A while ago, I received my autographed (!!!) copy of Ina Garten’s new cookbook, How Easy Is That? Right away I was dying to make her “Easy Cranberry and Apple Cake.” I started getting the ingredients for the recipe together when I decided to change it up a bit. I added lots more spice, used different kinds of apples, more apples (!!!), less cranberries and combined everything together. When it came time to change the liquid in the recipe, I thought to myself…Orange Juice or Rum for the liquid? Hello, that’s not even a question! Rum of course! So I came up with my own Cranberry Apple Rum Cake! When I tasted it, my eyes rolled into the back of my head and that’s a very good sign considering there’s no frosting on the cake. Well there if you want, you can add my Rum Whipped Cream but that doesn’t count as frosting. 
First whisk together 1 cup flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.
Peel two different kinds of apples. I used a Pink Lady Apple and a Honeycrisp. Core them and cut them into chunks. You don’t want giant chunks of apple for this cake and make sure they’re not tiny little bites either.
Throw them in a bowl and then throw in 4 ounces of fresh cranberries.
Now grate 1 Tablespoon of orange zest. I’m not an orange person (they’re one of my least favorite foods) but I love the zest in the cake, it just adds that extra bit of flavor.
Then throw the orange zest in with the apples and cranberries.
Add in ½ cup of packed light brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of ground nutmeg.
In Ina’s Cranberry and Apple Cake, she adds ¼ cup of orange juice and I just think that’s way too much liquid and you’d be surprised how much flavor 1 Tablespoon of orange zest adds to the cake. I don’t care for orange juice but I do like dark rum. Orange juice, rum….same thing. Add in 3 Tablespoons of dark rum!
Mix it all up! Then set it aside.
Moving onto the batter for the cake. In a large mixing bowl with the paddle attachment (a handheld mixer works just fine) mix 2 extra large (or large) eggs on medium high speed for a couple of minutes.
On medium speed, add 1 cup of sugar, ½ cup of melted unsalted butter, 1/4 cup of sour cream and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Now slowly (on low speed!) add in the flour and kosher salt mixture. Mix until almost combined.
Take a spatula/mixing spoon and fold the ingredients together.
Add in the apple cranberry mixture and fold them in. I always leave a bit of leftover liquid in the bowl (about a Tablespoon or so).
Pour the batter into a 9 inch pie plate.
In a small bowl, combine 1 Tablespoon of sugar and ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
Sprinkle it evenly over the batter.
Bake at 325 degrees for about 55-60 minutes or until the center comes out clean. (there might be a few crumbs on the knife/toothpick/whatever floats your boat)
Cool on a cooling rack. I eat the cake when it’s still warm.
Apple Cranberry Rum Cake
(adapted from Ina Garten)
2 different types of large apples (I used Pink Lady and Honeycrisp), peeled, cored and diced into small chunks
4 ounces fresh cranberries
1 Tablespoon orange zest
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 Tablespoons dark rum
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 extra large (large is still) eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
For topping:
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Whisk together the flour and kosher salt. Set aside.
Take 2 different kinds of apples. I use a Pink Lady apple and a Honeycrisp apple. Peel, core and dice them into small chunks. Throw them into a medium sized bowl.
Add in the cranberries.
Grate 1 Tablespoon of orange zest and add it to the apple and cranberry mixture.
Throw in the light brown sugar, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg. Stir all of the ingredients together until well combined.
Add in the dark rum and mix the ingredients together. Set the mixture aside.
In a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (a handheld mixer works fine) beat the extra large (or large) eggs on medium high speed for about 2 minutes.
Add in the sugar, melted unsalted butter (that’s been cooled), sour cream, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium speed until the batter has no lumps.
Slowly add in the flour and salt mixture. Mix until almost combined. Take a spatula and fold the ingredients together.
Add the apple and cranberry mixture to the batter. Leave some of the liquid in the bowl. (I typically leave about 1 Tablespoon or so) You don’t want a lot of liquid from the apples and cranberry mixture.
Pour the batter into a 9 inch pie plate.
Mix together 1 Tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly on top of the cake.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 55-60 minutes. When the cake is done baking, cool on a cooling rack. I like to eat the Apple Cranberry Rum Cake warm.
Wow! This looks like such a flavorful cake! I don’t usually choose to make cakes like this because I’m often afraid it lacks flavor, but this one I’ll definitely try! Loos great!!
Lindsay,
I love all of your recipes, and I love rum. This would be a perfect addition to a Thanksgiving dessert table. I’m going to try this one
I’m so happy to hear that, thank you so much!
Rum is wonderful isn’t it?!
Oh my Lindsay! I bet that is just amazing!
You are so creative. I love the idea of putting rum in a cake. This cake looks so good!
Thank you!
Rum makes everything better!
omg this sounds perfect for thanksgiving!!! I think I need to make your version
mmm rum! hehe
This cake looks amazing and the combo of apples, cranberries, and rum sound delicious. Thanks for sharing
This looks delish! I usually make a cranberry upside down cake, but now I’m thinking that I could totally add some apples to it! Thanks for the inspiration!
Yeah – orange juice, rum – it’s all the one. I bet that cake smelled amazing even as you were mixing the ingredients. It looks great too.
Lindsay, you are so talented. This cake looks magnificent and full of warm fall flavors! Thanks so much for sharing! It was great to see you guest post on Monet’s site, too.
You’re so sweet, thank you so much for your kind words!
Great step-by-step photos. Sounds and looks delicious. I think I’d like this better than the traditional fruit cake steeped in rum.
I love this recipe Lindsey! I love how you adapted it…especially the addition of rum! Looks yummy!!
Beautiful! Love all the apples and cranberries!
Hooray for the rum!!!
Apples and cranberries go so well together, and the rum? Sheer genius!
You totally had me at “rum cake”.
This looks like a wonderfully easy cake, and so perfect considering that apples and cranberries are all over the place right now. Can’t wait to try it out!
great way of using up cranberries and I like the sound of rum cream
Lindsey this looks great! I only bought one bag of cranberries at the store and now I’m seeing all these delicious recipes.. I might have to buy more! Wonderful post on Monet’s blog by the way
I actually got to sit and have coffee with her this weekend and she’s just as great in person!!
ps. I’m sending you a message via twitter..
Yummy and so seasonal. Great recipes!
Love apple and cranberry combo, and so easy to make this time of the year
the cake looks delicious, thanks for sharing
This cake looks amazing. It could easily be the centerpiece of any holiday dessert table. I’ll be bookmarking this for Christmas
Amazing step by step tutorial !!! and the cake, a joyful breeze to the heart, in my cold morning here!
What a beautiful cake (and a great tutorial, too)!
I’ll bookmark the recipe for Christmas – I’m not sure how it would turn out veganized, but I’d love to try.
This cake does look magnificent!! It is so beautiful and no frosting required
What a lovely looking cake! You have a very nice blog full of recipes! I have scroll through your old postings and drool over your photos! Yum!~
This is BEAUUUTIFUL.
Yum. Send it my way, K?!
Hi! Saw you over at Monet’s blog. I love Ina. I have a few of her cookbooks, got to get the latest. This cake sounds incredible. Amazing flavors going on in there. It must taste delicious. Not too shabby to look at either:) In fact, it is quite impressive looking.
That is seriously good looking cake – I definitely have to try that.
Sue
I definitely agree that this will be awesome at Thanksgiving! I adore Ina Garten…she’s a genius and you’re a genius for your adaptation of this recipe! Thank you.
You are a lady after my own heart. I love the look of this cake. It’s amazing. The rum was the perfect choice (rum always is). Yowza you’re good.
This cake look so rustic! Perfect with coffee! (I would even drink tea to get a slice of this cake!) I love the rum addition
I am hhosting a small Thanksgiving dinner for 9. So far, I have three desserts.Now I think I have four. How warm and welcoming your luscious dessert is! (Ina never fails, does she?)
I didn’t realize you were from Portland. This makes you extra cool.
And I did not think that apples and cranberries could look so good. Usually cranberries remind me of fruitcake (why? I don’t think they’re even IN fruitcake).
Ina Garten. I wish I could eat at her table.
Aww thanks!
Portland is quite cool I must say!
I wish I was Ina Garten’s neighbor, wouldn’t that be amazing!
i’m not normally into fruit cakes but this looks amazing…great post
Thank you so much. I used to not be into fruit cakes either until I tried Dorie Greenspan’s apple cake.
Congratulations on the Top 9 today!
Lindsey,
Congratulations on the Top 9 today!
Thank you so much Becky!
Congrats on the top 9!! This looks beautiful and deliciously rustic!! Well done!
Thank you so much Laurie!
What a gorgeous cake, Lindsey! Congrats on being in the Top 9, again
What do you do with all the goodies that you bake? Portland is not far from me and I’ve wanted so badly to visit – its such a cool city.
Thank you so much Priscilla! I taste some, give them away to family and friends. In October I donated them to raise money for breast cancer.
Oooh you should definitely come and visit Portland.
Congrats on Top 9. This looks lovely and photo is gorgeous as always!
Thank you, you’re so sweet!
I love those red round cranberries that stand out in the dough! This cake is beautiful congratulations for the top 9!
Thank you so much Sara!
I love seeing cranberries with apples there’s just something about the colors and brightness that I love. And rum? Did you really say rum? I love cooking with rum because it goes so well with sweet treats like this one.
Beautiful cake Lyndsey and congrats on the fB top 9! I will have to try this cake recipe as it’s full of many of my favorite ingredients. Have a Happy Thanksgiving:) By the way, my daughter lives in Portland and I love visiting her when I can.
I went to Jamaica last Christmas, and we had soo much rum cake. This remind me of one of those that we had. My mouth is watering. Mm.
Good call on the Rum! Yeeesh, that was a close one!
I have a bag of cranberries in the freezer just begging to hang out w my bottle of Rum!
Gracias!
I made this tonight, and the flavors are great. It overflowed my pie-pan so I cooked it in a bigger dish. Am pretty sure my apples were way too big, as the ratio seems all fruit and only smallest bit of cake. Will certainly make it again.
Oh no, it definitely sounds like your apples were too big. My cake batter doesn’t go to the top of the pie pan. Try using smaller apples or just use 1 1/2 large apples. I’m very happy to hear you tried out the recipe though!
I’ve got smaller apples and didn’t drink all the rum, so all’s good.
I LOVE rum cakes. I love rum, maybe that’s why? This looks great! PS, I’m really loving your site! Keep up the great work!