We’re finishing our festive table with a special cake from Manon! This Christmas cranberries and almond cake with cream cheese icing is the perfect finishing touch to your Christmas table and dinner – and we’re getting our practise in now before the big day.

We’ve also made notes below, so you can bring this to life at home with an easy how-to guide. We’d love to see your centrepieces too, so please share what you make on social and tag us in #mymonsoon

 

 

You’ll need:

150g of dried cranberries and berries (soaked for 1h beforehand)

3 large eggs

350g of caster sugar

80g of grounded almonds

250g of self-raising flour

200g of cubed butter (at room temperature)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

 

For the syrup

100g of caster sugar

100g of water

 

For the icing

150g of unsalted butter

340g of Philadelphia

450g to 600g of icing sugar

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

 

Extras

Blueberries

Holly

Rosemary

 Any green and Christmassy leaf

1 egg white

Some extra caster sugar

Sprinkles

 

Utensils

Electric mixer or handheld mixer

2 or 3 15cm tins

Extra butter and flour to line the cake tins

 A spatula 

 

How to:

Soak the cranberries in warm water one hour before you start to bake.

Preheat oven at 180C fan oven.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, crack the eggs and the sugar. Beat at medium speed for 4 minutes. Slowly add the warm butter, cube by cube, waiting for each piece to be incorporated before adding the next. Then add all of the flour, grounded almond, a pinch of salt and vanilla extract. Whisk for 30 seconds until you get a dense batter. Fold in the cranberries and berries with a spatula.

 Line the tins with butter and dust over some flour to evenly coat the tins. Divide the batter in 3 and cook for 30min at 180C and cover with tin foil and cook for another 10 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a couple of minutes and remove from their tins. Cool completely.

Make the cream cheese icing. Cream the butter in your mixer for 5 minutes, until it takes a lighter colour. Add the cream cheese and whisk for another minute. Gently add the icing sugar and don’t hesitate to add extra until you get a soft and smooth consistency.

Make the quick syrup: Place the sugar and water in a pan and heat up quickly for 4 to 5 minutes. Use a pastry brush to brush that syrup over the cakes, to keep them nice and moist.

Assemble the cake: Place one cake on a plate and cover with 3 generous tbsp of cream cheese icing, use a spatula to smooth it over. Keep adding the layers of cakes, repeating the same technique.

Optional: Dip the blueberries in some egg whites and dust with sugar to crystallise them. You can also crystallise any of your decorations.

Top the cake with the blueberries, berries, holly, anything you feel would make it festive!

 

Et voilà!!

 

Take a look at our dedicated events blog to complete your festive table here >