Cranberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Hello there– I made a couple of these coffee cakes for a Thanksgiving breakfast with about 30 girl friends from church.  It was a grand morning.  They all streamed talking and laughing and pulling out phones to show the the latest grand-kid pics.

We sat down to breakfast all over the house and spilling out from room to room.  Then Sue and Carol tuned up their violin and guitar for some sweet Thanksgiving hymns and we talked and prayed through all our Thanksgiving blessings.  I love those friends– so thankful.

CRANBERRY CREAM CHEESE COFFEE CAKE

Cranberry topping:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tab. cornstarch
1  1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1/2 cup water

Cream cheese layer:
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg

Cake layer:
1  cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Make the cranberry topping first.  Stir together the 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in a stove top pan until the cornstarch is all dissolved into the sugar.  Then drop in the cranberries and water and bring it to a simmer stirring for 5 or 6 minutes until the cranberries all pop their skins and the sauce thickens.

Set it aside to cool.  (I put it in another cool pan and stuck in the fridge to cool– just because I’m impatient!)

Next, make the cream cheese layer.  With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, 1 egg and 1/4 cup sugar until it’s smooth.  Set that aside as well.

For the cake, Stir together the 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt.  Then mix in the oil, sour cream, egg and vanilla.

Spray a 10″ round pan or a 9″ square (I used my 11″ flatter tart pan) with cooking spray.  Then spoon the cake batter into the pan.

Gently scoop the cream cheese mixture over the cake batter.  Then drizzle the cranberry sauce over the top of the cream cheese layer.

Put it into the oven at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.