This Cranberry Chocolate Truffle Cake is a nice change from typical cranberry desserts. It showcases tart cranberries paired with dark fudgey chocolate cake and embellished with shiny chocolate glaze and chocolate leaves!
Pumpkin pie? Yawn.
Apple pie? Snore.
Pecan pie? Stop it right now.
No offense, but what your boring Thanksgiving needs—and I’m telling you this as a friend—is Cranberry Chocolate Truffle Cake. We have enough fruit and nuts stuffed in pastry crusts, we need some down-and-dirty, too-rich-for-my-blood, pass-the-milk-no-not-a-glass-the-whole-carton chocolate desserts up in here!
It may not be the most traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but we all know that if the Pilgrims had access to glorious bars of semi-sweet chocolate on the regular, they would have made chocolate cake the centerpiece of their Thanksgiving table. I’m married to an American history professor, and that is an absolute fact.*
*The marriage part. The chocolate part I totally made up.
But we’ll save the fabricated facts for the next episode of Drunk History, and stick with what I know to be true: how awesome this cake is.
This is a chocoholic’s fondest dream, and a chocophobe’s worst nightmare. (But if you’re a chocophobe, you’ve probably given up this website long ago. And also? Seek help.) The cake is a relative of the deep, dense flourless chocolate cake, although it does contain a little bit of flour. Mostly, though, it contains chocolate. Sweet, sweet chocolate, mixed with eggs and butter and cranberry sauce, and yielding a moist interior with the texture of a rich chocolate truffle. Restrained it is not.
The cake is topped with a homemade cranberry jelly, the perfect balance of sweet and tart to cut through the chocolate, and is finished with a shiny chocolate glaze. Don’t be fooled by the large piece you see below—this baby is best enjoyed in small slivers, because it’s so rich. A 9-inch cake could easily feed 12-16 people, especially if they’re also sampling other desserts.
Finally, I finished the cake with some lovely chocolate leaves and fresh cranberries. The leaves are surprisingly easy to make (basically: coat leaves with chocolate, peel off leaves) but, when brushed with a light layer of luster dust, add the perfect glamorous gourmet touch.
💖More Delightful Desserts
- Cranberry Orange Sauce
- Brown Sugar Cranberry Cake
- Peppermint Patty Flourless Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Orange Cake
- Cranberry White Chocolate Sweetie Pies
- Cranberry Orange Bread Pudding
- Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate
- How to Make Chocolate Leaves
Cranberry Curd Almond Cake
Cranberry Chocolate Truffle Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chopped
- 4 oz unsalted butter 1/2 cup, cubed
- 6 large eggs separated, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar divided use
- 8 oz whole berry cranberry sauce 3/4 cup, homemade or store-bought
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the Cranberry Jelly:
- 12 oz cranberries fresh or defrosted from frozen
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
For the Chocolate Glaze:
- 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate finely chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
To Make the Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Use a 9-inch cake pan with a removable bottom, or a 9-inch springform pan. Line the pan with parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the chocolate and butter together in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave until melted, stirring after every 30 seconds to prevent overheating. Stir until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool to lukewarm.
- Combine the egg yolks and 1/4 cup granulated sugar in the bowl of a large mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. (Alternately, you can use a mixing bowl and a hand mixer with whisk attachments.) Whip the yolks and sugar until they’re thick, a light yellow color, and drip from the whisk in a thick ribbon when you pull it up out of the yolks.
- Fold the yolks into the lukewarm chocolate, and gently stir until most of the streaks are gone. Add the cranberry sauce, flour, vanilla extract, and salt, and carefully fold them in.
- Wash and dry the mixing bowl and whisk you used for the yolks, and place the egg whites in the bowl. Whip on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, then gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar, a spoonful at a time, until the whites hold firm peaks and have the texture of shaving cream.
- Fold the whites into the chocolate in three batches. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake for 32-35 minutes, until puffed, dry on top, and there are small cracks along the sides.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely at room temperature. The cake can be made several days in advance and kept, well-wrapped, in the refrigerator until ready to assemble.
To Make the Cranberry Jelly:
- Combine the cranberries, sugar, and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook the berries, stirring occasionally, until they all “pop” and you have a thick, bubbling mixture. Pour the berries through a wire mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing down on the skins to force all of the liquid through the strainer. Press a layer of cling wrap on top of the jelly, and cool to room temperature. Jelly can be made up to a week in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
To Make the Chocolate Glaze and Assemble:
- Place the chopped chocolate in a small bowl, and put the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the cream to a simmer, and when it’s almost boiling, pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for a minute to soften the chocolate. Whisk gently until the chocolate melts and the glaze is shiny and smooth. Make this right before you’re ready to glaze the cake.
- To assemble the cake, use a spoon to scoop out about a half-inch of the top of the cake, leaving a thin border around the sides, where the cranberry jelly will go. (If your cake has collapsed during the baking process, this is the one time when that isn’t a bad thing! Instead of scooping out a hole, and you can just put the jelly in the sunken area on top.) If the jelly has been chilled, stir it briefly and then spoon it into the cavity on top of the cake, smoothing it into an even layer.
- Place the cake on a cardboard round the size of the cake, then put it on a wire rack. Pour the hot glaze over the cake, using a spatula to spread it to the edge and push it down to coat the sides. Let the cake set at room temperature for several minutes before transferring it to the refrigerator to chill completely. Decorate with chocolate leaves, chocolate curls, cranberries, and/or whipped cream.
- This cake is very rich, so it’s best enjoyed in small slices. Use a large sharp chef’s knife to cut it in slices, and for the cleanest cuts, wash the blade with hot water between cuts.
- Store Cranberry Chocolate Truffle Cake well-wrapped in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Nutrition
This looks really decadent. However, that American History professor husband is really partial to pecan pie.
Could the butter be substituted for a non dairy option? I would love to try this cake for the holiday season it looks amazing!!
I think using a butter substitute like earth balance would work well! Let me know how it goes!
I normally do not read blogs that encase recipes, but your blog is different. I love your sense of humor as well as you desserts! Made your chocolate raspberry mousse cake for my daughter’s birthday and it was the absolute easiest recipe for a mousse cake (I tried a few in the past). Thank you!
Tatiana, this comment made my day! Thank you SO much for taking the time, and for trying my recipes. <3