This was the cake I learned to make many, many years ago. The recipe was given to me by a great aunt and I wrote it down in the back of grandma’s steno pad where she wrote down recipes. I hope you like it. If you follow the directions exactly as given, it will turn out perfect.

Note: This cake recipe requires a particular type of tube pan, the kind where the bottom and center tube can be removed. You cannot substitute an angel food pan where the bottom is not removable. The recipe also does not work best in a normal bundt pan, but you can try it. Search for “Loose Bottom Angel Food Pan” or similar on Amazon if you don’t have one.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature (using regular salted butter is fine)
2 ½ cups sugar
6 eggs, at room temperature
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
3 cups of cake flour
8 oz. (½ pint) sour cream (do not use reduced fat variety)
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon or orange extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Generously grease (with Crisco) and flour a tube pan whose bottom is lined with wax paper. If you are using a bundt pan, make sure you get plenty of Crisco and flour into the ridges of the pan.
3. Sift the flour once to measure, then sift together the flour, baking powder and salt 3 times. This is important. Don’t skip this step. Set aside.
4. In a clean bowl, cream together the soft butter and the sugar for several minutes on high speed, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating very well after each addition. Each egg should fully disappear before adding the next one.
6. Alternately add one third of the flour and one third of the sour cream, beating well, but on low to medium speed, after each addition until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
7. Add the extracts and mix well on load speed until fully incorporated.
8. Spoon or pour batter into cake pan and gently even out any unevenness in the batter. The cake batter will be very thick and won’t really pour.
9. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the crack that forms during baking comes out clean. Do not open the oven door while cooking until the cake has “crowned” and the large crack has formed in a circle around the top of the cake.
10. Let cool for 15 minutes, then run a sharp knife alone outside of cake so you can lift up the tube and cake and allow to finish cooling completely. If using a bundt pan, invert onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. Don’t let it cool for too long in the bundt pan or it won’t want to come out at all.