Cranberry Walnut Mini-Cakes: Left-Over Ingredients Make a Flavorful Cake

Christmas may be past; but I’m not finished with this holiday yet. If you are like me, then you probably have ingredients left over from holiday baking and cooking. In my kitchen, one can of Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce remains after our holiday meals and merriment are past. Well, let’s not let the can of cranberry sauce sit in the kitchen cabinet taking up space for months. I baked these absolutely delicious mini-cakes using the cranberry sauce as a sweet/tart filling layer in the cakes. I added walnuts — also leftover from holiday baking — to the cake batter giving it an aromatic flavor. Orange zest from my garden tree added a citrus “kick.” This simple cake recipe uses self-rising flour which adds lots of “lift” — these tiny cakes are tender and moist — good for a brunch, dessert or snack any time of the year.

Left Over Ingredients Make a Flavorful Cake

Ah, yes — I never seem to get the holiday ingredient list to come out “just right” after baking sessions and holiday meals are over. Unfortunately, some of these ingredients seem to hang around too long in my kitchen cabinet. This year, I’m determined to find a use for these items before the expiration dates are past. As luck would have it, three of these foods — cranberry sauce, walnuts and oranges — add a lot of flavor when added to a cake.

This year, I purchased a couple of cans of whole berry cranberry sauce as a back-up in case fresh cranberries weren’t available. At the last minute — and after searching in several stores — we found bags of fresh cranberries to use in a relish along with roast turkey. And so the canned cranberries were not used. What can I do with the left over cranberries? Hum — other than serving along with roast turkey, the options seem limited. My idea is to puree the whole berry cranberry sauce and add it as a filling layer to my cake.

Walnuts are another item left over from holiday baking. I often freeze leftover walnuts and pecans. However, since I have the nuts on hand, let’s fold some finely chopped walnuts into the batter. This turns an ordinary cake into something special.

Satsumas — a type of mandarin orange tree — grows in my backyard. It is a hardy little tree and has survived freezes and doughts, although last winter we did manage to throw a large tarp over the tree to protect if from a hard freeze. The tarp worked and this year I had a bumper crop of fruit. A little grated citrus made from the peel adds just a bit it citrus flavor and also brightens up the cake. I used orange zest for garnish, too.

Making the Cake Recipe

Get the three flavor ingredients — cranberry sauce filling, chopped walnuts and orange zest — prepped and ready to go before mixing up the cake batter. This simplifies the process and then mixing the batter is easy.

Grate the satsuma peel — or use an orange if you don’t have a satsuma tree growing in your back yard. While you are at it, zest some of the peel into strips for garnish. (I love this handy little KitchenAid gadget.) Juice an orange saving the juice for the glaze for the cake.

Puree the can of whole berry cranberry sauce in a food processor or small food chopper until all the cranberries are pureed. One 14-oz can makes 1-1/4 can pureed sauce with is just right for this recipe. Mix in sugar as this sauce is very tart. Also stir in the grated orange peel.

Toast the walnuts in the oven at 350 degrees for five minutes until they aromatic. (This is the same oven temperature as for baking the cake.) Convenient — I just leave the oven turned on. Then pulse the walnuts in a small food chopper until finely chopped.

Make the Cake Batter

Rather than baking this cake in a 9″-round cake pan, I decided to use four mini-loaf cake pans. These cake pans are just the right size to use as gifts. However, since the holidays are past, I will keep these all to myself. My plan is to freeze some of the cakes to use at future meals. Oil the cake pans generously with vegetable oil. After baking, the cakes slide out of the pan easily; and the oil also makes a crunchy edge to the cake. Yum!

This is a traditional cake recipe — which means getting out the food mixer to mix up a light and airy cake batter. Oh my, we can do it.

One ingredient substitution simplified the steps in mixing up the cake. In this recipe, I substituted self-rising flour for the typical combination of all-purpose flour, baking powder, soda and salt. The self-rising flour gave this cake lots of lift and resulted in a very tender cake. (Perhaps I need to replace the can of baking powder which is sitting on my shelf, as it seems to have lost it’s potency, leavening action or “punch.” Last time I used it, I ended up with a very dense cake!)

To mix up the batter, cream the softened butter and sugar. (Get the butter out of the refrigerator ahead of time to let it soften.) Blend in the eggs. Beat and beat until the mixture is light and airy. Add the vanilla extract. Then slowly add the flour — alternating with the milk — and ending with the flour. Last mix in the chopped walnuts. Don’t over mix.

The batter is rather thick and sticky. Spread a spoonful of batter into the bottom of each of the oiled mini-loaf pans. Evenly divide and spread on the pureed cranberry-grated orange peel filling. Then spoon on and spread out the remaining batter and evenly spread it out.

Bake in a 350 degree oven. I placed the pans on a large rimmed baking sheet making it much easier to handle the small loaf pans. When baked, the cakes will be nice and browned and pull away from the edges just a bit. They should not make an indentation when your thumb is pressed on top. As you can see, they really puffed up.

For a finishing touch, I blended powdered sugar and fresh orange juice to make a glaze for the cakes.

And garnished them with orange peel and fresh cranberries. These make delightful little cakes.

My “taste tester” husband loved these cakes — and that’s the best evaluation for any new recipe.

Long after the holiday baking is finished and all the extra ingredients are used up, we can still bake variations of this cake. The recipe is just a great basic cake batter recipe which can be used with many ingredient combinations. Although adding walnuts to the batter really makes this cake “shine,” they can be omitted. Substituting lemon zest and fresh, chopped cranberries for the walnuts and cranberry relish also is a winning recipe. I bet I could figure out a blueberry cake when this fruit ripens in the summer. The recipe is a keeper!

Enjoy this recipe and lots of creative cooking in 2025!