Out of all the recipes I have in my little wooden box of wonders this one might be one of my favorites.  It’s a recipe by Jewell Bailey my grandmother from Bunn, NC (pop. 357).  “Gran” as we call her raised 5 little ones on this cake and then passed it on to my mother who then passed it on to me.  If there is ever a recipe that takes patients and love its this one.  You can’t open and close the oven door, you can’t over mix or under mix…everything has to be just right.  Much practice goes into making this work.  There are stories where Gran would not let anyone talk more than a whisper and if you ran through the house you’d get whooped with the wooden spoon.  I ventured into the world of baking my junior year in college and was very ambitious as I started with this recipe.  I ruined 5 cakes before I kinda got it right.  The beauty of a recipe like this is over time it gets better.  So maybe one day when I’m 77 I’ll have learned to get it just like Gran ☺

3 C Flour (measure after you sift it)
3 C Sugar
2 Sticks Land O Lakes at Room Temp
6 Eggs
1 C Sour Cream
1/4 tsp Baking Soda (sift with flour)
1 tsp Vanilla (Penzey’s Double Strength if ya got it)

Preheat an oven to 325. Grease and flour a tube pan.

In a bowl of a mixer cream together the butter and the sugar.  Now one at a time as the mixer is going add 1 egg at a time.  Do not over mix, just mix until all together.  Get the flour w/baking soda that has been sifted and put a little bit into the bowl and mix.  (This is where having a Kitchen Aid is wonderful because you can just keep that mixer going.)  Then put a little bit of sour cream in.  Then a little flour.  Then sour cream.  And so on.  Last stir in the vanilla. 

Pour into pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 min.  Time will depend on your oven (+/- 5 min).  Use the toothpick test to know if its done.  Try to keep the opening and closing to a minimum.  If you can pull it out clean without gooey then you’re good.  Let cool in pan for about 10 min and then unmold it and cool on rack.

Ok, so the best part of this recipe is the crust it forms on the top.  Oh mama!  But the tricky part is dealing with it rising too fast and the crust over cooking before the cake is done.  So if you encounter this then you may want to place a piece of foil on top to allow the cake to continue to cook.

Cake is BEST hot out of the oven with coffee.  Strawberries and real Whipped Cream make it heavenly.  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have and if you are brave enough to tackle this recipe and have questions then let me know.

SB