How to Make Cranberry Duff, aka New England Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

I’m a sucker for a good vintage cookbook, and I love bringing an old recipe back to life. The latest recipe I’ve decided to dig up from the archives comes from The Family Circle Cake & Cooky cookbook from 1953 (nope, cooky is not a typo!). It’s a cranberry duff, AKA a New England-style upside-down cake.

This upside-down cake caught my eye immediately, as the crisp autumn air gets me craving cranberries like nobody’s business. (Fun baking fact: Most of the cranberries we eat don’t actually come from New England—they’re from Wisconsin!)

New England Cranberry Upside-Down Cake Recipe

Even if you don’t consider yourself a pro baker, this is one of those easy cake recipes anyone can tackle. It starts with a cake mix and a can of cranberry sauce; it doesn’t get easier than that!

Ingredients

• 14-ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• White or yellow cake mix, plus whatever ingredients are called for on the box; the boxed cake mix I used called for water, eggs and vegetable oil

Directions

Step 1: Make the cranberry topping

In a bowl, mix the canned cranberry sauce and lemon juice together. Make sure you’re using whole-berry cranberry sauce here to get the right texture (the jellied stuff will fall apart).

Step 2: Prepare the pan

Grease a square cake pan and line it with either parchment paper or aluminum foil. Pour the cranberry mixture into the pan and spread evenly across the bottom.

Step 3: Make the cake layer

Prepare the cake mix according to the package directions. If you want to make box cake mix taste homemade (or homemade-ish), try adding a teaspoon of almond extract or vanilla extract.

Then, carefully spoon the batter evenly on top of the cranberry layer.

Step 4: Bake

Bake the cake for 35 to 45 minutes at 350ºF until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. (The exact baking time will depend on the cake mix used, as well as the size of the baking pan.)

Here’s What I Thought

New England upside-down cake is a quick and easy dream. It’s as good for breakfast as it is for dessert and for all times between the two. The cranberry duff goes delightfully well with a warm latte, a cup of tea or a cozy mug of hot apple cider.

Most of us are so used to eating boxed cake mix with slick, sugary frosting, so tasting it with nothing more than a tart layer of cranberries made me appreciate its flavors much more. The lemon juice helps cut the sweetness of canned cranberry sauce, but it doesn’t have a pronounced flavor; if you’d like a stronger taste of lemon, add lemon zest and the juice.

Cranberry duff is wonderful when fully cooled to room temperature, but I think it’s best when eaten warm. What you don’t eat right away can be cut into squares, wrapped in plastic, and stored at either room temperature, in the fridge, or for long-term storage, the freezer.

Then, before serving, pop it into the microwave and heat it in 20-second increments until it’s warmed to your liking. For a cool contrast, serve the warm cake with a dollop of cold vanilla yogurt.