Cranberry Pop Cake

Merry Christmastime, everyone! I have a bit of a story to go with today's recipe, Cranberry Pop Cake. I'm sorry I don't have a pretty picture to go with this one- next time I make it I'll have to post one!

Seven years ago I was on my Church mission in Oklahoma. It was my second transfer (meaning I had been out for about 2 months) and my first companion had gone home. My "stepmom" was a sister named Sister Woolley- she was fun, energetic, compassionate, and a great cook. It was approaching Christmas and I was kind of having a hard time with it- the weather was cold, there weren't a lot of receptive people, we were in Woodward, Oklahoma an hour and a half away from any other missionaries and it was my first Christmas away from home and family. We spent a lot of our lunch time baking all manner of delicious comfort foods to give to the people we were teaching and to eat a little ourselves.

Anyway, this is one of the Christmas treats that stick out above the rest. The cake itself is mildly sweet and the berries give it a nice flavor and festive color. The thing that does it for me though is the butter sauce that goes on top- it really brings out the flavors of the cake. Besides, what's not to love about something called Butter Sauce?

When I made this for my church congregation's Christmas party I first made it way to big. Sister Woolley didn't write down how big the pan should be, and it sounded like it wouldn't make that much batter, so I doubled the recipe and ended up with a HUGE cake that took forever to bake. I luckily had enough ingredients for another cake so I ended up with a lot of it, haha! Anyway here is the recipe, clarified just for you:

Cranberry Pop Cake
by Stephanie Woolley

Cake:

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup evaporated milk
2 cups whole cranberries

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a 9x13 pan by greasing and flouring it. Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in egg. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl. Add flour mixture alternately with evaporated milk- I used a hand mixer for this and it worked well. Fold the cranberries in the cake batter. Pour in prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. It's done when a fork inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Butter Sauce:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream (or milk- I just used milk and it turned out just fine!)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Boil the butter, sugar and cream (or milk) together for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

When you're ready to eat, pour the butter sauce on the cake. Yum!!!