Mar 07, 2010
I already had this basic recipe in my file, but I needed to make a few changes. To start, I doubled the recipe so that I could use a 10 cup tube pan instead of a loaf pan. I always make sure that my ingredients are room temperature before I start. This is very important in cake baking. I creamed the butter and sugar, but I used unsalted butter and I used 2 1/2 sticks instead. I kept the sugar at three cups and I used seven large eggs separating the yolks, adding them one at a time, beating well after each addition. I put the egg whites in a glass bowl and set aside. Then I added the extracts to the mixture, but I did something different. I like a very flavorful cake, so I used one teaspoon each of orange, lemon and almond extract and two teaspoons of vanilla extract and never, ever use imitation. I just can't imagine baking a cake without some extract or other flavoring. I used cake flour instead of all purpose and I sifted it three times. Because I like to use unsalted butter I had to add 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to the flour. I split the flour into thirds and added it alternating with the sour cream. Then, I beat the egg whies until stiff peaks were formed and folded them into the batter, poured the batter into the tube pan and baked for about 90 minutes at 350 degrees. This cake was perfect and its a nice big cake. I simply love it and its moist, too.
—Chitowncook
