The Best Sour Cream Pound Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Icing

This is the most delicious and sturdy pound cake you can possibly imagine, and I have used this recipe to make at least a dozen, multi-tiered wedding cakes, as well as baking, carving, and shaping it into what is probably hundreds of other configurations for cakes I have decorated over the years. You would think that because it is so plain and sturdy, we would only use the recipe for purposes of decorating, but we love it so much, that I will bake one up for dessert frequently at large dinners and serve slices of it with fresh berries and a rich vanilla custard sauce to drizzle over it, a recipe for another post.

Above is Izzy’s birthday cake from this past weekend, but at some time in the future, I will probably add other photos of wedding cakes and decorated cakes I have made with this recipe. I have a set of half-size bundt pans that take one batter. The special board with the hole and pointed spike was devised by Saul many years ago for my son’s bar mitzvah. His cake was a sheet cake with a world globe cake on top. We got that one to the party without mishap also.

The Best Sour Cream Pound Cake

• 2-3/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 6 large or extra-large eggs
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup dairy sour cream
• 1/2 tsp. lemon extract
• 1/2 tsp. orange extract
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• non-stick cooking spray

In mixer bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together flours, salt, and baking soda. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating after each addition.

Add extracts and vanilla. Beat well.

Pour batter into pans that have been well-sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. (For the bundt cakes, I buttered the pans as well to be sure they would not stick.) The original recipe calls for a 10-inch tube pan.

Bake at 350°F. for 1-1/2 hours, or until cake tests done. Cool 15 minutes and remove from pan while still warm. Frost as desired.

Vanilla Butter Cream Icing

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners (powdered) sugar (about 1 pound)
• 2 Tbsp. milk (approximately)

Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add vanilla.

Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl often. When all the sugar has been mixed in, the icing will appear dry.

Add milk and beat at high speed until light and fluffy. You may want to keep the icing a bit thicker for three-dimensional flowers like roses, or thin a bit more for covering large areas with stars, such as the cake above. Add milk a few drops at a time until the desired consistency is reached. Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until you are ready to decorate. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. This icing can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks. Rewhip before using. Yields 3 cups.