I love being experimental in the kitchen, unusual flavours, new combinations, its all fun and games to me but, and hear me out, it’s very important to learn to walk before you can run. With baking I think it is so important to learn the basics before we start playing around. How will you know a cake will turn out well if you’re just making random changes to something you’ve never made? When people ask about learning to bake better, learning to make their own recipes, the advice I give most often is make things multiple times before making changes and even then make changes one at a time. I cant tell you how many times I have received emails from excited bakers that are wondering why something went wrong even though they changed multiple things. If you don’t know the foundations how can you build a successful house. Are you bored of the metaphors yet? I am, so I’ll get to recipe in one second. Really what I am saying is the technical foundations, the skills, the way a recipe works, all of this is super important especially if you love adapting recipes. The more you understand how basic recipes work the easier it is to understand what adaptions can be made without the recipe failing. 

One of the best recipes you can have in your arsenal, that recipe that you whip out when you don’t have a lot in the house but need a special cake, is a classic pound cake. My ideal version is a very vanilla forward cake, laced with sour cream. The cake is so simple the vanilla should be very present, this is the time to crack out the vanilla pods, and in fact this recipe uses both a vanilla pod and vanilla extract for a double dose of the good stuff. The cake has no frosting so the texture needs to be the right amount of moist (dont come at me with your hatred for the word moist, it’s useful and I cannot be persuaded to stop using it) and the sour cream ensures a velvety crumb that is a joy to eat without any adornments. 

With this recipe the technique is key and if you follow me over on Instagram you know this year one of my aims is to help you all become more confident bakers and arm you with the skills to master any recipe. For this recipe we are using the creaming method and even if you’ve been baking for years I encourage you to watch the video to really nail your technique. This recipe is based on a classic sour cream pound cake, one of those that appears everywhere but the origin is hard to trace but I have adapted it quite a bit to suit both my tastes and British ingredients. The sugar in the original recipe was much higher and whilst delicious my takeaway was too much sugar so this gives you the right taste without an overwhelming level of sweetness. 

Very Vanilla Sour Cream Pound Cake
Serves 15-16

340g unsalted butter, room temperature
450g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
5 large eggs, room temperature
325g plain flour
50g cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
240ml sour cream, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan).

First we need to prep our Bundt pan. Because the pans have nooks and crannies this is especially important. My favourite method for this cake is to lightly spray the inside of the tin with a non-stick baking spray (this is the one I use) and dust the inside of the tin with a little extra flour. When spraying the tin the area I find most people overlook is the core, this is likely where the cake will stick the most so make sure this is fully coated before adding the flour. The flour coating wants to be super thin so once every part of the tin is coated invert the Bundt pan and tap it on the worksurface to remove any excess. 

When a recipe calls for room temperature butter that can be a little vague, everyones kitchen is a different temperature after all. What this actually means is the butter should between 15-20ºC but no warmer. If you don’t have a thermometer the best way to test this is to press your finger into the butter. Your finger should easily leave an impression without being coated in a layer of greasy butter, the butter should still feel a little firm, it shouldn’t completely give way to a little pressure. This is the ideal temperature for butter to be whipped and for it to hold on to lots and lots of tiny air pockets, making for a nice light cake. We also want to make sure that by this point the eggs and sour cream are also at room temperature. I never keep my eggs in the fridge but to ensure you batter doesn’t curdle, if you do chill your eggs, you’ll need to get them out well in advance of baking to bring them to temperature. 

So to make the cake place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, along with the seeds scraped for a vanilla pod, and on medium speed beat together for about 5 minutes. To test this mixture is ready you’re looking for the butter and sugar mixture to have gone from a dense looking, very yellow in colour, mixture, to a light and fluffy, almost white in colour, mixture. With butter starting at the right temperature this normally takes 5 minutes. 

Add the eggs to a large jug and briefly whisk together to break them up. With the mixer still running add the eggs a little bit at a time, mixing until the egg has been fully combined before adding more. This slow addition of the egg, along with the proper creaming of the butter and sugar, ensures a good emulsion and will stop the batter from curdling. Whilst a cake batter that has curdled is worth baking the resulting cake will not be as light as it could have been. Meanwhile add the flour, cornflour, salt and baking powder to a large bowl and whisk together. Once all of the egg has been combined add a third of the flour mixture and mix briefly just until combined. Mix in half of the sour cream and the vanilla. Continue alternating like this until everything has been added. 

Scrape the finished batter into the prepared Bundt pan, trying not to get any up the sides of the pan. Spread the mixture into an even layer and then bake in the oven for about 75-85 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the bundt from the oven and set it on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting it onto the wire rack and releasing it from the pan. With Bundt cakes this timing is important. I find if you try and turn the cake out immediately after baking the structure of the cake may not be fully set and the cake is more prone to breaking. If you turn the cake out much longer than 10 minutes after removing it from the oven, the sugars in the cake can make it adhere to the pan, I find 10 minutes is the sweet spot for most recipes. Allow the cake to cool fully before serving. Whilst this cake is wonderful on its own I love serving it with a dollop of creme fraiche and roasted rhubarb. Kept covered the cake will keep for 3-4 days.