Cranberry Coffee Cake with Warm Vanilla Sauce
This cranberry coffee cake with warm vanilla sauce is a stunning holiday dessert! Even better, it is incredibly delicious with the brown sugar pecan streusel, tart cranberries, and caramel sauce.
Just when I think I can’t possibly give you one more must-make holiday dessert, this cranberry cake comes along.
I need you to stop and take me very seriously for a moment. You need to make this cake.
My entire family agrees that this stunning cranberry coffee cake is the winner of the holiday baking season. It is incredible.
The super fluffy cake dotted with tart cranberries and dusted with pecans and brown sugar is one (very good!) thing…
…But drizzling the warm caramel sauce on top makes this one of my favorite desserts of all time. The tart + the sweet is a phenomenal combination.
Warm Vanilla Sauce
This isn’t the first time we’ve gifted pieces of cake with a creamy sweet warm vanilla sauce.
Taking notes from this apple dapple cake and this rhubarb streusel cake, I knew the sauce would be a very good idea with the tart and sweet cranberry coffee cake.
The 4-ingredient sauce couldn’t be simpler. Butter, cream, and brown sugar cook on the stove for a few minutes. Stir in vanilla. And there you have it.
One Bowl Cranberry Cake
I decided not to fuss around with intricate cake methods and instead threw all the cake batter ingredients, save the cranberries, in a bowl and started mixing.
Just like this amazing one-bowl chocolate chip cake taught us: it works.
The cake is beautifully moist and soft, and you and I get away with only one bowl to clean up.
Fresh Cranberries (and Substitutions)
This cake is yet another reason to long for fresh cranberry season.
There isn’t anything quite like them, and they are my first choice for this cake.
However, I think this cake would be highly adaptable to fresh blueberries or raspberries or frozen cranberries or other frozen fruit.
If using frozen fruit, don’t thaw first, and don’t overmix once they are added to the batter.
Brown Sugar Pecan Streusel
The sprinkle of brown sugar and chopped pecans over the cake top before baking is literally the most delightful addition to a cake in the history of ever.
I was skeptical that a faux-streusel like this would work out, but it does!
It doesn’t clump together like traditional streusel, but it adds a wonderful crunch and pop of texture to the top of the cake.
This cranberry coffee cake is fluffy and moist and pure heaven eaten warm all by itself.
But once you try it with the warm vanilla sauce, you’ll never be able to go back. It’ll ruin you forever.
It transitions the fun, cute, little coffee cake into a gourmet and elegant dessert that is completely next-level delicious.
Since I don’t necessarily have any gourmet, elegant parties to attend or host this year (ahem, or ever), thank goodness this cranberry coffee cake with warm vanilla sauce is just as happy to party with me and my kids in PJs at home on a random Thursday night in December.
This cake is so fantastic, I’m willing to bet it can even win over some cranberry skeptics. At least it did at my house.
FAQs for Cranberry Coffee Cake:
You could try subbing blueberries or raspberries. Frozen fruit may work ok, too. Don’t thaw before using in the recipe.
You can definitely experiment. I’m normally not a fan of nuts in cake, but I love, love the crunch the toasty pecans give to this cake, so I encourage you to give it a try (unless you are working around a food allergy).
This cake is worth buying the real deal buttermilk for! If I don’t have buttermilk, I always sub in half sour cream, half milk.
Yes. It should convert well to an 8X8- or 9X9-inch pan.
The exact baking time depends on a lot of factors – every oven bakes a little different temperature-wise. Also, the type of pan makes a difference, too. Glass pans might take longer. Conversely, dark coated pans may bake faster). If using a glass or dark coated pan, I suggest turning the oven temp down to 325 degrees.
One Year Ago: The Best Leftover Turkey Soup
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Three Years Ago: Turkey {or Chicken} and Brown Rice Soup {Instant Pot or Stovetop}
Four Years Ago: 5-Minute Cranberry Sauce {Pressure Cooker}
Five Years Ago: Make-Ahead Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
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Cranberry Coffee Cake with Warm Vanilla Sauce
Ingredients
Cake:
- ½ cup (113 g) salted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups (355 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 cups (340 g) fresh cranberries (see note)
- ¼ cup (53 g) brown sugar
- ½ cup (57 g) chopped pecans
Warm Vanilla Sauce:
- ½ cup (113 g) salted butter
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup (212 g) lightly packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray (I use metal for more even baking; if using a glass pan, turn the oven down to 325 degrees F). You can also line the pan with parchment paper, optional.
- For the cake: in a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, granulated sugar, egg, buttermilk, baking soda, salt and flour. Mix until no dry streaks remain and dough is mostly combined. Add the cranberries and stir with a rubber spatula until evenly combined into the batter.
- Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with the brown sugar and pecans. Bake for 45-55 minutes until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs.
- For the sauce: combine the butter, cream and sugar in a small saucepan and heat over medium until the mixture comes to a gentle simmer. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Keep warm. (Or refrigerate and warm later when serving.)
- Cut the cake in pieces and drizzle with warm vanilla sauce. It’s also very delicious served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from a recipe an Instagram reader sent me
Frozen cranberries work perfectly! Just don’t thaw first and I toss them with a tablespoon of the flour from the 2.5 cups.
Made it with frozen cranberries for Christmas Day 2021. Awesome!!!!!!
Trying it today with frozen chunk pineapple and pecans.
Oooh! Be sure to report back!
This was SO yummy for Christmas morning! I halved the sugar and added about one orange’s worth of zest. The caramel sauce is a *must*. So good! Our “skeptical about new things” kid gobbled it right up. And reducing the sugar made it a favorite for my not-sweet-tooth husband. We will definitely be making again–thank you!!
Served it for Christmas Brunch and made several and gave them to friends for their family get-togethers. This is fantastic!
Hey Mel – I started making this cake last year after seeing your divine recipe, and it will be tradition forever now. This year, I couldn’t find fresh cranberries anywhere and was in a panic! I substituted 2 cups of UNSWEETENED craisins, and it worked just fine! Of course the fruit was a little chewy-er than fresh cranberries, but it was still delicious! Thanks for a great recipe. 🙂
I’ve made this twice in 1 week for Christmas parties. It checks all the boxes – really easy to make, good presentation for a Christmas party, different from the usual desserts and most importantly delicious!! Thanks Mel
I didn’t make the vanilla sauce, but served this warm with vanilla ice cream. This was easy to make, and is delicious. Works great with coffee instead of ice cream, and the cranberries add a nice, fresh pop. Husband was reluctant to try it (“I don’t like cranberries”), but ultimatelyagreed that it’s very tasty. Thanks for this recipe — I will make this again!
I’m assuming your prep time listed isn’t accurate. My teenage daughter was feeling daunted about making this until I told her that the prep time must be a typo.
Hi Jamie, thanks for the heads up. I think originally I included more time in the prep area to let the cake cool, but that’s not absolutely necessary and it does give an inaccurate representation of the prep time. I’ve edited it.
Wow, this is as amazing as all the other comments say! I made the recipe last night, exactly as written- full sugar and the amazing vanilla sauce! Planning to share smaller pans with my neighbors this Christmas! It’s so flavorful and breaks up the chocoately stuff served at the holidays. Thank you, Mel!!
I made this with leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce and it was delightful!
Phenomenal. That’s it. Just pure party in the mouth. Drool worthy
ya it good
This is by far the yummiest cake I’ve ever had. It is so yummy and every time I eat it I think of my mom. Thanks mel for keeping my life on track with this delicious cake and thanks for having good food.
Thoughts on trying this with fresh rhubarb?
I think that is a fantastic idea!!
The whole family loved this dessert! Maybe it is the delicious sauce, but it reminded me a bit of sticky toffee pudding cake with cranberries instead of dates. I especially loved the balance of sweet, tart and nutty!
It reminds me of the same thing, Melissa (which is why I think we love it so much!). 🙂
Just to let you know this CRANBERRY COFFEE CAKE WITH WARM VANILLA SAUCE is down right delicious.
I used frozen cranberries. As you suggested, kept them frozen. Worked beautifully.
Made this for dessert a few days ago, and OH MY THIS IS DELICIOUS! One of the yummiest, most comforting desserts I’ve eaten in a long time! It was loved by the whole family!!
Hi…if I sub homemade cranberry sauce should add less sugar in the cake?
Thanks,
Lisa
Hi Lisa, that really depends on the homemade cranberry sauce (and I’m not sure how using cranberry sauce will affect the texture of the cake). Good luck if you experiment!
This was divine. The perfect mixture of tart and sweet. I’ll be making it again for my birthday!
Delicious! I didn’t have any cream for the sauce when I made it, so we ate it with buttermilk syrup instead. I highly recommend!
I made this with some frozen blackberries from our harvest this past summer – it’s a winner! Could easily be adapted to use many different kinds of fruit. Will plan on making this with fresh cranberries next fall. Love that it is one bowl. I used a 9×13 ceramic baking dish, and could have left it in a bit longer as the edges were done but the inside needed a few more minutes. The frozen blackberries were big and might have added a bit too much moisture to the batter as they baked. Will try fresh fruit and a metal baking pan next time. Great recipe Mel!
Blackberries sound amazing, Lisa!
You know it’s a good recipe when you make a rookie mistake that causes you to accidentally use 1.5 x the flour called for and it still turns out delicious. Also, no one asks where I found the recipe anymore, they just say “This one of Mel’s?” Yes. Always.
I’m glad it still turned out, Jessica! You are awesome. 🙂
so I got this metal 13×9 that you recommend …(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008BULGVS/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=melskitcaf0b-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B008BULGVS&linkId=e6bbce6719dc99bb09978fa30f821f70%20rel=)
but when I received it, it says not to use nonstick spray with it. Do you use nonstick spray with yours? Just wondering why they would say that. Thanks!
Hmmm, I don’t think I ever noticed it said that. yes, I use nonstick cooking spray on mine.
I just made this for an evening treat. I love the tartness of the cranberry. I added orange zest and a little vanilla to the batter. This recipe is a keeper!!!!
Orange would be delicious in this – thanks for the comment and review, Cheryl!
Just curious why it’s called a coffee cake when there doesn’t appear to be coffee in the recipie. Only checking in case I missed something.
Thanks
Hi Emer, good question. These types of cakes are called coffee cake because they are often served with coffee (and they usually don’t have coffee in the ingredients).
This cake is DELICIOUS and so easy to make! Made one for Christmas and it was a hit. Making a second one now since i have extra cranberries and buttermilk, but mostly because there were no Christmas leftovers and I need more of this cake in my life! I followed previous recommendations to reduce the sugar to 1 cup, but other than that, followed the recipe to a T. This one is a definite keeper, thanks Mel!
I’m happy to know you love this cake so much – thanks, Eryn!
I made this with Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free cup for Cup blend (blue bag) and it was wonderful!! Definitely will be making this recipe again! The tartness of the cranberries and the sweetness of the sauce are the perfect combination.
I love knowing when a recipe converts well to gluten free! Thank you for commenting, Tanya!
I made this into 24 muffins and they were good except for the cranberry part. Cranberries were bitter…quite off-putting. Is there a special treatment method to dealing with cranberries? I got mine from Costco in the 2 lb packs by ocean spray. They looked good, not mushy. Rinsed 12 ounces in cool water three times and dried with with paper towel before adding them in the batter.
Did you taste your berries before using them?? I wonder if your berries were bad?
I should’ve but eating a fresh cranberry is daunting…so tart but that’s better than a bath of ruined muffins.
Can I make this one day ahead?
Not replying to Jen, but hoping Mel will see two comments and answer. 😉 I would like to make it today for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner.
Yes…I like to warm up slightly before serving.
Would this dough be too thick to cook in a bundt pan instead of a 9×13?
You could definitely bake it in a bundt pan.
This is a life altering epic recipe that will elevate anyone’s baking status. Love love loved it. Actually could not stop eating it. Everyone that ate it begged for recipe. It is a holiday winner that I will put out every year. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Thank you so much for letting me know, Sharon! SO happy you loved it!
This was super yummy! I made it with dried cranberries and it was good but it would definitely be better with fresh! With dried there was not a contrast of flavor or anything to cut through the sweetness. I am excited to try it again with fresh cranberries! I will also cut the sugar down to a cup and not put the brown sugar on top. Definitely a keeper!
Thanks for the review, Judy!
Can I make ahead of time and freeze it?
I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure you could!
Do you think you could use craisins instead of fresh cranberries?
I used craisens. It was okay, but I think it would be a lot better with fresh. The craisens are too sweet, but hey we still ate it so…
Someone else reported they used craisins and it was ok but not exceptional; I think it is best with fresh cranberries.
I made this, exactly as written, for my family yesterday. It was amazing! I am not a fan of cranberries in any form, but the recipe looked so good that I wanted to try it, and I am so glad I did. The sauce definitely made it something special. Everyone in the house raved over this cake. Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know you enjoyed this, Kandy! Merry Christmas!
Delicious! I followed the earlier comments and used the reduced sugar amount and it was just enough sweet to balance the tart.
Then I ran out of time, so didn’t make the vanilla sauce. And I didn’t have real buttermilk (so added a little lemon juice to my milk) and used walnuts because I didn’t have pecans. But even my wimpy version of this recipe was delicious. I can only imagine that it’s even better as written! But if you don’t have everything, still go for it. It seems really versatile if you need to substitute things. It’s sweet and tart and oh so tasty! Thank you, Mel!
Haha, your “wimpy” version sounds amazing! Thanks for taking the time to check in to let me know!
I baked half the batter into 12 muffins and the rest in an 8×8 pan (done in about 20 and 28 minutes, respectively). The muffins were delicious on their own, but you’re right… The sauce turns the cake into a decadent dessert.
Loving the idea of these as muffins (maybe drizzling sauce on top?). Thanks, Anne!
Can you sub half and half for the heavy cream?
You can experiment, it will likely change the texture and consistency a little bit.
We can’t do pecans or walnuts at our house. Would you suggest subbing with almonds or keeping them out?
I like the crunch of some kind of nut on top, but I think you could leave them off.
I made it with almonds on top and it was wonderful. I would definitely use them again. Also, I cut the sugar in half and did not serve it with the sauce over the top. I felt it could have used a little more sugar, either 1/4 c. more in the recipe or the sauce on top. I was glad that I did not get the sick-from-too-much-sugar feeling from eating it. Thanks for another great recipe.
Thank you, Dodi!
This is absolutely amazing! It got raves all around the office. Mel, you make me look like a rock star. Every. Single. Time. Thank you!!
Thank you, Michelle! So, so happy you loved this one!
I made this with a few modifications. Added the zest of one orange, reduced white sugar to 1 1/4 cups (probably could do 1 C as it was still plenty sweet), and did not make the vanilla sauce as the cake itself was delicious and sweet without it. Very tasty and did not last long in our house!
Thanks, Jess! I’m excited to try orange zest in this cake. Yum!
Delicious cake – love the combo of tart and sweet! I cut the sugar in the cake down to 1 cup and found it still plenty sweet (especially with the sauce). I’m going to have to try hard not to eat this for breakfast for the next few days 🙂
The leftovers of this cake are shockingly delicious! Glad you loved it!
This cake has been a favorite for years! Glad that it’s now located on the only place I go to for recipes anymore! ❤️ Merry Christmas!
Oh wow! This recipe looks soooooooooooooo amazing. When I get cranberries, I know what I will be making. Thank you so much!
The kids were right. This is the best thing I’ve made this month. I used frozen cranberries, rolled in a little of the flour so they didn’t sink. They worked fine. Also, I bake at 5400 ft and this recipe didn’t need any altitude adjustments. Thank you so much for posting.
Thank you so much for the feedback, Grace! I’m so, so happy you loved this!
I know- silly questions, but, one can make this how many days in advance and keep in fridge? And assuming there are leftovers (!!!). How long will it keep in the fridge?
Hi Diane! We at the leftovers the next two days and it was still fantastic but we did lightly warm up the cake and the sauce before serving/eating
So you said the recipe should halve well. Would that mean I halve the egg too, or leave it be? Thanks Mel!
Hi Mel, Happy Holidays. to you and your loved ones.
Your blog is the first one, and many times the only, I look at for ideas and recipes. Thank you for developing recipes that are consistently successful and delicious.
On your recommendation, I looked into Prepear. I like the idea of an app dedicated to recipes but found it lacking in details except for the annual cost of a subscription and 3 free recipes per month. I’m not sure if the 3 free recipes are to view the recipes I have saved and new ones I may be interest in trying. It looks like a start up app. Can you share any more details.
I realize you are super busy so no rush getting back to me.
You inspire me and thousands more!
Hi Cindy, you can sign up for a totally free subscription to Prepear – and with that you can access all the recipes on the app. When you want to cook a recipe and select it in Prepear, it will kick you out to that blogger’s website. If you have a paid subscription to Prepear, you can select the recipe and it keeps you on the app to cook the recipe (without ads). Does that help at all?
I love cranberry bread and I’m sure the cake is good. Maybe add some orange zest or juice to it? One thing I’ve noticed about nearly all your recipes is they are either titled amazing or the best.
No joke, Mel, I specifically wanted to make a cranberry coffee cake last week and I came here first (as always) to search for a recipe for one. Sadly, there was none. The recipe I settled on was good but not great. I’m sure this one is great! I will try it out soon! Thank you!
Ah, I’m sorry I didn’t have this recipe up in time! Hopefully if you have time to try it, you’ll really love it!
Mel, almost a year later, but I finally made it! Definitely a winner! Thanks!
This looks delicious! I’m thinking about making it as mini loaves! I love the cranberry/white chocolate bread – but the white chocolate bars get expensive fast!
I think this would work really well as mini loaves. Great idea!
I will make this added orange zest. My friend uses orange and cranberries together and it is awesome! Will tell you how it turns out!
I was thinking of adding orange zest too! I made some cranberry, orange, chocolate chip bread a couple weeks ago that was good.
Orange zest would be fantastic!
Oh my…. I think we’ll be having this for breakfast! It’s Christmas and I think it will be amazing on our brunch table. Thank you!!!!
You’re right, Jenny, it would be AMAZING for Christmas brunch!
So you said the recipe should halve well. Would that mean I halve the egg too, or leave it be? Thanks Mel!
I would use an egg yolk for a half recipe.