Cranberry Pecan Christmas Cake Recipe

This cranberry pecan cake is tender and buttery with brown sugar cinnamon pecan crumble blanketing each bite. Cranberries and pecans are a wonderful pairing, especially during the holiday season. You’ll love them together in this crumb cake—a breakfast, brunch, snack, or dessert suited for any time of the day!

This breakfast cake, which is like a fancy holiday version of my classic coffee cake, is really an anytime cake. 🙂 During the holiday season where routines are amiss, schedules are packed, guests pop in, school is out, and your gift wrapping snack is a spoonful of cookie dough, it seems ANY TIME is the time for cake—not just Christmas cookies!

And no, you don’t have to save it for Christmas or celebrate Christmas to enjoy it!

Why limit a buttery soft cranberry cake dressed up with pecan brown sugar crumble to the morning? And why limit those tasty tart cranberries to Thanksgiving cranberry sauce? I have a feeling your afternoons and evenings could use the tasty pick-me-up too.

Tell Me About This Cranberry Pecan Cake

• Flavor: Tart cranberries dotted throughout a sweet buttery cake is a lovely flavor balance. Plus, you have a pecan brown sugar cinnamon crumble topping that makes each bite even more scrumptious than the last. And if you prepare the icing with orange juice (you could also use milk), you have a little citrus finishing it all off.
• Texture: Thanks to the sour cream, expect a moist and tender cake crumb. The coarse crumble topping adds a pleasant texture contrast and I love that some bites of the crumb are crunchy (around the edges) and some are melt-in-your-mouth buttery (in the very center). Between the cranberries, cake, pecans, and crumb topping, there’s a variety of texture to savor.
• Ease: The cake batter is quite standard using staple baking ingredients like flour, butter, sugar, and eggs—and some of these ingredients are repeated in the crumb topping, too. Assembling the cake is nothing more than spreading thick batter into your pan and topping with the pecan crumble. That’s it! I always appreciate a cake that doesn’t require complicated shaping/decoration/design.
• Time: Isn’t it nice when you can cut into a cake while it’s warm? Cool this cake for just 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving. The bake time varies and this depends on the pan you’re using.

Testing The Recipe

Have you ever made this raspberry almond crumb cake before? It’s been a big hit ever since I published the recipe. Today’s cranberry cake uses a similar batter, but I add a little more flour and some liquid. Cranberries are a special add-in because they’re so light and you often need a lot of them to fill each slice with berries. I found 2 cups (about 250g) to be the perfect amount. Since I added 2 cups of add-ins (plus pecans in the batter too), the batter needed a little more flour. And to prevent the crumb from tasting dry with extra flour, I added some liquid. I recommend orange juice for a little flavor, but you can use milk if that’s all you have. The recipe below includes these additions.

• You also need liquid in the icing and you can use orange juice or milk there too. It depends on if you want a vanilla or orange icing drizzled on this cranberry jeweled cake! I love the orange.

Expect a thick cake batter:

Cranberry Cake Crumb Topping

The crumb topping is a scaled down version of what we usually use on New York-style crumb cake. I use this same amount on blackberry cream cheese crumb cake, too. (A favorite!) You need a fork or pastry cutter to cut the cold butter into the mixture. Mix until you have plenty of crumbles—some dry powdery crumbs are fine. Stir in pecans and then sprinkle over the cake batter before baking:

Can I Use Frozen or Dried Cranberries?

I typically make this cranberry pecan cake with fresh cranberries, but you can use frozen instead. You do not have to thaw the berries before folding into the batter. You could also use dried cranberries, but keep in mind that they are much sweeter so reducing the amount is imperative. If using dried instead of fresh or frozen, use 1 cup (140g) dried cranberries.

Lots to love here. Orange cranberry bread would be the loaf version of this cake and there’s cranberry orange muffins, too—both are also great for the holidays, any time of day!