The Easy Southern Sour Cream Cake I’m Bringing to Every Holiday Gathering (No One Can Resist a Second Slice)

I’ve been looking for a new holiday dessert to add to my repertoire, and as I was browsing cookbooks at the library, this one leapt out at me. It's from Reese Witherspoon's cookbook, Whiskey in a Teacup. Many of the recipes in this collection are from her grandmother Dorothea, and if there's anyone whose cooking advice I'll trust blindly, it's a Southern granny. I love using sour cream in my cakes for the tang, and the praline frosting was the perfect foil.

I put this recipe to the test faster than you can say Sweet Home Alabama.

What I Love About Reese Witherspoon’s Sour Cream Cake

This cake won me over from the first bite. My grandma used to make what she called “butter cake,” a simple white cake recipe with a golden, buttery syrup poured over top. The taste was like nothing I’d had before until I tried this recipe, which elevates the butter syrup to a praline-flavored frosting.

How To Make This Sour Cream Cake

This recipe calls for standard ingredients that you already have in your pantry. No special trip to the grocery store required, unless you don't have a full tub of sour cream on hand.

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened, plus more for greasing
• 3 cups cake flour, plus more for flouring the pans
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 1/4 cups full-fat sour cream
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 6 large eggs

Reese makes her cake with a standard creaming method. It’s a simple matter of beating the butter and sugar together until smooth and then adding each egg one at a time. From there, mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt) in a separate bowl, then alternate between adding dry ingredients and sour cream to the mixing bowl until everything is incorporated. 

Divide the batter between two greased 9-inch cake pans, then bake the cakes at 350° F for around 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cakes cool completely, then make the frosting.

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 1/2 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, plus more if necessary
• 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Making the frosting is a quick job. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Once it's melted, add the brown sugar and heavy cream. Stir to combine, then remove from the heat and beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.

To prepare the cakes for serving, pour 3/4 cup of frosting on top of the first layer, then top with the second layer. Frost the cake with the remaining icing, then let it set before slicing and serving.

A Note About the Praline Frosting

The good news is that this cake recipe is about as easy as they come. The hardest part comes when you make the praline frosting. Don’t think about this frosting as traditional cake icing. This cake is special because of the way the frosting is made. The melted butter and brown sugar base means that it hardens slightly as it cools, forming a delicate shell around the cake.

When you’re frosting the cake, work fast to make sure you can spread the frosting evenly. I recommend using an offset spatula to help do the trick!