Wednesday, August 1, 2012

White Almond Sour Cream Cake



Aside from being a crazy baker, I am also a cake decorator. As I was searching for good recipes on my favorite cake decorating website Cake Central, I kept coming across something called White Almond Sour Cream Cake. Hmm, that sounded really good. But wait - when I clicked on the recipe for this intriguing cake, I found that it started with a box of white cake mix. Clicking on variations of the recipe, I saw that they all started with a box mix! I was puzzled, because I had long believed that professional cake decorators do everything from scratch. I wanted to try this delicious-sounding cake, but I didn't want to just make a modified mix - I wanted the real thing. So I set out to come up with my own recipe. I started with my go-to white cake recipe, mixed it with the reverse creaming method (mixing the dry ingredients with the butter), added almond extract, and substituted sour cream for half of the milk it called for. Success! The cake tasted delicious. It is pictured here with cooked milk buttercream. If you are worried about nut allergies or just don't like almond flavor, this cake would also taste delicious as a vanilla sour cream cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray pans with cooking spray and line with parchment. This cake will do three 8" round layers, or two 10" round layers.

Have all ingredients at room temperature before starting:

3 1/2 Cups Sifted Cake Flour
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
2 Cups granulated sugar
1 Cup unsalted butter, softened (if you are using salted butter, omit the salt)
1/2 Cup milk
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
1 teaspoon almond extract (OR 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract for vanilla flavor)
7 egg whites

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and stir well (if you have a KitchenAid mixer, go ahead and put it in that bowl and mix on low speed with the paddle to combine.)

Add the softened butter and the milk to the dry ingredients and mix on low until combined. Turn mixer on medium and beat for about 60 seconds to aerate. Stir the Almond extract into the sour cream and add half of this to the batter. Mix on low until just combined (about 15 seconds). Add the last of the sour cream and mix on low again, until just combined. Scrape the bowl to make sure the bottom of the bowl got mixed in.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a wire whisk until they are stiff but still a bit moist. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, just until they are incorporated (you will still see some thin streaks of white). Immediately fill pans and bake at 350 degrees:
Cupcakes: 18-20 minutes
6" or 8" layers: 25-35 minutes
9" or 10" layers: 30-40 minutes
12" layer: 45-50 minutes

Bake just until the cakes spring back when gently poked with a finger on top, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool before frosting.











35 comments:

  1. This looks delicious.. Would love it if you shared it on our Linky Party.
    http://marlys-thisandthat.blogspot.com/2012/08/foodie-friends-friday-linky-party-6.html

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  2. This sounds soooo good! Although as the laziest baker around, I'd prefer to use the box mix version!

    But kudos to you for baking from scratch!!! I'm sure your's tastes way better...

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  3. would this be enough for an 11X15 sheet cake? I just love what you have done and I am telling mis amigos to tag your blog and FB...Eduardo

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  4. Eduardo, yes, it would be enough for a 9x13 sheet cake. Thank you for your nice comments!

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  5. Eduardo, yes, it would be enough for a 9x13 sheet cake. Thank you for your nice comments!

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  6. It could do an 11x15, it may be a pretty thin layer though. For that size pan, I would double the recipe. Then you might end up with a little extra batter, but you could make a few cupcakes or something.

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  7. If I wanted to use whole eggs instead of egg whites how many would I use.
    Thank you,
    Tammy

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    1. Sorry I missed this post and didn't reply sooner! You could use four whole eggs. I would separate the eggs and add the yolks with the sour cream, then beat the whites in a separate bowl as directed and fold them in.

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  8. I ran into the exact same dilemma as you did upon finding the white almond sour cream cake. I wanted to make it from scratch. Thanks so much for taking the experimentation and extra work out of it for me!

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  9. I completely agree with you about the boxed almond sour cream cake. I've made your from-scratch version several times, and it is amazing. Best white cake I've ever made, hands-down. I was making it today and accidentally forgot about 3 cupcakes that were still in the oven. By the time I remembered, they were way overdone. But even still, they were so, so good and, remarkably, still moist inside. Despite the fact that I am normally a chocolate person, this cake with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream is one of my favorite cake combos ever. Thanks so much for this recipe!

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  10. I'm so glad you guys like the recipe. It is one of my favorites too. I will have to try it with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream - that sounds great.

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  11. can we use all purpose flour in place of the cake flour?

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    1. For this recipe, I think it is important to use cake flour because it really affects the lightness of the cake. If you do not have cake flour, use this substitution from The Cake Bible: For every 1 cup of cake flour required, use 3/4 cup all purpose flour plus 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch. That will be reasonably close.

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  12. Am I missing something or is the actual instructions forgetting to put the extract in? I see it in the ingredients but not the instructions. Thanks for this recipe. I do like the other one but I am willing to try one from scratch since that was what I was looking for when I found the other!

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    1. Rita, you are right! It was left out. You add it in with the milk and sour cream. I will make that correction as soon as I can (I am responding on my phone right now). Thanks!

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  13. Hi Christa, do you sift your cake flour before or after measuring it?

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  14. Hi. Is this WASC recipe ideal for fondant icing? Can the cake support the weight of fondant? Thanks.

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    1. I have used fondant with this cake and it eorks fine. FYI, It is not sturdy enough to be used for sculpted cakes, however.

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    2. thanks for your reply. what would you recommend for the cake filling? im gonna ice it with fondant. is it good if i layered it with custard or chocolate ganache? thanks.

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  15. this cake was amazing. I used a white chocolate buttercream frosting and it was delicious. I did 8" pans and I only used 3. The layers were too big for how dense this cake is. So next time I will do a 4 layer cake.

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  16. how many layers for an 8" cake pan and also how many layers for a 9"?

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  17. nevermind I see it!

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  18. It has been awhile since the last post but I just found this recipe. This is better than the WASC I used to make, and it's from scratch! I forgot to sift the flour and also accidentally dropped about another few tablespoons of flour in the mix (butterfinger day). The batter was very thick. I could have used a scoop to fill the pans, and I was pretty sure it was ruined. I added 1/4 Cup of milk, but that didn't make it much thinner.….but, it turned out great!! The cake was moist, great crumb, no kind of aftertaste, no cornbread taste or texture, just good cake. Yes, it was dense, but fine to serve without adding anything but frosting. I did dab it with moistening syrup (which I always do), poked holes in it to fill with whipped cream, and frosted with buttercream. It was gone pretty quick. I was told this is the cake I should always make. Next time I'll try to use the right amount of flour, but the recipe seems very flexible. Thank you very much for sharing this recipe!

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    1. Thank you for your comment, I am so glad you liked it! It is my go-to white cake. It is the same as my "moist white cake" recipe in the recipe section, except that one is flavored with Vanilla.

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  19. This recipe is perfect! Wonderful texture and flavor. Thank you!

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  20. I just made these. Like many said in the recipe I wanted to make a WASC without use of the box. I tried one as did a friend of mine. The texture and flavor is awesome and the recipe is very simple. However, I think there could be a bit more moistness and I think next time I will add a bit more sour cream. I love this recipe though and it will be my go to white cake recipe! Thanks so much for sharing and I am glad to have a WASC without the cake mix :)!

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  21. when Using self raising cake and pastry flour do I omit the baking powder in the receipe?

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    1. Yes, you would omit the baking powder. I have not tried this recipe with self-rising flour, so let me know how it comes out!

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  22. Does this cake work well for tiered cakes?

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  23. Have you made a chocolate version of this cake?

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    1. I have a couple of chocolate cakes in my recipe list, I would recommend using one of those instead of converting this recipe.

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  24. This looks awesome!!! This recipe is also perfect. Next tomorrow on my birthday we will surely make it.

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