Sour cream cake with butter glaze

I leave home for work quite early in the morning and – odd though this is to say in August – the air has had a distinctly Autumnal smell the last few mornings; that unmistakable yet hard to describe wet, burnt leaf smell.  I don’t mind this at all – Spring and Autumn are by far preferable to Summer and Winter, but it did make me hanker after a comforting no-frills sponge cake.  The sort of cake you need to pair with a big mug of tea.  This is the cake!

I don’t use my ‘fancy’ cake pans as often as I should, tending to automatically reach for my 20cm round springform tin.  But a plain cake benefits from the jazziness a fancy pan can provide.  This is a Wilton pan – I think it’s from the Dimensions range.  I like how every slice of bundt cake looks like a piece of abstract art!

This cake has a dense sponge texture – tiny air bubbles and a small crumb:

The butter glaze is what elevates it to something very special.  Part of the glaze sinks into the cake, while the rest sits on top giving a sticky crunch not dissimilar to a lemon drizzle cake. 

If this cake were a time of the week it would be 5pm on a Sunday when all cooking and chores are done and you’re lazing about waiting for Antiques Roadshow or Countryfile to come on the television!

Ingredients

For the cake:

190g unsalted butter, at room temperature
270g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
270 plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
225g sour cream

For the butter glaze:

100g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Spray a 2.5litre (10 cup) bundt pan with cake release spray.  Mine was a Wilton Dimensions pan, but any equivalent sized bundt will work.  If you don’t have a bundt tin of this size, a 900g (2lb) loaf tin and a 450g (1lb) loaf tin will do the job!  That’s two cakes from one mix – although perhaps reduce the cooking time to maybe 30 minutes.

Start by beating together the butter and sugar.  Take time over this and beat until it is pale, light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like it might curdle.

Beat in half the flour.

Beat in half the sour cream.

Beat in the remaining flour, along with the baking powder and salt.

Beat in the remaining sour cream.

Spoon the mix into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool for an hour in the tin, before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

Now make the butter glaze: place all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat until the butter has melted.  Stir frequently.

Bring to the boil and let boil for about a minute before reducing the heat to a simmer for about five minutes – this is to the thicken the glaze.  If it isn’t thicker at this time (you’re aiming for runny honey type texture) simmer for another few minutes  - it’s not an exact thing.

Remove from the heat and brush half the glaze over the cake – this will let the sponge absorb it.

Leave the rest of the glaze to cool for about 10 minutes.

Spoon the remaining half over the cake and leave to set.

Serve in thick slices with a mug of tea.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.