Crazy Sour Cream Spice Cake

by Melody Thacker, in Recipes (No Comments)

I baked this crazy sour cream spice cake for a non-profit fundraising event recently. It was a huge hit and a number of people at the event asked me for the recipe.

I found in one of Mom’s cookbooks. When I saw this recipe I notice it’s a wacky cake or crazy cake recipe. I’ve baked a lot of chocolate wacky cakes but hadn’t seen a spice cake version before. What’s so awesome about crazy cake recipes is they are super easy to make. You mix them right in the pan and they’re pretty much fail-proof.  Plus they don’t contain eggs or butter.

What makes this recipe different is it’s made with sour cream. Another one of my other favorite chocolate cake recipes is this Quick As a Mix Chocolate Sour Cream Cake which is moist, tender and delicious.

You can frost this spice cake if you like but it really doesn’t need frosting. The sugary topping is a little bit crunchy and compliments the spicy, moist cake beautifully.

Crazy Sour Cream Spice Cake Recipe

Put away the mixer and bowl, you mix this wacky cake right in the pan.

Crazy Sour Cream Spice Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 4 teaspoons Watkins cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon Watkins baking vanilla (use 2 tsp if you use another brand)
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 cups sour cream, warmed

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Spice Cake Directions:

1. Sift sugar, flour, soda, spices, and salt together into an ungreased 9 by 13 cake pan.
2. Level the mixture off, make three holes in it with a spoon.
3. Put vanilla in one hole, oil in the second and vinegar in the third.
4. Pour warm sour cream over, mix well until there’s no trace of dry ingredients.
5. Spread batter evenly in the pan. The batter is very thick.
6. Sprinkle batter with topping.
7. Bake at 350 F for 40 to 45 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly with fingers.

Cake Topping Directions:

Mix together sugars and flour well. Sprinkle on top of the cake batter before baking cake.

This a slightly modified recipe from a cookbook published in the 1970s. I don’t remember seeing cultured sour cream when I was a child, it’s not something we ate.  This crazy recipe was developed long before microwave ovens so the sour cream would be warmed in a pot on the stove. I put it in the microwave for a minute, stirred it and put it in for another minute.

Let me know if you try this recipe and how you like it!