Mini Cranberry Bundt Cakes

I love rich, decadent desserts during Christmastime and the holidays. But sometimes all the chocolate and eggnog can be a bit heavy. If you're looking for a lighter sweet treat this holiday season, these mini holiday Bundt cakes are for you. They're practically overflowing with cranberries, which give them a pretty, seasonal look. You'll also enjoy these mini cranberry Bundt cakes if you like the flavor of cranberry and don't want a super sugary dessert. But don't worry - the cream cheese glaze gives plenty of flavor and sweetness. Plus, the holidays are busy and hectic enough so dessert should be as simple as possible. These easy holiday cakes are the perfect size for a smaller gathering (or double the recipe if you need more!). I'm always looking for Christmas recipes, and this is one you'll want to add to your rotation this season!

The Right Pan for these Mini Cranberry Bundt Cakes

For starters, you'll need a mini Bundt cake pan to make these mini holiday cakes! If you're skeptical of Bundt cakes and pans, let me say I've used my own far more in the past few months than I'd have imagined. Some of the designs are so beautiful. The end results - individual mini cakes - make nice gifts for friends and family.

And while I've seen reviews online where people have a hard time removing Bundt cakes from their pans, there are steps you can take to avoid that. If you have a high-quality pan that you flour and grease well, you should not have any issues. You can also spray your pan with Baker's Joy. This helps ensure all your cakes come easily and cleanly out of your pan once they've baked and cooled.

I really love my Nordicware mini Bundt cake pan and use this particular one. You should look for a similar pan, at least in terms of how much batter it will hold. This recipe makes about 4.5 cups of batter, so if you're using a different mini Bundt cake pan, make sure it can handle that much batter. Or plan to have a little extra and bake another individual cake or two.

Glaze for this Christmas Mini Bundt Cake Recipe

Whether you celebrate Christmas or a different holiday (there are so many wonderful ones throughout December!), I'm sure you'll begin to see cranberries popping up in your local grocery store. This is a a seasonal fruit I really enjoy but normally only have in sauces and jellies. I wanted to change that by making these mini holiday Bundt cakes featuring this unique berry. It's really the star of the show here. I use a generous portion of the fruit in this recipe, but that's because I really wanted to see this pretty fruit throughout these mini cakes! You definitely can't miss them here.

Because cranberries aren't particularly sweet, it is important to include the glaze at the end. It really rounds out the flavor and creates a nice balance with the somewhat sour nature of the cranberries.

The glaze is also super simple to make. Heat your cream cheese in a bowl in the microwave in short blasts of about 5 seconds on a lower power until it's warm and creamy. Then add your water or orange juice, along with powdered sugar, and stir until well-combined. The next time I make this recipe, I'll also be adding more orange extract to my glaze. That's a stronger, more concentrated flavor than what you get from regular orange juice. Add orange flavoring and extract to your liking.

Baking Tips for these Mini Cranberry Bundt Cakes

Aside from greasing your pans well, this recipe is pretty straightforward. It is worth noting that when you're pouring the batter into your mini cake pan, you will find that the batter gets fairly close to the top. However, don't worry about them overflowing, as these cakes don't rise much above the fill line once they've exited the oven and cooled. However, if you would like to make them perfectly flat, you can trim off the bottoms of them.

Additionally, please make sure all your ingredients are fresh. I once followed a cake recipe perfectly, only to bite into a pretty mediocre-tasting dessert. I couldn't figure out why, until I saw that the oil I used had expired a few months back! To have the tastiest mini cranberry Bundt cakes, check all your expiration dates to ensure everything is still good to use.

And if you're not already, use a kitchen scale for accuracy in baking. Weighing your ingredients and writing or following a recipe using a standard metric like grams ensures consistency. You may use a set of measuring cups, but the problem there is that the ones in your kitchen could be very different from the ones in mine. This can create significant differences in the end product between what each of us is baking. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend investing $30 or less in a kitchen scale. I almost always write my recipes using grams and many other food bloggers do, too. If you want the same kinds of baked goods and treats you see from recipes online, this is an important step to take.

More Holiday Dessert Recipes

I'm here for all the holiday baking! I especially love pumpkin and apple baked goods this time of year. If you're in the mood for those seasonal flavors and need a cookie recipe, you'll enjoy my tiramisu pumpkin spice cookies and apple dapple thumbprint cookies!

And if you're more in the mood for apple cakes than cranberry ones, I also have a mini apple apple Bundt cake recipe on my blog. It's another easy holiday recipe that would make a great addition to your dessert table this season!

For a more decadent layer cake for the holidays, my pumpkin chai latte cake recipe would be a really fun and tasty one.

Mini Cranberry Bundt Cakes

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If you're looking for a holiday Bundt cake recipe, add these mini cranberry Bundt cakes to your dessert table this holiday season! Full of cranberry with notes of ginger and topped with a cream cheese glaze, this treat would be delicious at breakfast time or after an evening meal.

• Author: Susan Gravatt
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 6 mini Bundt cakes 1x
• Category: Dessert

Ingredients

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• 1 and ⅓ cup (190 grams) all-purpose unbleached flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 tbsp (6 grams) ground ginger
• 1 tsp (3 grams) baking powder
• ½ tsp (3 grams) baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon (¾ gram) salt
• 2 eggs, room temp
• ½ cup (110 grams) granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup (90 grams) sour cream, room temperature
• 7 tbsp (100 grams) butter
• 1 and ½ teaspoon (6 grams) pure vanilla extract
• 1 and ½ (150 grams) fresh cranberries

 

Cream cheese glaze:

• 2 tbsp (18 grams) of orange juice (or water but orange gives a subtle citrus flavor)
• 2 tbsp (28 grams) cream cheese
• 1 cup (120 grams) of powdered sugar
• Optional: ¼ - 1 teaspoon (1-4 grams) of orange extract; add flavor to your liking and personal preference

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Instructions

1. Place a rack in the middle of your oven, and preheat it to 325ºF.
2. Grease and flour a mini Bundt cake pan, making sure to cover all nooks and crannies of the pan.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ground ginger, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream your sugar and room temperature butter together for about 4 minutes.
5. Scrape down your bowl before adding eggs one at a time, mixing on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes or until incorporated. Stop the mixer scrape again before pouring sour cream and vanilla extract into the bowl. Mix again for about 45 more seconds on medium-high speed.
6. Add your dry ingredients into the bowl, mixing on a low speed to slowly incorporate and over avoid mixing.  
7. Gently fold in your cranberries.
8. Spoon batter into your greased and floured mini Bundt cake pan until each cavity is approximately ¾ full.  
9. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean. 
10. Let the cakes cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
11. Make your glaze while your cakes cool. In a small bowl, heat the cream cheese on a low power for about 5 seconds at a time until it's slightly warm and spreadable. Add your water or orange juice and powdered sugar (as well as orange extract if using). Whisk until ingredients are fully incorporated, and taste test the glaze until it's as citrus-y (or not) as you'd like it to be.   
12. Pour generous amount of glaze onto fully cooled mini cakes. Enjoy!

Notes

Be sure to wait until your cakes have fully cooled before adding the glaze. The glaze also looks best on these mini cakes if you let it cool slightly before pouring over these mini Bundts.