Cranberry Breakfast Cake

Cranberries, cranberries, cranberries! I may have possibly been going a little overboard with cranberries the past five weeks. See, here's the deal. Back over the summer, I had found a cranberry citrus sorbet recipe that I wanted to make for my daughter. So I went in search of cranberries. While I didn't expect to find fresh ones, I couldn't even seem to find frozen cranberries. Publix was not even able to order any frozen cranberries. 

So what's a mom to do? Well, when those bad boys come in season, a good mom buys dozens of bags and freezes them, right? Well, that 's what I did anyway. In all, I think I've bought about 30 bags of cranberries since right before Thanksgiving. I froze 15-20 bags, but I've been on the hunt for all kinds of fresh cranberries recipes, and I've been very lucky in the recipes I've found. They have all been really good. This one included. I found it on Pinterest as Cranberry Christmas Cake, but since I didn't make this for Christmas and since it is a light slightly sweet cake without icing, I decided to call it a breakfast cake instead. The addition of almond extract and cinnamon extract raises this cake to a new level that you must try!

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/8-1/4 tsp cinnamon extract (or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
2 cups flour
12 oz fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with baking spray, then line with parchment paper. Lightly spray the parchment as well. This will keep the cake baking more evenly and make for very easy removal.

With a mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until slightly thickened and light in color, about 5-7 minutes. The mixture should almost double in size. The eggs work as your leavening agent in this recipe, so do not skip this step. This mixture should form a ribbon when you lift the beaters out of the bowl.

Add the butter, vanilla and almond extracts; mix two more minutes. Stir in the flour and cinnamon until just combined.

Add the cranberries and stir to mix throughout. Spread in a prepared 9x13 pan. Lightly sprinkle with 1-1.5 Tbsps of sugar.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting into small slices.