In the Beginning There was Sour Cream Pound Cake

This is the first post in my new blog, that’s some good cookin’ and I am dedicating it to my Grandmother, Thelma Bates.  This is a very old family recipe for sour cream pound cake; one that my great grandmother used to make in a wood burning stove.  I can’t even imagine how that was possible.  How IS that possible?  I can see cooking meats and stews and biscuits, but a cake?  Maybe it worked well because of the simple ingredients, or maybe it worked well because about the only way to wreck this cake is by over-cooking it or using lite sour cream and fake butter.  But then, if you try to lighten up this heavenly wonder you deserve to have a wrecked, joyless, flop of a cake.

I have to confess, though, that one of my favorite things to do to this cake, when it comes out of the oven, is to sort of accidentally-on-purpose drop it on the counter.  Confused?  Well, the cake “falls” or collapses and gets kind of gooey and dense in the center.  On the really good “falls”, the center is almost like a custard filling.  Sigh.

Generally, I make this cake in a bundt pan.  Hmm…every time I say the word “bundt” I think of the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.  You remember the part about the bundt cake, don’t you?  If not, watch it while you are eating this cake.

Print Recipe

Sour Cream Pound Cake

This is a "vintage" recipe, handed down from my great grandmother who used to bake this cake in a wood burning stove. I cannot even imagine attempting such a feat!

Servings: 0

Author: Terri @ that's some good cookin'

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose white flour, sift 3x
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 6 eggs, at room temperature, separate yolks and whites, reserve both
• 3 cups white grandulated sugar
• 2 cups sour cream (DO NOT USE "LITE" or "FAT FREE" SOUR CREAM)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Set aside.
• Stir the baking soda into the flour. Set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar.
• Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing after each addition.
• Alternately add a little flour and a little sour cream to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, mixing after each addition. Be careful not to over-mix.
• In a separate bowl, beat eggs whites until stiff. Fold into batter gently.
• Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan and spread the batter around evenly. Bake about 1 hour-1 hour and 15 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a cake plate.

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Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing after each addition.  It’s kind of fun to watch the egg yolks slide out of the bowl individually.  It seems as though they would all come out stuck together, but nope, they each have their own personal space.

Did you remember to sift the flour?  Sifting makes it light and fine.  I like using this little sifter.  I bought it specifically because it reminded me of my Granny, except that her sifter had four sifting wires instead of two.  The four wire sifter was more expensive and I was on a really tight budget back when I bought my two wire.