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Cranberry Chocolate Chip Snack Cake

Jessica Fisher · December 2, 2017 · 48 Comments

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With its sweet crumb top, tart cranberries, and rich chocolate, this Cranberry Chocolate Chip Snack Cake is perfect with coffee or milk. Warning: there will be no leftovers.

table set with snack cake, a cup of coffee

My family loves cake. More than pie. Yeah, they’re weird. I’d much rather have pie.

But, this cake could sway me. A sweet crumb top forms a bed for fresh cranberries and chocolate chips. Delicious! It’s perfect for an afterschool snack, dessert with coffee, or a decadent addition to breakfast or brunch.

This cake has its beginnings in a basic cake recipe a friend shared with me years ago, only it was called Toffee Topped Bars. It’s basically addictive. If you sit me by a pan of this stuff, it won’t last long.

Can I use a different fruit or add nuts?

I’ve adapted the method over time in lots of different ways, with different fruits and nuts, with chocolate and without. It’s pretty much foolproof, so feel free to adjust the flavor profile to suit your fancy.

Here I combined vanilla, orange, chocolate, and cranberry – a perfect team for this snack cake.

How to make this chocolate chip snack cake 

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
  2. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, and butter. Pulse until coarse crumbs form.
  3. Remove 1 cup of the mixture and set it aside.
  4. Add the milk, egg, vanilla, orange zest, baking powder, and salt to the remaining flour mixture. Blend until smooth.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over the batter. Sprinkle the cranberries and chocolate chips over the crumb mixture. Bake the coffeecake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

slice of cranberry chocolate chip snack cake on a plate

How to make this good and cheap:

To make this recipe more economical:

  • Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. The holidays are a great time to stock up on baking ingredients. Cranberries will also be more readily available around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Watch for them to be marked down right after the holidays so don’t hesitate to stock up and fill your freezer with them.
  • If you need to make some substitutions or omissions, you can skip the orange zest. It’s not critical and if you don’t have any oranges or they aren’t on sale, it’s not a huge deal. You can reduce the amount of chocolate by half if you prefer to save there as well. I’ve made it with as little as 1/4th of a cup and it’s been great.

How I make this recipe easy:

Having the right kitchen tools can really make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable. Over time, I’ve honed my collection so that they are perfect for my needs. Here are the tools that I use for this recipe:

  • food processor – I have had a food processor for 23 years and use it several times a week. I currently use this Cuisinart model and am coming to appreciate the three separate bowls. Good news for this recipe, it’s a one-bowl deal.
  • Pyrex 9×13 with lid – I love, Love, LOVE this pan.
  • silicone spatula – I love this two-sided spatula/spoon. It’s great for stirring and scraping. I bought it originally to flip crepes, but I’ve since bought more since it’s so handy!
table set with snack cake, a cup of coffee
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5 from 1 vote

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Snack Cake

With its sweet crumb top, tart cranberries, and rich chocolate, this snack cake is perfect with coffee or milk. Warning: no leftovers.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time40 mins
Total Time55 mins
Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cranberry cake, cranberry chocolate snack cake, cranberry snack cake
Servings: 12
Calories: 292kcal
Author: Jessica Fisher

Ingredients

  • 2 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour)
  • 2 cup brown sugar packed
  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp orange zest
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup fresh cranberries
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
  • In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, and butter. Pulse until coarse crumbs form.
  • Remove 1 cup of the mixture and set it aside.
  • Add the milk, egg, vanilla, orange zest, baking powder, and salt to the remaining flour mixture. Blend until smooth.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over the batter. Sprinkle the cranberries and chocolate chips over the crumb mixture. Bake the coffeecake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Notes

  • Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. The holidays are a great time to stock up on baking ingredients. Cranberries will also be more readily available around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Watch for them to be marked down right after the holidays so don’t hesitate to stock up and fill your freezer with them.
  • If you need to make some substitutions or omissions, you can skip the orange zest. It's not critical and if you don't have any oranges or they aren't on sale, it's not a huge deal. You can reduce the amount of chocolate by half if you prefer to save there as well. I've made it with as little as 1/4th of a cup and it's been great.

Nutrition

Calories: 292kcal | Carbohydrates: 45.7g | Protein: 3.8g | Fat: 10.6g | Saturated Fat: 6.6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 37g | Cholesterol: 37mg | Sodium: 177mg | Potassium: 155mg | Fiber: 1.2g | Sugar: 28.2g | Calcium: 60mg | Iron: 1.4mg

Cranberry Chocolate Snack Cake in pan on table

 

Originally published February 13, 2012.

Filed Under: Cake, Chocolate, Recipe Tagged With: packable

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rebecca says

    February 13, 2012 at

    Yummy! This looks delicious. I would definitely like the chocolate with the cranberries. I might even try dark chocolate chips. Mmmmmm. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 13, 2012 at

      Yes, it’s very good with dark chocolate. We’ve tested it a myriad of ways. 😉

      Reply
  2. Tiffany says

    February 13, 2012 at

    can’t wait to try this. I have three bags of frozen cranberries in the freezer.

    Reply
  3. Jamie says

    February 13, 2012 at

    Looks and sounds amazing!!!!

    Reply
  4. Claire says

    February 13, 2012 at

    I also have many bags of cranberries in the freezer. I have wondering what to do with them. This will be one thing to make.

    Reply
  5. BethB says

    February 14, 2012 at

    ARGH!!!! I just used the cranberries I had frozen. Guess I’ll have to pin it for next year. 😉

    Reply
  6. Angela says

    February 15, 2012 at

    Have you tried to freeze it? I need some more desserts to stick in the Mr. Freezy!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 15, 2012 at

      @Angela, yes. Sadly, this is a reject from my freezer cookbook. It’s FABULOUS fresh, but to bake and freeze is asking for sogginess on the other end.

      Reply
      • Stacy says

        February 18, 2012 at

        @Jessica, I wonder if you could substitute dried cranberries (raisin-like) if you wanted to freeze it. Just wondering.

        Reply
        • Jessica says

          February 18, 2012 at

          @Stacy, if you try it, let us know!

          Reply
  7. Rebecca says

    February 16, 2012 at

    This was delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe. I fed half of it to my husband and took the rest to a bible study fellowship 🙂 Thought the “sweet tart” tast was totally addictive!

    Reply
  8. CJ @ Morsels of Life says

    February 16, 2012 at

    This look so good! I know what I’m doing with my cranberries now. 🙂

    Reply
  9. Stacy says

    February 18, 2012 at

    Looks good–I’m printing this for use in the near future. I don’t have any oranges or orange zest, so that’s holding me back temporarily. I do have lemon zest in the freezer, so maybe I’ll try that.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 18, 2012 at

      @Stacy, you can omit the zest. It will just have a slightly different flavor.

      Reply
  10. Stacy says

    February 18, 2012 at

    OK, I made it, but I made a few changes that maybe didn’t help it to be as good as it looks in your picture–I don’t have a food processor, so I used the stand mixer, and I think it needed a big pan like you suggested. I think if I do it again, I’ll cut down on the cranberries and cut them in half–we aren’t cranberry lovers but a little bit can be nice. Also, using the orange zest may be significantly better than the lemon zest. One thing I added that I liked was some shredded coconut on top–gave it a nice flavor and a little crunch. I didn’t love the outcome altogether due to my changes, but I’ll try this one again though–thanks for sharing. OH–also, I think you have a typo. You mention dividing the batter for the multiple pans but only mention one pan at the beginning of the directions.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 18, 2012 at

      @Stacy, thank you for catching that. Yes, I had done some testing in two cake pans to see if they would freeze better.

      Reply
  11. Caroline says

    February 21, 2012 at

    Kids loved it, made it with frozen raspberries

    Reply
  12. Sandi says

    December 2, 2012 at

    Is this soft and normal cake texture, or is it solid and more like a cookie? It says cake, but the photo looks firmer. I’m trying to decide my cookie choices for Christmas gifts this year, and I’ve had this saved but never made it, so thought I might include it if it would be appropriate.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      December 2, 2012 at

      @Sandi, Definitely a cake. It’s way too soft and moist to count as a cookie.

      Reply
      • Sandi says

        March 9, 2015 at

        So here were are, a few years later, and I finally get around to making this. Yummy! Glad I finally did it. You were right, definitely would not have worked as a cookie. I used a blend of flour (white, wheat, oat, spelt) so it might have been a little denser than yours, and I had to leave out the citrus zest as I don’t have any at the moment. (tried using extract as someone else mentioned but when I opened the bottle, I found it had all evaporated out some how!) I knew the kid would not be excited about the cranberry part so I used a little extra chocolate chips. I actually thought it came out too chocolately and wished I’d stayed with the original proportions, but he did still comment about the cranberry that I thought was great, so I guess we both had to compromise. I used a slightly smaller pan to make it a little thicker, so I think it might have been better to actually stir the cranberries throughout rather than have them just on top. (Putting the note here so I’ll remember next time.) I was thinking it was the kind of dish that could easily handle some ground flax seed or some bran mixed in with no noticeable difference to bump the nutrition factor. Perhaps that is only because of the type of flour I used, though, not sure.

        Reply
  13. Carla says

    January 14, 2013 at

    If you would use dried cranberries, do you use the same amount or less?

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      January 15, 2013 at

      @Carla, I’ve never done it, but if I were to try, I think 1 cup dried is fine.

      Reply
      • Carla says

        January 22, 2013 at

        @Jessica, Okay. Tried this last night. If anyone wants to try this with dried cranberries—stir them into the batter so they can soften more. . Had to back away from having seconds. I will definitely have to try this with fresh berries, but no complaints here. Love the texture of the cake—might have to play with some varieties here. I was in a hurry and not really fond of zest for some things so I left it out—-what does it do to the flavor of this for when I try it will fresh berries?

        Reply
        • Jessica says

          January 22, 2013 at

          @Carla, do you have a microplane zester? I think that some folks don’t like zest because they’ve only eaten it in biggish chunks. A microplane makes very tiny flecks that add flavor without bulk or liquid.

          Reply
        • Carla says

          January 22, 2013 at

          @Carla, Nope, but if it is what I think it is, I have been looking for one. After I track one down I’ll give it a go! Thanks.

          Reply
          • Nia Hanna says

            February 24, 2014 at

            Hi Carla,
            If you live close to a Dollar Tree, you should be able to find one there. They have a Betty Crocker brand, it has a container on the bottom to catch your zest. This zester produces very very fine pieces, much smaller than the microplane. I do prefer the microplane when do a ton of zesting though, seems I work faster, but that’s not an issue when doing one or two fruits. Oh, and I’ve found that cleaning either zester is easier with a toothbrush (I buy those at the dollar store too).

  14. Jodi says

    April 8, 2013 at

    Would this work okay cooked in muffin pan instead of as a cake? Grab and go works better for us than a cake.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      April 8, 2013 at

      I’ve never tried it, but I thought of it this weekend when I made a banana version. I think it would make 2 dozen. Reduce the cooking time. If you try it, let us know!

      Reply
  15. Nia Hanna says

    February 26, 2014 at

    We made this on Monday using Trader Joe’s freeze dried cranberries. I pressed the berries into the batter to try and soften them, but they came out of the oven the same way they went in – crunchy! After the cake cooled it was cut into squares and stored in the cake plate, which softened the berries so they were chewy the next day. Today the berries a very soft and only slightly chewy. Jessica I love the flavor of this cake and am disappointed I’ve waited so long to make it. Oh and for anyone interested, I used 1 teaspoon pure orange extract in place of the orange zest, because I didn’t feel like fooling with zest at the time. The results still had an orange flavor and I just loved it!

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      March 31, 2014 at

      I think you might soften the cranberries in warm water for a few minutes before adding them to the cake. Then they’d be “good” right out of the oven? Maybe?

      Reply
  16. Lea Ann says

    December 2, 2014 at

    Just made this….and LOVE IT!! The unique combination of chocolate, cranberry and orange, is fantastic. Definitely will be making this again….probably with the rest of the bag of cranberries!! This is the first time I have made something with my food processor…other than shredding or slicing. I was a little skeptical at first because it is a thicker batter, but it worked. Thank you for all the fantastic recipes that you post.

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      December 20, 2014 at

      Glad you gave it a go! I’ve got some cranberries. I should go make some.

      Reply
  17. Elizabeth Heironimus says

    January 6, 2015 at

    I made this tonight, after intending to make it for years. It was great, and my 4 boys loved it. I’m not doing an official Pantry Challenge, but I’m following along with you and finding it inspirational, and this cake fit nicely with the leftover cranberries I had sitting in the fridge.

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      January 10, 2015 at

      I’m glad you liked it. I wish I had found cranberries on clearance this year. I was only able to make this once this season.

      Reply
  18. Jennifer says

    February 19, 2015 at

    I want to make this, but can’t find fresh cranberries. What else would work?

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      February 20, 2015 at

      You could use blueberries or raspberries.

      Reply
  19. Alisha says

    July 7, 2017 at

    I made this gluten free and it was so good! Pretty quick too, it’ll go into our breakfast routine. I may use a little less sugar since it’s a breakfast cake for us. Thanks for sharing

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      July 10, 2017 at

      So glad you were able to make it work for your household!

      Reply
  20. Kathleen says

    December 8, 2017 at

    I just made this and it is delicious. I would normally never have made a cake like this but I thought it looks like a nice coffee cake. The cranberry and chocolate are a good combination.

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      December 9, 2017 at

      Glad you liked it! Thanks for taking a risk! I appreciate your trust. 🙂

      Reply
  21. Carol says

    December 15, 2017 at

    I made this with my grandson with only the change of gluten free flour. It was delicious. Everyone wanted seconds right away!

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      December 18, 2017 at

      So glad you enjoyed it and that it worked GF. Yay!

      Reply
  22. Nia Hanna says

    January 7, 2018 at

    I made this cake again today. I stuck with the 1 tsp orange extract. Instead of one kind of chocolate chips I used a half and half mix of milk chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips. Instead of the freeze dried cranberries I used last time, craisins soaked in boiling water did the job. Still a yummy, yummy cake.

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      January 19, 2018 at

      Your adaptations sound delicious!

      Reply
  23. Rebekah says

    January 14, 2020 at

    I’ve made this many times for my family and we all love it just the way that the recipe is printed. It’s easy to make substitutions / changes / omissions, though – so go ahead and make this recipe your own!

    Our favorite way to make this, though, is just the way that it’s printed AND … best part …. I can get all of the ingredients ready, preheat the oven, and have this in the oven in almost exactly the time that it takes the oven to preheat. It comes together SO fast. If you have an urge to make this, you can have it in the oven in 10 minutes, dishes done, and eating it warm in less than an hour!

    Reply
    • Jessica Fisher says

      January 18, 2020 at

      So glad you enjoy it. Thanks for the feedback, Rebekah!

      Reply

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