Coconut Cranberry Pound Cake

ByDavid December 11, 2015April 22, 2021

This Coconut Cranberry Pound Cake is a fun and festive way to celebrate the season!

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T-2 weeks until Christmas. Wait, when did that happen? Oh yeah, probably while we’ve been hunkered down taking care of Robbie. He was born on Nov. 19, so he’s just now hitting 3 weeks old. I’m sure some pictures of him dressed as Santa Claus will show up soon, but for now, he’s taking a nap. Babies love taking naps! And Daddies love when babies take naps!

I took advantage of one of these recent naps to run out to the grocery store. My wife’s parents have been awesome enough to come and stay with us for a while as we figure out this whole parenting thing. Since we are smack in the middle of holiday season now, I wanted to bake up a fun cake to thank them for their help. (Truthfully, I am always hunting for some excuse to make a fun cake. But I truly do appreciate the baby help from family and friends!)

I had a vague idea that I wanted to make a pound cake of some sort. I was thinking it might be fun to pour some frosting on top and then cover it in coconut. Shredded coconut kinda looks like fresh snow, right? It’s like the fluffy white snow that comes with the first snow of the season. So somewhere around aisle 5, I had decided on coconut pound cake. Cool. But then I came around the corner and saw a huge display of cranberries.

Oh, cranberries. You always look so fun and festive, and I don’t use you near enough. That’s it. Coconut Cranberry Pound Cake. My mind was made up. Or was it? I remembered how easy it is to sugar cranberries. Ok, my mind was indeed made up. Coconut and fresh cranberries in the pound cake. With more coconut and sugared cranberries on top. Done.

Let me tell you, guys…this Coconut Cranberry Pound Cake is a show-stopper! I had it sitting in the kitchen when everyone came in for dinner, and it was all we could do to keep from slicing into that cake right away. (Of course, I had to stop everyone while I ran away to snap some photos. I mean, photos of a plate with some cake crumbs just wouldn’t have the same effect, right?)

Instead of going with a traditional bundt pan for this cake, I used an 8″ ring mold pan from Fat Daddio’s. Although similar to bundt pans, ring mold pans are indeed slightly different. Sure, they are both round with a hole in the center. And sure, you can bake a cake in both.

One of the key differences is that ring mold pans feature “rounder” sides than bundt pans. This gives your baked cakes a slightly different appearance, and more importantly the rounder sides make it easier to remove cakes after they are baked. We’ve all been there when half the cake stuck in the bottom of the bundt pan, right? It still tastes great…but it looks like a Frankencake.

One of the bigger advantages of a ring mold pan is that they are much smaller than a bundt cake pan. A standard ring mold pan holds about the same volume as a standard bread pan. That means you can mix things up and bake your favorite quick breads in a ring mold pan next time. A round banana bread? Say what?! Oh, and ring mold pans can also double as ice molds for the punch bowl at your holiday parties. Check out Fat Daddio’s for more fun ideas for ring mold pans!

Speaking of Fat Daddio’s, I can’t say enough about their bakeware. If you’re a long-term reader of Spiced, then you’ll know that I’ve featured their bakeware in all sorts of recipes this past year. If you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift (or maybe just a new gift for yourself), then I highly recommend checking out Fat Daddio’s. Their pans are available at many fine kitchenware retailers, or you can also grab ’em online at Amazon.

Cheers!