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Cranberry and Candied Ginger Buckle
A buckle is a fruit-studded cake with a buttery crumb topping; it’s a great breakfast treat, an excellent midday sweet alongside tea or coffee or a casual, not-too-heavy after-dinner dessert. Our version is loosely based on a recipe in “Rustic Fruit Desserts” by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. Instead of making an entirely separate crumb topping, we remove a portion of the flour-sugar-butter mixture that is the base of the cake, then mix in a few additional ingredients to create a mixture that bakes up with the just the right crumby texture. Covered tightly at room temperature, leftovers keep for up to three days.
12
Servings
Tip
Don’t forget to thaw the cranberries, if using frozen. If the fruits are freezer-cold and firm, they will cause the batter to stiffen and make mixing difficult.
1 hour 10 minutes
30 minutes active, plus cooling
Ingredients
-
390
grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
-
214
grams (1 cup) white sugar
Directions
-
01Heat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the middle position. Mist a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray, dust evenly with flour, then tap out the excess.
Reviews
February 14, 2026
Really nice
Throws together quickly and has a great flavor. Hard to screw up.
July 4, 2025
Very moist and Scrummy!
What a treat! It’s so moist and very pretty. Make sure you mis en plais
April 8, 2025
Bodacious Buckle!
Nice'n easy. Upped gram-age so I'd have a little extra crumble topping, doubled the toasted almonds, and added some oats and shredded coconut as well. Switched out raspberries for crans & ginger as, it being Spring, I wasn't looking for overly holiday-iness flavors. Served with modestly whipped vanilla whipped cream - deeeeeeelightful!
November 29, 2024
The more cranberries, the better!
I absolutely love cranberries and ginger, So naturally, I love this recipe. The texture of the cake is absolutely lovely. The crumb on top is just the right addition. If I had one suggestion to my future self, it would be to see if I could fit another 4 ounces of cranberries into the batter. Once the dough rises, they are less densely packed, and I wanted more of them. Also, I need to find a way to more evenly disburse the ginger. Some pieces were overwhelmed by it and a few got none. I might reduce to 100g next time so the candied ginger is more of an occasional surprise.
October 12, 2025
Needs tweaking; I'm open to ideas.
Loved the dough & topping. Needs at least 2x the ginger (I used crystallized), b/c we couldn't tell it was in there. The big problem was the tartness of the cranberries--unless you're already a huge cranberry lover & adore that tart flavor, you'll probably dislike this cake. I liked it, but I'm already OK with cranberry dishes; two family members trying this experiment didn't care for it. So I had a 2nd piece (took one for the team; I'm such a giver that way) & split the piece in half horizontally & sprinkled all w/ a little sugar, & it made quite the difference. So I might make this again but coarsely chop the cranberries 1st (so you don't get a ginormous Freshen-Up Gum effect of a tart cranberry bursting when you bite into it), and toss them with sugar b4 stirring them into the batter. (Of course, I could sub blueberries, raspberries, etc. instead, but the whole point is to have a fall/holiday dessert w/ cranberries, so I'm hoping to make this work. ) Any thoughts on recipe tweaks to mitigate the mouth-puckering effect of tart cranberries? Thx.
1) Re the freezing "experiment" of the first pass of this cake per recipe using cranberries, as mentioned in my 4/24/20 comments it freezes really well. We just took the foil wrapped cake pieces from the freezer and put them in a low'ish oven (325) to heat until thawed and slightly warm.
2) Re using rhubarb to replace the cranberries, that worked splendidly too when I tried it today. Delicious and tender texture just like the original recipe. Riffing on a similar recipe (but frankly not as good as this one) for rhubarb cake by Melissa Clark and since I was once again cutting this recipe in half (using 8x8 pan), I replaced the cranberries by doing the following:
*cut 8 oz rhubarb into roughly 1/4"dice to mimic size of cranberries in original. (Note if you're making the full recipe you probably want 12 oz+ rhubarb)
*tossed rhubarb with about 3 T sugar and 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch (to sweeten rhubarb just a bit and help it suspend in cake batter)
*handled rhubarb to mix in batter just as if they were cranberries for instructions
Although I was using rhubarb from my garden, so it was very tender, I did peel off the outer 'skin'. Next time I will try leaving that on as when the cake bakes the rhubarb doesn't stand out for color with any red 'zing'. For tender, garden fresh stalks I think leaving skin on will work and so contribute the color pops. Soon to be determined. Because this cake is so good and so easy it and so versatile to use any time of day and travels so well that it will be on the 'bake and repeat' list.
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Cut this in half and used 8x8 to replace 13x9 pan. (Cook time on the 8x8 = 41 min.) Delicious outcome and looked just like the photo too. (My experience with Milk Street recipes is they are reliable for flavor and looks.) Just sweet enough but not too much in cake that is moist from butter and sour cream and tart with the cranberries and the finely diced candied ginger mixed in is lovely flavor note. I thawed frozen cranberries given I was making this in April when fresh crans cannot be found...and yet this was a really good early Spring option. (Also it was a spirit lifting covid19 'stay at home' baking project too.) Really good streusel topping that is both easy to do as part of recipe as well as a bit unique in technique applying it and a just right sweet bit in bites of cake when eaten. Good looking to serve in a homespun sense of itself with the bright cranberries in it. Versatile given it is good morning, afternoon or evening. Travels well and is good the second day too. The "how does it freeze?" experiment is under way as we popped a couple of pieces in the freezer to try again in a week or two. Definitely a keeper recipe to go in rotation.