White Chocolate Orange Cranberry Cake

This orange cranberry cake is such a cute Christmas tree cake, perfect for the holiday season! Incredibly moist orange cake layers are topped with a fresh orange buttercream, homemade cranberry sauce, and then draped in a thick white chocolate ganache. Use some green frosting to pipe Christmas trees along the sides of the cake.

Course Christmas, Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 2

Cook Time 50

Assembly Time 1 30

Total Time 4 20

Servings servings

Calories 1693kcal

Author Whitney Wright

Equipment

Ingredients

Orange Cake Layers

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 cup sour cream at room temperature, light or full fat is fine (although I lean towards full fat)
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoon orange zest

Cranberry Orange Filling

12 ounces cranberries fresh or frozen cranberries
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Orange Buttercream

2 1/2 cups unsalted butter slightly cold
7 1/2 cups powdered sugar
zest from 2 large oranges
2-3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
pinch salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3 tablespoons heavy cream

Vanilla Buttercream

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter slightly cold
5 cups powdered sugar sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
2 tablespoons heavy cream
green gel food coloring for trees colors used in the photo are Wilton Leaf Green and Wilton Juniper Green

White Chocolate Ganache

16 ounces white chocolate baking bar chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon white icing coloring optional

Instructions

Orange Cake Layers

Preheat oven to 350° F and prepare three 8-inch round cake pans by spraying with non-stick spray, lining the bottom with parchment paper and spraying again with non-stick spray.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the eggs, buttermilk, sour cream, vegetable oil, orange juice, vanilla and orange zest until the mixture is uniform.
With the mixer on low, carefully add half of the dry ingredients and mix for about 30 seconds, until it’s mostly combined. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix just until no dry streaks remain. Don't over mix.
Divide the batter evenly between the three cake pans and bake for 23-27 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake layer comes out with just a couple moist crumbs stuck to it.
Remove the pans from the oven and when they have cooled enough to handle, flip the cakes out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Using a serrated knife or cake leveler, cut the domed top off of each layer. This will ensure your cake is flat and even when assembled.
If making the cakes ahead of time, wrap each layer in plastic wrap and freeze for up to four weeks. Let the cakes sit at room temperature until one hour before assembling the cake.

Cranberry Orange Filling

In a medium sauce pan, combine all ingredients and cook at medium heat, stirring often, until the sugar dissolves, the cranberries burst, and the sauce thickens (about 10 minutes).
Cool completely before using in the cake assembly. This filling can be made a few days in advance and stored in the fridge until you're ready to assemble the cake.

Orange Buttercream

Beat butter, salt, and orange zest until smooth and light in texture and color.
Sift 3 cups of powdered sugar into the butter mixture and mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add 2 tablespoons of orange juice and the rest of the powdered sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes.
Add 1 tablespoon of heavy cream and beat for about a minute. Add more heavy cream if the frosting is too thick to spread at room temperature.
The frosting can be made a few days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. A few hours before cake assembly set the frosting out at room temperature. Once the frosting has softened, beat in a stand mixer until smooth and spreadable.

Vanilla Buttercream

Beat butter and salt together until smooth and light in texture and color.
Add the sifted powdered sugar, a couple cups at a time, adding cream between additions to keep the frosting from getting too thick.
Beat for 2-3 minutes once all ingredients are added.
Divide frosting into different bowls and mix in coloring as desired. (The green colors used in the photos are Wilton Leaf Green and Wilton Juniper Green).
The frosting can be made a few days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. A few hours before cake assembly set the frosting out at room temperature. Once the frosting has softened, beat in a stand mixer until smooth and spreadable.

White Chocolate Ganache

In a saucepan on the stovetop or in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave, warm the cream until it starts to simmer. Be sure to stir constantly if using the stovetop.
Pour the hot cream over the white chocolate and let sit for a couple minutes. Stir until completely smooth.
Add a few drops of white icing coloring and stir. Add more coloring until desired whiteness is reached.
Set aside and let cool to room temperature. (You don't want to pour hot ganache over top of the cake otherwise it will just run off the sides. The ganache should be around room temperature. See notes).

Assembly

Put a small dollop of buttercream on a cake board and place the first layer of cake on the board.
Spread a thin layer of orange buttercream over the top of the cake layer, then pipe a rim of buttercream around the edge. Add about 2/3 cup of cranberry orange filling and spread to the inside edge of the rim of buttercream. Place the next cake layer on top of the buttercream rim and filling. Repeat this process and place the third cake layer, flat side up, on the top of the cake.
Apply a thin layer of orange buttercream over the entire cake and freeze for about 10-15 minutes, until the buttercream is firm.
Once the buttercream is firm, pour the room temperature white chocolate ganache over the top of the cake and use an offset spatula to spread it until it cascades down the sides. Use a cake scraper to smooth the ganache on the sides of the cake until the sides are completely covered in ganache. You may have to add ganache directly to the sides of the cake if there are spots that didn’t get covered initially.
Refrigerate until the ganache is firm.
Using the colored vanilla buttercream, pipe trees onto the sides of the cake and decorate as desired. (The photos you see on saltandbaker.com show sugared cranberries lined along the top rim of the cake. To do this, just toss fresh cranberries in some granulated sugar. That's it!)

Notes

White chocolate is yellowish when melted, so we added about 1/2 teaspoon of white icing coloring. If you don't add the white icing coloring (which is optional) the outside will have a yellow tint to it.
The cranberry orange filling could be pureed in a food processor if a completely smooth texture is desired.
The vanilla buttercream is only needed for decoration, so it can be omitted if you don’t want to do decorate the cake with colored buttercream.
Getting the white chocolate ganache to the right temperature is key to getting smooth sides on the cake. It should be pourable but not too warm. Having a cold cake will also help the ganache set nicely.
For coloring the buttercream for the trees we used white icing coloring and white icing coloring gel food coloring
Get creative when piping the trees! To color our buttercream we used Wilton Leaf Green gel coloring for the brighter green, and Wilton Juniper Green gel coloring in different concentrations for the sage-colored and dark green trees. We used the Wilton 1M tip for the sage-green tree, Wilton 6B for the dark green trees, and Ateco 864 for the brighter green trees.

The nutritional information is just an estimate. Do note, that it calculates every last drop of ingredients. Some of the white chocolate ganache runs off (and you don't need all of it), same goes for some of the buttercream. So keep that in mind!

Nutrition