I always have leftover cranberry sauce. I love it and so does my daughter. But the rest of my family, not so much. And once the turkey is gone, I really don't have a lot of interest in eating it. That is, unless I reinvent it as a leftover. That's why I made it into a delicious Cranberry Coffee Cake!
This leftover cranberry sauce coffee cake is made with pecans, sour cream, a delicious vanilla coffee glaze and sparkly candied cranberries for the perfect show-stopping holiday dessert! It makes a beautiful centerpiece for your holiday dinner, whether it's Thanksgiving or Christmas. And the best part is that you get to use up leftover cranberry sauce!
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🥘 Ingredients
Coffee cake is any cake flavored with or intended to be eaten with coffee. Although there isn't coffee in it, this Cranberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake boasts a delicious vanilla coffee glaze!
For this recipe you'll need:
- flour
- baking soda
- baking powder
- salt
- white granulated sugar
- butter * I use unsalted
- vanilla extract
- eggs
- sour cream * I use light but you could use regular
- chopped pecans (almonds can be substituted)
- brown sugar
- leftover cranberry sauce
- cream *table cream
- powdered sugar (aka icing sugar or confectioners sugar)
- brewed vanilla coffee * * add a drop (¼ tsp) of vanilla extract to the coffee if you don't have vanilla coffee
- frozen cranberries
- water
*See printable recipe card for quantities
🔪 Instructions
- Preheat to 350 and spray a fluted, tube pan or bundt pan (*I use a bundt pan) with non stick cooking spray. Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt. In a separate bowl, beat sugar, butter and vanilla with an electric hand mixer, until creamy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in flour and sour cream into the egg/sugar/butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating until just blended. Combine pecans and brown sugar separately in small bowl and set aside. Evenly spread half the batter in prepared pan.
- Add half of the cranberry sauce, by the teaspoonful, spread out over batter.
- Sprinkle with half of the brown sugar/nut mixture.
- Top with remaining cake batter.
- Then add remaining cranberry sauce.
- Use a knife to swirl in cranberry sauce. You'll want to cut in deeply and swirl to reach the bottom layer. Don't swirl too much or you'll end up with a pink cake!
- Add remaining pecans/brown sugar mixture to the top of the cake.
- Bake for 55- 60 minutes until cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. Cool cake for 10 minutes. Gently loosen sides of cake pan with knife and turn onto serving surface. Glaze and garnish with candied cranberries.
*See recipe card for full instructions
🌡️Storing
If you celebrate U.S. Thanksgiving and make this Leftover Cranberry Sauce Cake in November, you can simply can wrap it and freeze it until Christmas Dinner! It freezes really well. However, it's best if you wait to glaze it and make the sugared cranberries just prior to serving.
💭 Top tip
How to freeze an undecorated cake
My method is to wrap it in Glad Press N' Seal (affiliate link) . not regular plastic wrap, then put it into a sealed cake carrier (affiliate link). It can be frozen up to 3 months
And because I always have leftover cranberry sauce, I have come up with other leftover cranberry recipes you may want to check out, including these Cranberry Swirl Cornbread Muffins.
And my Cosmo Cranberry Aioli
This Cranberry Cake is a moist coffee cake that's not only delicious, it's easy to make. But not having to deal with the guilt of finding old cranberry sauce in the fridge 2 weeks after the holidays is probably what I love the most! It pains me to throw away unused leftovers. And for that reason I've come up with several other leftover recipes (you can grab the links below the recipe card)!
This festive looking Cranberry Christmas Cake is the ideal holiday cake for your Christmas dinner or Christmas brunch! And hey, there's no reason you couldn't have it for breakfast or brunch Christmas morning as well. It's meant to be eaten with coffee, after all! Although you can make it with your leftover cranberry sauce after Thanksgiving and freeze it, if you know you won't use all the cranberry sauce for dinner (like me) you can go ahead and make before it even becomes a leftover.
🍽 Equipment
You will need a bundt cake pan (affiliate link) to make this recipe. You could substitute an angel food cake pan if you don't have a bundt pan. You will also need an electric mixer (affiliate link) (hand or stand mixer).
💭How to make Candied Cranberries
I love to serve this cake with candied (aka sugared) cranberries. They are easy to make, sparkly, festive and the perfect finishing touch on this Cranberry Coffee Cake!
- Combine ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil. Stir in cranberries and stir to coat all cranberries. Use a slotted spoon and transfer cranberries to a wire rack. Let cranberries dry for about 30 minutes
- Roll cranberries in remaining sugar until completely coated
- Return to rack to continue drying for another 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
- Garnish Cranberry Coffee Cake with candied cranberries (sugared cranberries)
Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends and family and Merry Christmas to all! I hope you get to enjoy some of this Cranberry Coffee cake this holiday season!
⭐ Reviews
Did you make this recipe? Please RATE THE RECIPE below!
Here's what others are saying: "Made this today and it turned out great! Will be one of our holiday and/or special occasion cakes. Decorated it with the candied cranberries making it look too good to eat. Love it!"⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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📋 Cranberry Coffee Cake (with leftover cranberry sauce) Recipe
Ingredients
Cake ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups white granulated sugar
- ¾ cup butter *unsalted
- 2 ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups sour cream * I use light
- ¾ cup chopped pecans or almonds
- ⅓ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup leftover cranberry sauce * if you don't have enough, you can use a little less
Glaze ingredients
- 3 teaspoon cream * table cream
- 1 cup icing sugar/powdered/confectioners sugar
- 3 teaspoon vanilla coffee * add a drop (¼ tsp) of vanilla extract to the coffee if you don't have vanilla coffee
Candied (aka Sugared) Cranberries ingredients
- 2 cups frozen cranberries (defrosted) * can substitute fresh cranberries
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup water
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat to 350 and spray a fluted/bundt pan with non stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, beat sugar, butter and vanilla with an electric mixer, until creamy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time.
- Beat in flour and sour cream into the egg/sugar/butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating until just blended.
- Combine pecans and brown sugar separately in small bowl and set aside.
- Evenly spread ½ of batter in pan.
- Add half of the cranberry sauce, by the teaspoonful, spread out over batter.
- Sprinkle with half of the brown sugar/nut mixture.
- Top with remaining batter.
- Then add remaining cranberry sauce.
- Use a knife to swirl in cranberry sauce. You'll want to cut in deeply and swirl to reach the bottom layer. Don't swirl too much or you'll end up with a pink cake!
- Top with remaining pecans/brown sugar mixture.
- Bake for 55- 60 minutes until cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes.
- Gently loosen sides of cake pan with knife and turn onto serving surface.
Glaze
- In small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, cream and coffee. *If it seems to thick, add a little more coffee (by teaspoonful) until it's thin enough to pour
- Drizzle over cake and allow to harden in fridge for a few minutes.
Candied or Sugared Cranberries
- Combine ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil.
- Stir in cranberries and stir to coat all cranberries. Use a slotted spoon and transfer cranberries to a wire rack.
- Let cranberries dry for about 30 minutes
- Roll cranberries in remaining sugar until completely coated.
- Return to rack to continue drying for another 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Garnish
- Garnish cake with candied cranberries and sprinkle on powdered sugar, as desired.
Notes
! (contains affiliate links)
Dianna Valentine
Made this today and it turned out great! Will be one of our holiday and/or special occasion cakes. Decorated it with the candied cranberries making it look too good to eat. Love it!

Terri Gilson
Hi Dianna: I'm so glad to hear that it turned out for you and you loved it!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know - I really appreciate it!
Terri