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Christmas Cranberry Pound Cake

Christmas Cranberry Pound Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

187 grams sifted cake flour (this is about 1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons cake flour before sifting, but best measured on a kitchen scale as the cake could be dense or dry if you’re overdoing it with the flour)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 cup cranberries (fresh or thawed)

140 grams (5 oz) white chocolate chunks

115 grams (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

300 grams of sugar (1 and 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons brown butter

Icing:

56 grams (1/4 cup) softened unsalted butter

112 grams (4 oz) softened cream cheese

1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar (or more to make it thick enough to spread over the cake)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnish:

a handful of dried cranberries

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

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Instructions

Preheat the convection oven to 325 F (if you don’t have a convection oven, increase the temperature to 350 F and you’ll need to swirl the pan halfway through the cooking time)

Butter and flour an 8.5 x 4.5 x 3 (or 9 x 5 x 3) inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper. Combine cake flour, baking powder and salt and sift three times, set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, brown 2.5 tablespoons of butter until it has a nice amber color, remove the foam and let cool.

Whisk the egg with the vanilla extract and set aside.

Beat butter on medium speed until creamy, slowly add sugar and continue beating until creamy.

Add heavy cream and mascarpone and beat on medium speed.

Put the mixer on low speed and gradually add the dry ingredients, alternating with the eggs.

Add a handful of flour to the chocolate pieces and stir to evenly coat them. Toss the cranberries with a handful of flour to coat them completely.

Add the chocolate pieces to the batter and mix well, then gently fold in the cranberries

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan, smooth top and gently tap pan on work surface to remove air bubbles.

With a butter knife, draw a line down the center of the pound cake and drizzle browned butter into the line.

Bake until top of cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted comes out clean (about 55 to 65 minutes). If you don’t have a convection oven, the cooking time can be about 10 minutes longer. If the top starts to brown too much, cover the cake with foil

Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove it from the pan and let it cool on the wire rack.
Icing:

When the cake is completely cooled, prepare the frosting.

Using a mixer, cream the softened butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar and beat until smooth, stir in vanilla extract.

Spread on top of the cake. Place the cake in the fridge until the frosting is set.

Garnish:

When frosting is set, melt 1/2 cup white chocolate chips with 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a small saucepan over low heat until smooth (cool if too thin )

Sprinkle cake with dried cranberries and drizzle with chocolate. (You can drizzle the chocolate with a spoon or transfer it to a small zip lock bag, cut off the corner and pipe the chocolate over the cake).

Remarks

If using frozen cranberries, thaw them first, rinse in cold water until the water runs clear, drain the cranberries, then pat them dry on paper towels.

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