Grandmother Paul's Sour Cream Pound Cake

Now given the amount of butter, sour cream and sugar in this cake recipe, I can't promise you a long time here on earth but I can promise you a good time. I first saw this on Oprah and having loved Sara Lee's sultana pound cake ever since I first sunk my fork into the slightly thawed exterior, I felt the need to try and make one for myself (who ever ate the Sara Lee Pound cakes fully thawed? Its much better straight from the freezer!) . Luckily Oprah's site had a recipe for this so very dense, eggy, buttery cake.

In an attempt to cut down the amount of butter ingested, and because there are only two of us here, I made this a loaf cake and halved the recipe. Just like a Sara Lee cake really although this ones comes with an optional icing which I can only give you a warning with and suggest that you have your cardiologist on speed dial!

However what I've done possibly reverses the health benefits of halving the cake size. I've opted to use sour cream icing from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. This is one of my favourite icings in the world, lusciously cool, smooth and with the merest hint of sourness, its quite simply ambrosial and gives this what some would call, plain but very moist cake an edge. When I make this next, and I'm sure it will be soon, I think I'll add some vanilla bean and overnight soaked sultanas for plumpness.

Paula Deen - Grandmother Paul's Sour Cream Pound Cake

CAKE INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound (two sticks or 250grams) butter

• 3 cups sugar

• 1 cup sour cream

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp. baking soda (I accidentally left this out which may explain why it didn't rise much at all)

• 6 eggs

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• Fluted tube pan

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 160C/325F degrees.

Step 2 - Cream butter and sugar together; add sour cream. Sift flour and baking soda together. Add to creamed mixture, alternately with eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Add vanilla.

Step 3 - Pour into a greased and floured tube pan and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes (55 or so minutes if you're halving the recipe for a loaf cake).

FROSTING INGREDIENTS (Sour cream icing recipe follows below)

• 1 stick butter (125grams)

• 1 brick cream cheese (I can only suppose this means 125grams of cream cheese, not an actual brick sized slab of cream cheese...)

• 1 box confectioner's sugar

• 1/2 tsp. almond extract

• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together. Wait for the pound cake to cool, and then top it with a thick layer of frosting.

http://www.oprah.com/foodhome/food/recipes/200702/food_200702_poundcake.jhtml

Sour Cream icing

This quantity frosts one large cake as in Paula's recipe. For a loaf cake, halve the quantity.

• 160g white chocolate

• 75g unsalted butter

• 125ml sour cream

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tbsp golden syrup (I omit this as I love the ever so slight tang of sour cream but if you like it caramel sweet, add this)

• 300g icing sugar, sieved (plus more if needed)

• 1/2 tsp hot water

Step 1 - To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, or in a bowl over hot water. Let it cool a little, then stir in the vanilla, sour cream, and syrup if using.

Step 2 - Add the sugar and a little hot water blending till smooth (add more sugar or water as needed to get the consistency right). You may or may not need to add the water.

Adapted from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess