flavor with tart sort of fruits to offset the rich sweetness. I'll let you know how it goes.

You need:
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup Amaretto liqueur or you can substitute water for a non-alcoholic option
1/2/ cup dried cranberries
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
11/4 tsp baking powder
2/3 tsp baking soda
4 ounces almond paste (at room temperature)
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup plus 2 tbsp butter
6 eggs
1 cup sour cream
 
For the glaze you will need 2 tablespoons Amaretto and 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar stirred together and poured over the cooled cake.
Two hours before baking: in a small saucepan, heat amaretto and add dried cranberries. Let cool, stirring occasionally, until the fruit has soaked up all the liquid.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan, tapping out excess flour.
Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Set aside.
In large mixing bowl, using the paddle of an electric mixer on low speed, combine almond paste (cut into slices or small cubes) almond extract and sugar until mixture looks like wet sand. Add butter, beat at medium speed until very fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well blended.
Slowly beat in sour cream and flour mixture gradually adding more. Beat batter until smooth. Fold in all the berries, the fresh/frozen berries and the amaretto soaked berries.
Pour batter into your prepared pan. Level top with a spatula and tap pan gently on counter to distribute. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool cake and remove from pan. Pour glaze over it. Enjoy.

Comments

Anonymous said…
That cake sounds DELICIOUS!! I may try it.
11:10 PM
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