Cranberry Obsession Snow Cake

I made this cake for Christmas Dinner. The entire crew loved it including my friend who is a fabulous baker. Sister said it was her top 5 cakes EVER! I was able to find a cranberry relish and used that. Next time, I may do the cake layers ahead of time and brush them with the cherry liqueur to allow time to soak in, or switch up liqueurs. The white cake was subtle, soft, not a bold flavor, but the combination of the cake, filling, and white choc buttercream was divine. I noted that some thought the buttercream was too buttery or waxy. Part of that taste is the white choc. I did use 2 T less butter than the recipe based on these comments and could possibly have used even less. I used a block of excellent quality white chocolate, cutting off what I needed for the buttercream, and leaving it on the counter to soften. I was easily able to create the curls with a carrot peeler.

Made this wonderful cake for Christmas dinner. Beautiful to look at and delicious as well. A couple of changes I will make next time include reducing the amount of jam by about 1/3 (1/2 cup) as much. The remaining liquid jam that you have left over is plenty for drizzling over the individual slices. Also, I used apricot jam as Jacques Pepin suggest when making pastry deserts as it helps to accentuate the flavors and not be overbearing with the taste of apricots. Finally, I used a traditional buttercream frosting as time was short and was not familiar with the recipe provided. Turned out great! I recommend making this cake in two stages (or over a two day period), one day for the cake and cranberry sauce as it does need to come to room temp or chill prior to assembly. For the white chocolate curls I microwaved the bar for about 30-45 seconds and then used a Titan to peal off the chocolate. Worked great. Easy and impressive cake, I will be making it again.

I just made this cake for the first time. I thought the flavor was alright - sweet and cakey - but the real flavor is in the filling. I followed the recipe pretty closely and had a lot of leftover filling and icing. I thought the filling was great (wound up mixing in some blueberry jelly when I ran out of cherry preserves). The icing was fluffy and easy to spread. I received a positive comment on the icing, but I thought it was a bit waxy and lacking flavor. I couldn't taste the white chocolate in it. The white chocolate shavings are tricky to make. You do want to use wide, flat bars as opposed to the block-shaped ones, and I found it helpful to have an extra bar because I ended up wasting a lot of it. I used a vegetable peeler and found that the bars have to be just slightly warmed, but not too much, and ended up happy with the result. Do leave yourself a lot of time to make this cake. I did it over a couple of days. Great presentation, lots of nice comments from friends.

There must be a typo in the instructions - this cake would have zero flavor if I hadn't followed one poster's suggestion to add flavor. I substituted 1/2 Cup Amaretto for half of the water. The frosting seemed a bit too much, esp based on some of the reviews, so I used another white chocolate buttercream recipe I had, which used about half the chocolate. Even my teen daughter, who loves white chocolate, thought it was too heavy/sweet. The cake itself was moist and dense and delicious. I can't imagine what the cake would have been like without the Amaretto, though. The light sweet almond taste was a perfect foil for the tart sweet filling. I skipped the chocolate shavings - too much work too late in the day. A simple vanilla buttercream would have been much better. I would make again with a different frosting.

I am making this for a Royal Wedding party. This is the fourth formal type event I have made this cake for. The changes I have made are adding 1/2c Creme De Cocoa and 1/2 c water to the cake instead of all water; adding 1/4c Kirsch to cranberries instead of water; making 2/3 amount of frosting but upping the white chocolate amount to 5 oz. and adding 2 tablespoons of Cr. De Cocoa. This cake looks and tastes beautiful, always makes a hit, and is worth the cost and time for special occasions.

Delicious! Made it for Serbian Christmas; a show-stopper. Couldn't find fresh cranberries, so I used currants, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I reduced the butter to 3/4lb and the frosting was fine and plenty. Used a cheese grater to make chocolate curls. Works great.

Made exactly as per recipe. Although it was a lot of work I would make this again! Takes longer than the specified time because some things take some time to cool before you can proceed. Buttercream frosting was wonderful and did not taste like butter; it had just a hint of chocolate. The small 1 oz squares of white chocolate are hard to cut curls from - use a bigger chunk of white chocolate if you can. The filling was delicious.

The cake was fairly simple to make and looked magnificent. The cranberry filling was great! After that it all went downhill. First, the butter cream frosting was so heavy that it tasted just like BUTTER. Another frosting could add something to this cake flavor. Second, the chocolate curls for the top were very difficult to make. Melting the chocolate in a double boiler, chilling it on a jelly roll pan and scraping it with a spatula before completely cooled to make the curls was the only way I could get them to work. Finally, the cake was not very flavorful. I expected so much more from such a beautiful cake. We enjoyed the look of it at Christmas Eve, but not the taste...because it lacked one!

I would definitely make this cake again with a few changes. The cake itself was delicious and I didn't find it that difficult to make. I used Cranberry/Pomegranite Preserves so it added a bit of tartness. I did not like the frosting however. It was too heavy, and tasted too much like butter. I will make this again with a different frosting. I also think the cake would be delicious with strawberries and whipped cream.

I made this cake because of it's beautiful appearance. My sister had made it a few days before I did and told me how much time and work it took to just make the white cake, so I used a cake mix and made the frosting and filling as per the recipe. The filling was excellent, but the frosting was way too heavy -- a pound of butter made it taste like I buttered the outside of the cake rather than frosted it. It's also very time consuming; even the frosting took almost 30 minutes to make. It is a beautiful cake, and the filling was good, but I'd not waste my time on the cake or frosting. Very disappointing for the time and cost involved!

I am making this cake for the third time. The first time, I made the batter incorrectly, but my husband and daughter liked that cake best. I couldn't serve a mistake, so I made another one, which was very well received on Thanksgiving. Now I am making it for Christmas. To cut down on the fat content, I made seven minute frosting and it was delicious!

OH Nooooooooo! Make sure you use 2 pans. I used professional cake pan and the cake fell, twice. The cake tastes great (even after it fell) I will try again using 2 pans instead of 1.

The cake came out beautiful! I am going to wait and serve it Christmas Eve so I can share it with relatives. The only problem I had was the top edges of the cake came out crispy, so I had to shave that part off with a serated knife. I softened the chocolate cubes (bakers) on the counter under the lights and the curls came out great using my cheese slicer. I used a pear liquer rather than the Kirsh because we are snowed in right now. I used black cherry preserves with the fresh cranberrys. Lovely cake and so unique, I will make again.

I agree this this cake is a show stopper, but I wouldn't add the liquor next time. I had to make the cake twice as I didn't take the time to add the flour and mix and then add the water and mix. I learned my lesson on that one, but I don't usually make cakes. I made the cake for a women's luncheon. It was an absolutely beautiful presentation. My cake stand is black and it looked outstanding both uncut and cut. There was enough cake left over to give take homes, and still freeze for Christmas dinner. I hope it freezes.

This cake is a real showstopper. I took it to a dinner party last night and was definitely the center of attention among some very good cooks! It takes waaaay to long to make, however it is not only beautiful, but is one of the best cakes I've ever tasted. I followed the recipe to a "T".

Cake came out springy and delicious- be sure to follow the folding flour instructions; also sifted the baking powder and flour together. Used only 2/3 of the cranberry mixture which was more than enough. Be sure to mix the egg whites at your high mixing stand speed to get it to 3x volume. Chocolate shaving is difficult- warming it in your hands does help, but with the size large 4oz bars we used, we couldn't get the large curls in the photo. Allocate time to whisk butter into egg mixture for frosting- it took an additional 20 min instead of 10 to get the right consistency. Do chill the cake before serving so that the buttercream firms up. Came out beautiful, popular and delicious. Would consider making again for special occasion (since it was a bit of work!)