These gluten free chocolate cake with cranberry buttercream are all you need for this holiday seasons! I love this flavor combo. It is so delicious!

This recipe was using a doctored chocolate cake mix and it turned out so moist and delicious. It definitely makes it so easy when you run out of time to get all the ingredients. Baking with Blondie has a blog post about her testing on gluten free chocolate cake mix. I used the same methodology for this recipe.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

Adopted from Baking with Blondie. Note: I was able to bake four 4-inch round cake layers and 12 cupcakes. See the other post for cupcakes with one cake mix.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs at room temperature
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 box of gluten free chocolate cake mix (used King Arthur here)

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a cupcake tin with 12 liners and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all ingredients until smooth.
3. Scoop the batter into the prepared tray.
4. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cool for about 15 minutes in the tray, then remove and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Cranberry Buttercream

Ingredients

• Note: this makes half batch of buttercream for this two layers cake
• 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1.5 cups powdered sugar
• 1-2 teaspoon(s) of cranberry natural flavoring from Amoretti (use my promo code “SUGARTREATS10” to get 10% off of your purchase.)
• 1-2 teaspoon(s) heavy cream or milk

Steps

1. Beat the butter for few minutes until light and fluffy
2. Add in powdered sugar half cup at the time until combined
3. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of cranberry natural flavoring
4. Whip the buttercream in high speed for few minutes until fluffy
5. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of heavy cream or milk if too stiff
6. Whip in low speed for few more minutes to reduce bubble

Garnish – Sugared Cranberry

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh cranberry
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 and 1/4 cup granulated sugar (divided)

Steps

1. Place cranberries in a large heatproof bowl. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, bring the water and 3/4 cup (150g) of sugar to a simmer, whisking until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
3. Pour the sugar syrup over the cranberries and stir. Cover the bowl and set aside for 15 minutes.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cranberries from the sugar syrup and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Allow to dry, uncovered, for 1 hour. The cranberries will be quite sticky at this point. 
5. Pour remaining 1/2 cup (100g) sugar into a large bowl. Toss the cranberries in the sugar, coating them all the way around. Place the sugared cranberries on a parchment paper- or silicone baking mat-lined baking sheet and let them dry uncovered for at least 1 hour at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
6. Store them lightly covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for a few days. If they start to look a little wet, toss them in a little more sugar. Do not freeze the sugared cranberries because, as they thaw, the sugar absorbs into the liquid.

Assemble

1. Place first cake layer on a cake turntable.
2. Pipe the buttercream on the top of the cake layer
3. Place next layer on top
4. You can crumb coat the cake but since it is a small cake I did not crumb coat.
5. Coat the buttercream to the outside of the cake
6. Decorate with wafer paper Christmas trees and sugared cranberries. Enjoy!

Let me know and comment below if you have tried this recipe. Follow me on Instagram.