Friday was our annual bible study potluck dinner and we laughed our butts off, as we usually do when we’re together. 🙂
Some pictures! (Or just scroll down for the cranberry cake with butter sauce recipe.)
Chris, Michelle, Nancy, Mike, Amy, Sue:
David, Gary, me, Dave, Kent, Amy:
Michael & Lyn couldn’t come this year. 🙁
Onto the FOOD!
Michelle made some delicious appetizers (and a brandy slush that I’m craving!) and Amy made a great salad, but being the rotten blogger that I am, I didn’t start taking pictures until David reminded me to during the main course. (Pretty sad, huh?)
Here’s a picture of David slicing the flank steak, which tasted SO good.
Along with the steak, the main course included some amazing twice-baked potatoes (I have to get that recipe from Nancy), and my broccoli casserole. We also had some delicious bread from Sue, but I ate that before I took this picture:
For dessert the other Amy brought cranberry cake with butter sauce, and it was a perfect mix of sweet, sour and buttery flavors together!
Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce:
Ingredients:
- 3 Tablespoons pastured butter
- 1 cup palm sugar (or other natural sugar)
- 1/2 cup organic evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 cups flour (einkorn flour is my favorite these days, read why here: Could this be the answer to the gluten sensitivity epidemic?)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 cups raw cranberries (I wonder how dried cranberries would be?)
Hot Butter Sauce:
- 1/2 cup pastured butter
- 2 cups palm sugar (or other natural sugar)
- 1 cup organic evaporated milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions:
Cream butter and sugar, stir in milk, water, flour, salt & soda. Mix well, fold in berries. Pour into a 9×13 buttered baking dish. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until cake is golden and springy on the top. Bring sauce ingredients to boil in saucepan and serve warm over the cake.
It’s such a pretty cake to make for Christmas, too, but the shot I got (above) didn’t show the cranberries very well.
Enjoy!
Related posts:
Beth,
When Amy brought this to the dinner I told her that I make a very similar one. When I make mine, my kids LOVE it!! (maybe it’s the butter sauce??)
Sue E.
I’m a regular reader who really enjoys your site, but has never commented before. That’s my grandma’s cranberry cake recipe that I’ve eaten every Christmas Eve for the past 30 years. The only difference is we do use cream or half & half instead of evaporated milk, and we add some rum extract to the sauce. Cranberry cake with rum sauce is divine.
How fun that a cranberry cake led you to comment for the first time! 🙂
Thanks for sharing so we know that cream really does work great! I’ll have to try the rum sauce…
Kel
If you have my new APO address, we can test to see if these will survive a trip to Afghanistan in glad-ware. I am willing to help you solve that mystery.
God Bless,
Gregg
LOL! Send me your address and when I make it I’m happy to work with you on that experiment! 🙂
Looks yummy, thanks! Reminds me of a Platz recipe I make. But the butter sauce I’ll have to try! Fyi, I was recently considering making homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream, and I came across a recipe online for homemade sweetened condensed milk. Also, you can stabilize whipped cream with dry unflavoured gelatin. Joy of Cooking has the instructions.
GREAT TIP on the gelatin to stabilize whipped cream, YOU and others blow me away with how smart you all are and how there’s a way to fix everything. 🙂 Thank you!
Just the title makes my mouth water. Cranberry cake? Wow. Butter sauce, they let you make that? Oh my, yum! Thanks for posting.
YUMMM!!! Looks amazing – and what a blessing to have such a special group of friends!
You mentioned using real cream for evaporated milk – just yesterday I was standing in the store lamenting that I didn’t know a real food option (didn’t take the time to research before I went to the store) and the only time I really need it is at Christmas when I do the annual baking so I never have it around anymore. Please let us know how the real cream substitution works out.
Also – anyone out there know what to use for Cool Whip? What nasty stuff!! I’ve always hated it but used it sparingly in just a few recipes. I know it’s not even food – so how am I supposed to know what to substitute?? Mostly what I use it for is in congealed salads – which I am supposed to bring on Christmas Day. Any suggestions?? Thanks!
Merry Christmas to all!
Hi Elaine!
Now I’m second-guessing myself…there is such a thing as organic evap. milk, right everyone???
Instead of the nasty Cool Whip, just whip your own real cream with a little sugar and maybe a dash of vanilla! Here’s my post on it: https://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/06/how-to-make-real-whipped-cream-and-avoid-cool-whip.html
I do have to say, though, that I’ve tried it in fruity salads before, and it got runny. Does anyone have a solution for this??
Kel
I got the recipe from Kelly’s awesome blog 🙂 I find that the longer you wait to add the sugar and vanilla the longer it holds its fluffyness. I use it for fruity salads too, I just make sure the fruit is really dry. Whipping up homemade is quick and easy and taste so much better. Meijer even carries Horizan organic heavy whipping cream.
I was just researching evaported milk/condensed milk along with your posts on homemade mayo and ranch dressing and it occured to me that chilling the bowl you mix the whipping cream in might also help with it holding the fluffiness. Not tested, just a thought.
What are your thoughts on using evaporated milk or condensed milk? Alot of recipes call for them.
Hi Teena!!
I think there are organic brands out there of evap. milk and/or condensed – check the health food store.
Kel
I read on the Horizon website that their cream is ultra-pasteurized. Please see http://www.draxe.com/video/pasteurization-homogenization-raw-milk/ to learn about the effects ultra-pasteurizing has on dairy products.
Thank you for the “healthy” version of one of our family tradition desserts. We make them in cupcake form – to make individual mini-desserts. And if you don’t think that the sauce is to die for…. I, too, took this dessert to a Bible study potluck. I told the hostess about the sauce that “makes you want to lick your plate”. She laughed politely. After dinner during cleanup, who do you think was at the sink, LICKING HER PLATE??!!! We had a good laugh!
What a cute story! 🙂
Are the cranberries tart when you bite into them? In other words, would children like this cake? I’ve tagged it and it looks delicious – it’ll be on my list once we get the oven fixed!
They’re a little tart, just enough to be a perfect compliment to the sweetness of the cake and butter sauce, but not so much that it word turn kids off. Plus kids (mine anyway) love to see a sauce dribbled over the top. 🙂
Just the word butter makes me smile.
P.S. It would be too sweet with dried cranberries.
Substitute cream for the evaporated milk not plain milk. It should work. The sauce is actually is a classic sauce that is usually made with cream (sugar and butter).