I love making and eating cranberry desserts during the holiday season! Something about that sour and sweet flavor of cranberry has always captured my taste buds. This festive holiday orange cranberry cake with white chocolate cake, ombre whipped cream frosting and cranberry sauce is no exception! It’s the perfect Christmas cake to serve for any holiday gathering and the show-stopping ombre will have your guests ‘oohing’ and ‘awwing’!
Watch My Video!
Watch my video recipe to learn how to make the ombre effect – it’s actually super easy! And make sure you’re subscribed to my YouTube channel to receive email notifications!
How It’s Made!
I start this orange cranberry cake with white chocolate cake layers, flavored with bits of orange zest. Adding a bit of melted white chocolate directly into the cake batter makes the cake layers unbelievably moist and tender. For the filling, I make some home-made cranberry sauce. But it’s not just any sauce! I make an orange raspberry cranberry sauce! It’s actually the same sauce I serve with my oven-roasted turkey. It’s so easy to make and I love the combination of raspberry and cranberry!
My recipe for the cranberry sauce makes a large portion. I like to serve extra sauce on the side when serving, for even more cranberry flavor!
The Frosting
For the frosting, I use a super fluffy and delicious white chocolate whipped cream with more orange zest! This frosting is so airy, you’ll want to eat it by the spoonful! It’s not too sweet and I love the addition of the orange zest! Just divide the frosting and add a bit of red food coloring to one half to create the ombre effect. I garnished the top with red sprinkles, edible pearls and frosting dollops. This orange cranberry cake is sure to be unforgettable!
More Recipes!
Looking for more holiday recipes? Here are a few of my favorites for you to try!
- Orange Cranberry Bread – the easiest and most delicious cranberry bread with orange zest and orange glaze! Extra soft and moist!
- Berry Almond Cake – light and airy berry cake made with German Buttercream!
- Peppermint Mocha Cake – with chocolate coffee cake layers and peppermint buttercream. This cake screams ‘Christmas’!!
- Irish Cream Chocolate Mint Cheesecake – made with a brownie base and Irish cream!
- And, check out my in-depth video tutorial for ‘Orange Cranberry Sauce’!
Hi Tatyana, this cake looks gorgeous i cannot wait to make it. I was just wondering if i use 2 cake pans will i have to bake the cakes for longer?
Hi there, I made this the other night but accidentally omitted the white chocolate so instead of plain orange juice to brush on top of the layers I made an orange syrup and it turned out spectacular. I think this was the best cake I had ever made. One friend said it was the best cake she had ever had. I would like to make a half sheet 2-layer cake using this recipe but I know some cake recipes are more conducive to sheet pan success than others. Do you think this recipe would work making a 2-layer half sheet cake (I would double the recipe)? Thank you
Hi! Oops, that happens to everyone sometimes! 🙂 I’m soo glad to hear that you enjoyed the recipe! I think this would be great as a sheet cake, too. I would double the recipe and it should be great! 🙂
Hi Tatyana,
Would it be possible if you only used this frosting to frost cakes? Also, is this frosting too sweet and is the cream cheese flavor strong? Lastly, would this frosting suitable for piping roses and Russian tips?
Thanks
Also, can you add instant white chocolate pudding mix to the heavy whipped cream to have a stabler frosting?
Hi Anna! Absolutely, this frosting would be great for many cake recipes. I actually have a separate video recipe for a similar frosting here: https://tatyanaseverydayfood.com/recipe-items/berry-whipped-cream-frosting/
You can definitely try adding the pudding mix, that would only help. With the addition of the pudding, it should be stable enough to pipe.
Thank you. Would this frosting be stable for piping flowers without the pudding mix? Thanks. Your cake looks great by the way.
If I used a white chocolate pudding mix, would that mean I would cut down the white chocolate chips?
Thank you. Would this frosting be stable for piping flowers without the pudding mix? If I used a white chocolate pudding mix, would that mean I would cut down the white chocolate chips? Thanks. Your cake looks great by the way.
Thank you. Would this frosting be stable for piping roses and flowers without the pudding mix? If I used a white chocolate pudding mix, would that mean I would cut down the white chocolate chips? Thanks
Could I also use the frosting under fondant if I stabilize it?
Thank you