Cranberry Cornmeal Snack Cake

My family loves snacks. And friends know I’m a good cook. So there’s always the questions of what is there to eat? Or What’s for dessert today? So here’s a very easy cake that can be cut into wedges and eaten plain as a snack, or add a dollop of whipped cream to make it dessert.

It’s loosely based on a Blueberry Cornmeal Cake published in Cast iron Baking by Brooke Belle. I’ve modified some of the ingredients and changed up the fruit, and added some chopped nuts. Although I had a few blueberries in the freezer, I have a lot of cranberries, so this was the impetus for the recipe change up. Cranberries are a power food, high in vitamins,low in calories, and great flavor.

Beautiful Cranberries

It’s a very easy cake to make – no mixer or special tools required. No strange ingredients – you probably already have everything in your pantry. Just two bowls and either a spoon or whisk, and a rubber scraper. I get every last bit of dough out of a bowl when I bake. Well, with maybe a little bit left on the scraper for the cook. My mom always let us lick the bowl or beaters when she baked, and still today I love raw dough. I know, not considered safe these days, but I never got sick from dough so I’m not stopping now!

I baked the cake in a hot cast iron skillet – preheating the skillet will produce a nice crispy crust. However, feel free to use a regular cake pan or tart pan. You may need to adjust the cooking time, depending on the diameter of the pan. Since I love my cast iron, I stuck with the skillet as used in the original recipe.

You can invert it out onto a plate, but I like the presentation in the cast iron skillet. It’s more rustic, which suits me just fine. And when hungry mouths arrive, they can cut as big or as small a piece as they want.

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Cranberry Cornmeal Snack Cake

An easy quick cake mixed up in 2 bowls, and baked in a hot cast iron skillet.  It’s a quick snack, or add ice cream or whipped cream to turn it into dessert.

Course Dessert
Keyword coffee cake
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
cooling time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 1 10 inch cake

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups flour
  • 2/3 cup cane sugar plus 2 tbsp for the top of cake
  • 1/3 cup cornmeal
  • 1.5 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • 8 tbsp butter melted (1 stick)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 1/2 up chopped or sliced almonds if desired
  • 2 cups chopped cranberries

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Place a greased 10″ cast iron skillet in the oven to heat.

  2. Mix together in 1 bowl: flour, sugar, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and lemon zest.  Stir or whisk to combine.

  3. in a second, smaller bowl, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, melted butter, vanilla and almond extracts.

  4. make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet (just like for muffins).  Stir until all the flour is absorbed and mixed in.  Add in the cranberries, and stir just until mixed in evenly.  Sprinkle the top of the cake with 2 more tbsp of cane sugar.

  5. Remove preheated skillet form the oven, and scrape in the dough, smoothing to  make it spread evenly.

  6. Bake 35 minutes until a toothpick come sour clean.   Let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting.  Serve plain, or with whipped cream or ice cream.