Not sure what to do with leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce? Use it to make this easy, moist, and delicious Cranberry Sauce Bundt Cake.
You probably have a jar of leftover Cranberry Sauce sitting in your refrigerator if you recently hosted a Thanksgiving dinner. This “star” of the evening is often pushed to the back of the shelf and eventually forgotten. Sometimes I used it for a savory dish like this Slow Cooker Cranberry Pork Roast. Today, I will give it yet another chance to “shine” in this beautiful Cranberry Sauce Bundt Cake.
Minnesota Bundt Cakes and Bundt Pans
In Minnesota, Bundt cakes rule. The cast aluminum Bundt pan was trademarked and invented by Nordic Ware right here in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. To date, more than 60 million Bundt pans have been sold across North America. On January 22, 2006, Nordic Ware designated November 15 as National Bundt Day to mark the pan’s 60th Anniversary. They also reproduced the original 12 Cups Bundt Pan with Side Handles and modern non-stick coating for limited distribution.
Now, let’s get back to the cake. We had 15 people for Thanksgiving dinner this year and so I only had one cup of leftover cranberry sauce. Two cups of cranberry sauce would probably work better as a Bundt cake is a huge cake. Still it turned out wonderfully tasty. I added some chopped toasted pecans to give it a little crunch. The only thing I would do differently would be to fill the pan with only 1/3 of the batter instead of half so that the filling would be more centered. The recipe below has been adjusted accordingly.
Tools Used in Making This Cranberry Sauce Bundt Cake
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Nordic Ware Pro Cast Original Bundt Pan, 12 Cup
Pyrex Prepware 1-Cup Measuring Cup

Cranberry Sauce Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (300g)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 stick butter (8 tbsp/113g)
- ¾ cup sugar (165g)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup plain yogurt (200g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups cranberry sauce (500g)
- ½ cup chopped pecans, toasted (60g)
Glaze
- ¾ cup powdered sugar / icing sugar (98g)
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
- Grease and flour a 9 inch to 9½ inch Bundt pan. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time followed by yogurt and vanilla extract.
- Beat in flour mixture until just blended.
- Spoon 1/3 of the batter into Bundt pan. Spread cranberry sauce evenly on top of batter. Sprinkle with toasted pecans then spread remaining batter over that.
- Place in the oven and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a pick inserted into the thickest part comes out clean.
- Allow cake to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Then invert cake onto a wire rack set over a piece of parchment.
- Stir together the glaze ingredients. Drizzle glaze over the warm cake.
- Let the cake cool completely before serving.
Nutrition
Cake to Serve a Crowd
This Cranberry Sauce Bundt Cake is a deliciously moist and dense cake. It is a wonderful cake to make for a crowd. The glazing makes it so festive, perfect for the upcoming Christmas celebration.
Enjoy…..and have a wonderful day! 😎
Dina says
it looks delicious!
Ramona says
I love cranberries in baked goods… now I have an excuse to buy more cranberries. 🙂
Melanie says
Really good! A great way to use leftover cranberry sauce. I have a 14.5-cup bunds pan so I used a little less cranberry sauce and made sure I had enough batter to cover it completely so it wouldn’t ooze out and burn.
Linda says
Glad you enjoyed the cake. It is a great way to use up all that delicious cranberry sauce we spend time making. 🙂
Mason says
Made it twice now. Everyone loves it!
Linda says
Good to know. Thank you!
Dawna says
Absolutely Excellent Cake! I have made it three times already and it has become one of our family favorites.
Linda says
So glad to hear you and your family enjoyed this cake. Thank you for letting me know. 🙂
Jo says
Will this work with canned jellied cranberry sauce?
Linda says
I have not tried it but I think it will work since jellied cranberry sauce is quite firm.
'Nessa says
I didn’t have all of the ingredients, so I modified the recipe:
To the batter mix, I added 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon.
For the vanilla, I used only 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract and replaced the other portion with 1/2 a teaspoon of almond extract.
For the butter, instead of using a full stick, I only used 3/4 stick of butter (6 tbsp) and also substituted the 3/4 cup of regular sugar for 1/2 a cup of brown sugar.
For the pecans, I substituted by using a 1/2 cup combination of other fruits and nuts I had in my cupboard. This included about 1 teaspoon of pulverized pecan dust (leftover from a different recipe), a small scoop of golden raisins, and 4 dates – pitted and diced into tiny bits. I filled the rest of the amount with sliced almonds. I also added a sprinkling of dried blueberries (harvested from my own personal garden).
Results came out just perfect. I made it without the glaze, as I wanted to cut back on sugar and it really didn’t need it (although it would look prettier with the glaze).
Linda says
Whatever works, Nessa. I always say that recipes are merely guides and we use whatever is in our pantries. Glad your cake came out perfect! 😀
Jen says
Delicious! I don’t have a Bundt pan so I used a long bread pan.
Linda says
I am glad you found my recipe and it worked out well for you. Definitely use a pan you have instead of running out to buy a new pan. 🙂