Cinnamon Loaf Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Mulled Cranberry Compote

The title might be a bit of a mouthful but this loaf cake is surprisingly simple! Packed full of sugar and spice this cake is the perfect winter treat. Scroll down for the recipe.

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Cake for Christmas

If there’s an excuse to bake or eat cake I’m there. So when I moved to Enfield I was keen to get the Clandestine Cake Club (CCC) back up and running. That way I’d have an excuse to bake and eat cake at least once a month! We had our first meeting back in September when I made my Black Forest Cake. It was lovely meeting like minded people and gorging ourselves on cake and tea. If there’s a CCC near you I definitely recommend going along.

The theme for this month’s meeting was Christmas and so I got to thinking about the kind of festive flavours I could include in my bake. A traditional Christmas cake seemed too obvious – and I’d already baked two for my family! I thought about using winter citrus fruits but wanted something a bit more bold. Some of the bakers that come to the CCC meet ups are professional bakers and so I really wanted to make something I knew I could execute well and would look pretty too. It had to be full of flavour, light and moist. I really couldn’t decide between a gingerbread loaf or a cinnamon loaf but when one of the other ladies said she was using ginger I settled on the latter.

The key ingredients

Cinnamon

The second I smell cinnamon I think of Christmas so I knew it would go down well at our Christmas meet up. It’s one of those aromas that immediately takes me back to being a kid, baking in my Mum’s kitchen in the cold winter months. Even as a child I was fascinated by the fact that a dry bit of bark could create something so delicious! What was once considered an exotic spice, cinnamon is now a staple ingredient you’ll find lurking in most kitchens.

The recipe for this Cinnamon Loaf Cake is actually a twist on a classic Ginger Bread Loaf, the main tweak being that I use ground cinnamon instead of ground ginger. (Not exactly rocket science I know). Whilst ginger has a fiery heat cinnamon is much sweeter and more mellow. This is what makes it the perfect partner for sharp cranberry compote.

Cranberries

There’s also no denying that cranberries, with their shiny red coats, are thoroughly festive fare. In the UK, they only appear in the shops in December and I’m always super keen to pack them in to as many dishes as possible over the winter months. In the past we’ve had cranberries in Wild Rice Pilaf, infused gin, this festive eton mess and even nougat! Is there any recipe you CAN’T use cranberries in!? If you love these tart little berries as much as me then scroll down to the end of this post where you’ll find links to other cakes packed full of fresh cranberries.

For my cake I wanted to make the most of their vibrant red colour so rather hiding them in the cake I decided to do a sweet and sticky mulled cranberry compote for the top. I took a punnet of fresh cranberries and heated them in a pan with sugar, a splash of red wine and traditional mulling spices such as cinnamon, star anise and some citrus zest. I cooked it down until it became a sticky sauce, allowed it to cool then drizzled it over the cake. With cream cheese icing and the cranberry compote you could never be accused of serving up a dry cake.

The recipe

Serve up this Cinnamon Loaf Cake this winter. Just follow the recipe below and you’ll have a tasty slice of cake in no time!