For Cranberry's Sake, Here's a Chiffon Cake
Making the most of the underrated berry
Hello! I hope you’ve all had a marvellous Christmas and that you’re feeling relaxed and well-fed. Today I bring a cake recipe that is a spongy, winter treat. It’s a bit silly and bouncy and is a great use of any cranberries you might still have in the fridge, or that are still around in shops.
It’s maddening to me that the supermarkets remove ingredients from the shops immediately after Christmas, instead of selling any surplus off to us for a great price. It’s almost as if they don’t have the public’s interest at heart. The good news is many shops are still selling cranberries, including Aldi and Asda when I checked, so I hope you can pick some up to try this cake.
Cranberries are delightful and deserve more than to be cooked into cranberry sauce to sit alongside a roast dinner, in my opinion. I’m a huge fan of tartness in fruit: rhubarb, red currants – and cranberries are a natural addition to this category. I’m determined to use them more. While they possess a little more bitterness than other fruits, if balanced with enough sugar and orange juice, they’re a beneficial berry to use in your baking. And we must also talk about how arresting their colour is. You want red? They’ll give you red.
This time of year is ripe for silliness and simply enjoying yourself and I hope this chiffon cake speaks to both criteria. I’ve dabbled with chiffon cakes previously with my strawberry version, and the light and airy, sweet sponge proves itself well-suited to the cranberry.
Sugaring cranberries is a lovely thing to do: you just make a sugar syrup, stir the cranberries in it so they get sticky, leave them to dry for an hour and then toss them in granulated sugar until glistening and snowy. A beautiful sight. Don’t forget to squish your slice of cake before you eat it, and watch it bounce back into place. Mother Nature we salute you.
Thanks so much for being here this year. I hope you’ve found something you’ve enjoyed to cook and to eat. See you in 2024!
