If you find yourself with leftover cranberry sauce, turn in into the most delicious dessert with this Cranberry Sauce Coffee Cake recipe!
So fun fact, every year when the holiday season rolls around (especially Thanksgiving and Christmas) I make an obscene amount of cranberry sauce.
Granted, I do enjoy the blasphemous can-o-cranberry that comes in that wiggling gelatinous form. I mean, it haunts me but I love it!
Anyways, I’ll chill a can of shame for leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches and then make the most giant pot of homemade cranberry sauce, doubling either my crockpot cranberry sauce or a stovetop version of my apple cranberry sauce.
I do this exclusively for the leftover sauce.
It makes the most amazing addition to so many of my holiday recipes from my Cranberry Goat Cheese Log to the most addictive Cranberry Pecan Grilled Cheese.
This time around I incorporated it into a fluffy coffee cake and the result completely rocked my world. It’s SO GOOD! So good, in fact, that I couldn’t stop eating the test batches and had to beg my friends to save me from myself and take some of the cake.
Now all three of us are hopelessly obsessed with this coffee cake!
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
It’s simply glorious! In case you don’t actually have leftover cranberry sauce to play with, no worries! You can use either of the recipes I linked above or try this super and speedy stovetop cranberry sauce I whipped up for one of the test batches.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (200 g) sugar
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup water
- 12 oz fresh cranberries
- 1/4-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, or to taste
- orange zest (optional) to taste
Instructions
- Bring sugar, orange juice, and water to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Mix well and add cranberries.
- Once they return to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until most of the cranberries have burst, approx 10 min.
- Mash with a fork, potato masher, or follow my lead and use an immersion blender (or any blender/processor really) to blend the sauce until smooth. Season with cinnamon and optional orange zest to taste.
The coffee cake itself is super easy to make and uses simple ingredients you probably already have on hand!
Coffee Cake Ingredients Needed
- egg
- avocado oil (or vegetable oil)
- sour cream
- milk
- vanilla extract
- all purpose flour
- sugar
- baking powder
- cinnamon
- salt
- cranberry sauce (see recipe above if needed)
Streusel Ingredients
For the cinnamon sugar streusel you’ll need flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, butter, and cinnamon.
Ready to get baking? Let’s do this! The recipe card below has a handy print button.
Leftover Cranberry Sauce Coffee Cake
This recipe uses a metal square 8×8 baking pan and yields 9 squares of fluffy cranberry coffee cake. You are welcome to cut the pieces smaller if you’d like, but I like to curl up with a nice big slice and a piping hot cup of coffee. SO GOOD!
Leftover cranberry coffee cake is fantastic and can be stored in an airtight container at room temp for 2 days. Enjoy!
Leftover Cranberry Sauce Coffee Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large egg (whisked)
- ½ cup avocado oil or vegetable oil
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 TBSP milk
- ½ TBSP vanilla extract (1.5 tsp)
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour (180 grams)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- ½ TBSP baking powder (1.5 tsp)
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup leftover cranberry sauce
CINNAMON SUGAR STREUSEL
- ¾ cup plus 2 TBSP all purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 TBSP granulated sugar
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 3 TBSP butter (melted and cooled)
- 2 tsp cinnamon
OPTIONAL EXTRAS
- lemon zest or orange zest can be added to the cake batter for a flavor boost
- extra ground cinnamon can also be added to the cake portion if you'd like!
Instructions
- Measure out all ingredients and set out milk, sour cream, egg, and leftover cranberry sauce to reach room temperature.
- MEASURING TIP: Fluff the flour with a spoon then gently sprinkle spoonfuls into a dry measuring cup until a little over-full. Then use a butter knife to scrape the excess flour so its level with the top edge of the measuring cup. Packing the four into the cup or using the measuring cup to scoop itself full of flour will both add more flour than needed.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Line an 8×8 metal baking pan with parchment paper.
- First make the streusel. In a medium-small bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Drizzle melted and cooled (but still warm) butter over the mixture and use a fork to gently toss the ingredients together until combined, no longer dry, but still clumpy. Don’t over-mix or the streusel will turn into a paste (a tasty paste but still a paste not a crumble, lol) Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk well with a metal whisk (or fork) to combine. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, oil, sour cream, milk and vanilla. Mix well using a metal whisk or electric beater.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined, taking care not to overmix. Batter will be very thick.
- Spread the batter into parchment lined baking pan. Dollop with spaced spoonfuls of cranberry sauce then spread into one even layer. It's okay if a little mixes with the batter.
- Sprinkle streusel mixture over the top.
- Bake for 30–33 minutes. Slice and enjoy slightly warm or cooled!
Notes
Nutrition
If you get a chance to try this cranberry sauce coffee cake recipe, let me know!
Leave some love in the comment form below or tag your photos with @peasandcrayons on Instagram so I can happy dance over your creation. I can’t wait to see what you whip up!
Looking for More Leftover Cranberry Sauce Recipes?
- Cranberry Brie Phyllo Cups
- Cranberry Cheesecake Streusel Bars
- Holiday Cranberry Dip
- Cinnamon Walnut Cranberry Cream Cheese Spread
Also, if you have extra fresh cranberries handy you’ve GOT to try my Honey Roasted Butternut Squash with Cranberries and Feta — with over 60+ rave reviews, it’s always a hit this time of year!
Questions & Reviews
Did a double batch (mother made WAAAY too much cranberry sauce lol). I didn’t have a 9×13 baking pan so tried using my Cast-iron Dutch oven. Had to double the baking time. Smells delish, fingers crossed that it tastes as good as it smells.
So pleased with how this turned out. I hand mixed the wet ingredients into the dry. I doubled the cranberry sauce to 2 cups, so baked it a bit longer. No problem with not being done. I baked mine in a 7″x11″ glass pan. Make sure to check the centre with a toothpick or piece of spaghetti. (Found that hack because my toothpicks were all gone. 😉
Love it because it tastes great and I used up my leftover sauce languishing in my freezer!
I did make this and though it was delicious, I found it not to be done. As I read on, the comments, I find that you will tell me I over mixed…..Very well could be…..Will give it another shot.
Hi Kakalina! By not done, do you mean it was it not cooked in the center? Happy to help troubleshoot! I also have a pumpkin version (recipe here) of this dessert that is a little more beginner friendly if needed.
Very good! Great way to use up cranberry sauce. Will make again.
Leftover cranberry sauce and coffee cake, what’s not to like? 🙂 Noticed the Fluffy Pumpkin Cranberry Coffee Cake linked to has a similar streusal topping but with different amounts of ingredients.. should I just use this one?
Hi Su! Either streusel is great! The streusel on my pumpkin coffee cake is a smaller amount of topping while the one on this recipe is a whole lotta streusel! You can use all brown sugar for this one as well instead of using a mix of sugars. I think it depends what you’re in the mood for. If you want the extra vitamins/fiber from the pumpkin, that one is a delicious way to sneak in some extra nutrients while still being the most delish dessert. xoxo
I used some leftover Trader Joe’s Cranberry Sauce.and mixed it into the batter and added 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts to the topping! Turned out great!
So stoked to hear it! Thanks Ron!
Oh darn, I wish I would have thrown in some lemon zest. It’s baking right now. I changed it to gluten-free flours and used coconut brown sugar. Had to use up two cans of organic cranberry sauce so I made this. The batter seemed just right and not too think at all. Doubled all the ingredients and it worked perfectly before I put it in the oven. Any coffee cake with sour cream is usually great! I’ll comment again.
Excited to hear how it went! I have it in my notes to try the lemon zest in the batter next time too — I feel like that would be such a tasty addition!
Hello, unfortunately I made this, I followed it exactly, the dough was like cookie dough, not cake so it was a waste of ingredients.
Are you sure the milk is only 2 tbls. That in it self didn’t seem right. After baking it was like glue. So in the trash it went.
I am sorry for this but maybe the amount of liquid is not listed right.
Hello Gayle – I am happy to help troubleshoot as this is not a typical result. The “wet” ingredients in this recipe include an egg, a half cup of oil, a half cup of sour cream, as well as the small amount of milk and vanilla. This is how the recipe is intended. It sounds like the ingredients were overmixed to the point that the gluten from the flour stretched and formed a gummy texture. Do you mind sharing your mixing technique as well as how you measure out your flour for recipes? This will help me make some suggestions to help you with future baking endeavors. Best wishes, Jenn
Hello Jenn.
I am not sure what happened, when I put everything together the mixture was like cookie dough not a batter, I did everything that was wrote. Maybe my eggs and milk might have been not quite room temp. If that makes a big difference.
Might try again when I have some sauce left
Hey Gayle! The batter should for sure be very thick but not a dough. Since you mentioned a glue consistency I honestly think overmixing is the issue here since activating the gluten via extra mixing adds that gummy texture we don’t want in a cake. I’ll updating the recipe card with some extra notes on this. Hoping this helps!
In case this is helpful as well, for the flour in baking recipes I usually offer this tip: Weigh each in grams grams with a small kitchen scale for speedy and accurate results. No scale? Measure the flour via spoon and sweep method: Fluff the flour with a spoon then gently sprinkle spoonfuls into a dry measuring cup until a little over-full. Then use a butter knife to scrape the excess flour so its level with the top edge of the measuring cup. Packing the four into the cup or using the measuring cup to scoop itself full of flour.
Thank you, I will try again
Happy to help! ❤️❤️
I have never commented on a recipe before but felt I had to this time. I made this yesterday. It was absolutely delicious both warm last night and cold today. I used Gay Lea Gold sour cream which is a very thick sour cream and I followed the recipe and the steps exactly. I’m so glad I found a “go to” coffee cake recipe!
Deb I am so honored you commented! Thank you! So so glad you enjoyed the coffee cake recipe ❤️❤️
I made this tonight for a post-Thanksgiving family party and everyone loved it. 😊 I might try adding lemon zest to the batter next time though. I think that would take it to the next level.
Lemon zest is brilliant! I usually throw a bunch of fresh orange juice and zest into my cranberry sauce for that same reason – love it!
The best coffee cake recipe I’ve tried!
Ahh yay! So happy you enjoyed it!