Chocolate Cranberry Fudge Cake

This delicious, rich Chocolate Cranberry Fudge Cake uses canned cranberries and gluten free flour to make an easy decadent dessert.

This recipe is gluten free by using gluten free flour.

Watch A Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Chocolate Cranberry Fudge Cake:

https://youtu.be/o7XjTNOlJx8

Ingredients For Chocolate Cranberry Fudge Cake

• 2/3 Cup Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 Cup Butter
• 1 oz Baking Chocolate
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Canned Whole Cranberry Sauce
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1/4 Cup Gluten Free Flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 Cup Whipping Cream
• 1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 cup Pureed Cranberries

8″ Round Cake Pan

We will need a prepared 8″ round cake pan so we will get that ready first. We’ll line the pan with foil and dust it with gluten free flour. This will help our cake come out of the pan later. If you want to you can use cocoa powder instead of flour. You just put the flour or powder in the pan and shake it around to coat the whole thing.

Chocolate

To start our cake batter we will put the chocolate in a microwave safe mixing bowl. We are using two different types of chocolate; chocolate chips and baking chocolate. You can use whatever kind of chocolate chips you want here but since we are going for a deep fudge we will use dark chocolate chips. Semi-sweet would also work fine. The baking chocolate just needs to be 100% cacao with no sweeteners. We like to use Ghirardelli baking chocolate.

Butter

We’ll add 1 cube of butter to the chocolate. We are going to be melting this so you can cut the butter into pieces to help it melt faster. We’ll put the bowl into the microwave and cook it for one minute and then see if it’s melted enough.

Stir

After one minute in the microwave we’ll stir the chocolate and see if it is all melted. We found it to still be a little lumpy so we’ll put it back in the microwave for 20 more seconds. Then we can easily whisk it until it is smooth.

Sugar

Next we’ll add our white sugar and stir that in.

Cranberries

Now it’s time to add our cranberries. We are using the whole berries canned sauce. You can use the jellied cranberries if you want but we like having the berry pieces in our chocolate cranberry fudge cake. We’ll use 1 cup of the cranberry sauce now and save the rest for the glaze.

Eggs

Now we add our eggs and stir thoroughly to get them mixed in. You can break the eggs into a separate bowl and scramble them before adding but we don’t find it necessary. They mix in just fine when we crack them right into the mixing bowl.

Vanilla Extract

Our last wet ingredient is vanilla extract. We only use real vanilla extract even though it is more expensive. We can only guess what is in the fake stuff but the vanilla plant near us years ago used runoff from the neighboring pulp mill.

Gluten Free Flour

For our dry ingredients we will start with gluten free flour. We use Bob’s Red Mill One To One Flour, which we can get in bulk at our local co-op store. They also make a baking flour that is gluten free.

Baking Powder

To get a little rise in our cake we will add a little baking powder. You need to check your baking powder from time to time to make sure it isn’t expired. You’ll get more rise from fresh baking powder. That is all of our cake batter ingredients so once we get this mixed well we are ready for the pan.

Pour Into Pan

Now we can pour our cake batter into our prepared pan. Since we prepared this earlier it is all ready to go.

Bake 40 Minutes At 325°

We’ll put our cake in a 325° oven on the middle rack and bake it for 40 minutes. At the end of that time we will give it the toothpick test to see if it has cooked enough. We just put a toothpick into the middle of the cake and if it comes out wet the cake is not cooked enough. In our oven 40 minutes was not enough. The toothpick came out wet so back in the oven it goes.

Bake It Longer If Needed

We gave it another 6 minutes and tried the toothpick test again. The toothpick came out dry with a couple pieces of cake on it so our cake is cooked.

Cooling Rack

We need to let our cake cool for 30 minutes on a cooling rack. After that we will put it in the refrigerator for an hour to get it really cooled.

Loosen the Foil

When our cake is cool we’ll take it out of the pan. Loosen the foil and put a plate over top of the pan.

Flip It Over

We’ll flip it over so the plate is resting on the counter and carefully peel off the foil. If it was floured well enough it should just come off. It might not look very pretty at this point but we are going to glaze it and it will look great.

Make the Glaze

We’ll put the whipping cream and chocolate chips in a small, microwave safe mixing bowl.

Microwave For 1 Minute

We’ll microwave this for one minute. You’ll want to keep an eye on this as the cream foams up in the microwave. Then we can whisk it until it is smooth.

Cranberries

We’ll put the rest of our can of cranberries in a blender and blend until very smooth. If you are using the jellied cranberries you can skip this step. We just want to make sure we don’t have chunks in our glaze. We want to end up with a nice smooth, shiny surface on our cake.

Pour the Glaze On the Cake

We will pour the glaze on the center of the cake. You want to pour it all on at once right in the middle.

Spread the Glaze

Using a silicone or rubber spatula spread the glaze over the top of the cake and let it run down the sides. You just keep working it until it is all even.

Refrigerate One Hour

Now we put our chocolate cranberry fudge cake back in the refrigerator for one hour. We’ll find something pretty to decorate it with in the garden and our cake is ready to serve.

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You might also enjoy our recipe for Decadent Chocolate Mousse.

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