cranberry gingerbread bundt

The holidays are now among us. I walked into work yesterday and holiday music was blasting. Thankfully that was not long lasting, it would have been way too much for an eight hour shift. But one holiday thing I do love is the food. Such as cranberries! This is one of my first recipes using fresh cranberries. I remember buying them one years ago, but I didn't have a clue what to do with them. Not realizing that I could use them in so many sweet or savory ways.

I sugared some cranberries to go alongside the cake. I didn't use a recipe, I just boiled a simple syrup, tossed some cranberries in the pot then drained and rolled in coarse sugar. They didn't come out as crunchy as I would have liked but they were still fun.

This cake is dense, full of thick molasses and has whole, tart cranberries scattered through out it. I baked it in a kugelhopf pan, but a traditional bundt will work just as fine. When I was buying the pan, the guy ringing me up scanned it and then looked at it with the most confused look. He said, 'What in the world is this?' 'A kugelhopf pan, of course!' I replied, as if it was common knowledge to a teenage checker at Target. Looking at me still confused I said, 'Its like a bundt pan.' Still no response. Finally I said 'You make cakes in it.' 'Ooooooh, umm ok' was his only reply.

Recipe found on Sweet Kat's Kitchen blog