Dessert and Breakfast: Eggnog Cranberry Bundt Cake

My future sister-in-law is a holiday party hosting champ. At their house, she and my fiancé’s brother host a Cape Cod friend holiday party (they have a seasonal house about a block away from ours, but more on that later), New Years Eve for her family and my fiancé’s family, and an extended family party in the days after Christmas. This of course all while planning Christmas festivities for her boys and working as a nurse at a local college. I would consider hosting one of those parties an achievement, so my hat’s off to her!

So when we went to their house for Round 1 of 3 (Cape Cod friends holiday party), I felt like the least I could do was bring a couple desserts. The first was this Eggnog Cranberry Bundt Cake. It’s moist on the inside with a sweet and crunchy outer layer. The eggnog glaze gives it a festive spiciness and the cranberries have a nice tart flavor (or Christmas berries as my future sister-in-law told her son when he insisted he didn’t like cranberries – of course he ate two pieces). This Eggnog Cranberry Bundt cake was a hit because of its soft and crunchy textures along with it’s sweet, tart, and full of holiday spices cake — and the best part is, it’s easy to make!

This cake could also easily used as a breakfast or coffee type cake the next morning, which is exactly what we did. It also has to, my fiancé insists, be served (and made with) Hood Eggnog, which he proclaims is the best (though as we’ve come to find out, it’s only found in New England).

Ingredients:
Cake
1 cup frozen cranberries
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup eggnog

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons eggnog

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter 12-cup bundt pan and spray and dust it with flour.

Sift flour with baking soda, baking powder, and salt into another medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar in large bowl until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla extract, then add the eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in the flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with eggnog in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in frozen cranberries and transfer batter to prepared pan, spreading evenly.

Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 1 hour. Cool cake in pan on rack 30 minutes. Invert cake onto rack and cool completely.

To make the glaze, combine powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons eggnog in medium bowl. Whisk until smooth, adding more eggnog by 1/2 teaspoonfuls if glaze is too thick to drizzle. Spoon glaze decoratively over top of cake; let stand at room temperature until glaze is firm, about 1 hour.

Yield: 12 slices of cake