This month my Secret Recipe Club assignment was Making Memories,  and boy did I have a lot of fun searching Erin’s blog for a recipe I wanted to make.  It wasn’t that a recipe was hard to find, it was that there were so many I wanted to make!  Hers is the kind of blog you can just keep scrolling and scrolling though because it gets more and more addictive the more you read.  She has such fun things, like Booger Pie (I want to make this just to see the reactions I get when I ask people if they want some Booger Pie-lol), Texas Chicken Brittle, Pepperoni Pizza Crescent Rolls, and Unicorn Poop Cookies (something I’ve been wanting to make for months!! I’m enthralled with these cookies!).  Needless to say, it was harder to find recipes that I didn’t want to make.

When I found the sour cream pound cake, I knew I’d hit pay dirt.  I had signed up for the pound cake competition at the fair this year and I had been tossing a few recipe ideas around, but hadn’t settled on anything yet.  I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and choose Erin’s recipe for The Secret Recipe Club, then turn it into the state fair for judging.

And I got 3rd place!  I made it look pretty ugly, but I guess taste trumps prettiness.  Sweet!  I did get my judging papers yesterday and the only negative thing they had to say was that I displayed it wrong, with the bottom-side-up.  Well, that’s because I didn’t think bundt pans were allowed for the pound cake category (I know now that they are) and this is the kind of cake that doesn’t dome on top so it’s not pretty to display top-side-up.  I also forgot the vanilla in the recipe so I wonder if I enter this again next year with the vanilla and put it in a bundt pan if it will get a higher score.  I might have to try it. :)

I got a white ribbon two years ago for my Condensed Milk Pound Cake, but honestly, I think this recipe trumps it.  The sour cream makes the texture so velvety soft and the flavor is just so good.  Pretty sure this is my favorite pound cake I’ve ever had so far!  Thanks for sharing the great recipe, Erin!

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

2 sticks (1/2 lb) butter
3 cups (1 lb 5 oz) sugar
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
3 cups (12 ¾ oz) flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp salt
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Vanilla Bean Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
¼ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 vanilla bean

Preheat over to 325F and grease and flour a bundt or tube pan or two large 9″x5″ loaf pans (for loaf pans, preheat oven to 350F). Cream together butter and sugar. Add sour cream and mix.  Sift together flour, baking soda. and salt.  Alternately add flour mixture and eggs (beating well after each addition).  Add vanilla and beat to combine. Pour into prepared pan(s).

Bake 1 hour 20 minutes for bundt or tube pan, or 45 minutes for loaf pans, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Invert onto cooling rack(s) and cool completely.

Whisk the cream into the powdered sugar, then mix in the vanilla and the seeds from the vanilla bean (split the bean and scrape the seeds out).  Stir in additional cream as needed for desired consistency. Drizzle over the cooled cake(s).

Note: 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste may be substituted for the vanilla and vanilla bean.

Recipe source: Paula Deen, as seen on Making Memories

*Note: I now have an index for all my state fair posts, current and past years, here.