Cranberry & White Chocolate Chip Cake

To celebrate my first few days of freedom after exams, I decided, hey why not try my hand at baking again? I have always wanted to try out all these amazing looking recipes that I have collected on Pinterest, over time. So, this was the perfect time to start, after all, I do have 5 months of holidays! This was my first bake, and the most successful, I even managed to sneak a piece to my family back at home, and they loved it! ^^ 

I had a packet of dried cranberries in my drawer, and I saw a recipe on the back. So I thought hmm, maybe I should try baking cranberry muffins. I went on the website and found the recipe (click to see the recipe), and et voila, I made cake! ^^ I made a few changes to the recipe, I've always thought cranberries and white chocolate cookies were amazing, so to turn it into cake would make it utterly perfect! :D So I added white chocolate chips and turned it into cake instead of muffins, purely because I didn't have a muffin tray xD So if you don't like white chocolate chips then follow the Ocean Spray recipe, because it is just perfect :)

NOTE: YOU'LL NEED TWO MIXING BOWLS TO MAKE THIS RECIPE

Ingredients

Granulated Sugar (200 grams) - Since I was going to sprinkle the whole cake batter with white chocolate chips, I thought it was best to cut the sugar levels down!

Butter, Softened (57 grams) 

Eggs (2)

Milk (1/2 cup) 

Plain Flour (256 grams)

Baking Powder (2 teaspoons) - I got those sachet ones from Dr Oetker, they're very handy, as each sachets is 1 teaspoon :)

Salt (1/4 teaspoon)

Dried Cranberries - As much as you want! ^^ The recipe said fresh cranberries, but I personally think dried cranberries works the same :P

White Chocolate Chips - As many as you wish :D!

Kitchen Utensils

Mixing Bowl (x2)

Mixing Spoon

Cake Tin

Baking Paper

Baking Time! :)

1) Preheat the oven to 176 Celsius, or whatever is closest to it on your dial :P

2) Line the cake tin with baking paper - It's super hard to get the paper to stay, and I still haven't found a way of keeping it down, so I just squished it down so it'll stay down as much as possible xD - Maybe you should line two cake tins though, because the mixture is enough to make two cakes, which was a bonus, because then I could feed my flatmates and my close friend, for her birthday ^^!

3) Take the first mixing bowl, and mix the sugar and butter together until completely blended. - The recipe says to have softened butter, I figured that meant soft, so I microwaved my butter in a small bowl, on the lowest heat setting, for about a minute. But I kept checking whether the butter had melted slightly, I didn't want it to be too melted so that it didn't look like butter anymore ^^"

4) Add one egg at a time, beating after each addition.

5) Take another mixing bowl, stirring together the flour, baking powder and salt. - I don't have lots of mixing bowls, so I used a cooking pot and a plastic fruit bowl. Yeah, we're students, and on a budget, got to use what we have right? :P

6) Return to your first mixing bowl, and taking the mixture from the second mixing bowl, spoon a little of it into the first bowl, followed by a little of the milk. Add the milk alternately with the mixture from the second bowl, until both has been blended into the mixture from the first mixing bowl. 

7) Take your packet of cranberries and white chocolate chips, sprinkle as much as you want, and stir it into the mixture. - I quite like white chocolate chips so I put a whole packet in xD

8) Spoon the mixture into the cake tin(s), and carefully place it into the oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown. - As always, the best way to check is by getting a toothpick/fork, poking the middle of the cake, and if nothing sticks then out of the oven it comes :D!

I have a habit of baking late at night, so the lighting of the photos are all yellowy from the super poor lighting in the kitchen. :( But I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I enjoyed baking it, and seeing the faces of my friends light up when they ate it. First success bake is definitely my first milestone to many more baking successes I'm sure ^^. Thank you everyone who has supported me, I really am so overwhelmed with happiness :)

Stay safe & keep smiling, 
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=(^Y^)= ♡