Author Notes
Beautiful jewel-tone holiday dessert with tart fruit juxtaposing creamy citrus cheese filling. Cake needs to chill a day; warm compote goes on cold cake, which then chills another two hours. —Alyce Morgan
Continue After Advertisement
Ingredients
-
1 1/2 cups
Graham cracker crumbs
-
1/4 teaspoon
Ground cinnamon
-
1/8 teaspoon
Ground nutmeg
-
3 tablespoons
Granulated sugar
-
4 tablespoons
Salted butter, very soft
-
32 ounces
Cream cheese, soft (4- 8 oz packages)
-
1 tablespoon
Each: fresh lemon juice and orange juice
-
1 1/2 teaspoons
Vanilla extract
-
1 1/2 cups
Granulated sugar
-
2 tablespoons
Grated orange rind
-
1 teaspoon
Grated lemon rind
-
2 tablespoons
Unbleached, all-purpose flour
-
5
Eggs
-
1/4 cup
Sour cream
-
1
12-ounce package fresh cranberries
-
2
Oranges, unpeeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
-
1
Cinnamon stick
-
1/2 cup
Water
-
1/2 cup
Cranberry juice or red wine
-
3/4 cup
Granulated sugar
Directions
-
Recipe is easy, but is in three parts: crust, filling, and topping. Cake must chill overnight; topping must be added while topping is hot and cake is cold. Topped cake must then chill another 2 hours. (Can freeze untopped cake, well-wrapped, up to one month.) Can be made in food processor or with electric mixer, or with very strong or determined arms.
-
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. CRUST: Mix together graham cracker crumbs - softened butter until very well combined. Press into bottom and up sides of 9-inch springform pan. Refrigerate while making cream cheese filling.
-
FILLING: Beat together cream cheese with juices and vanilla extract until very smooth. Stir together sugar, rinds, flour, and salt and slowly add to the cheese mixture until well-combined. Add eggs at low speed, one egg at a time, into the cheese mixture. Stir in sour cream until well-blended. Pour filling into chilled crust. Place pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake on center rack of oven 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake another 45-55 minutes or until tester comes out nearly clean. Cool completely on rack. Cover well and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days. Top cold cake with hot cranberry compote (recipe below) and chill another 2 hours before releasing cake from pan. Slice and serve.
-
CRANBERRY COMPOTE OR TOPPING: Heat the cranberries - granulated sugar in a medium sauce pan over medium-high flame to boiling. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, stirring very regularly, until fruit is very thick--20 - 30 minutes. Remove pieces of orange and cinnamon stick. Pour over cold cake in pan. (Refrigerate topped cake another two hours.)
See what other Food52ers are saying.