I am suffering from a bad case of baking withdrawal.  The hubby and I are trying to shave off a few pounds so I have not been doing a lot of baking.  Enter Super Bowl Party!  The perfect excuse to bake something (read other people who eat).  I never thought I could be so excited about football.    So, over the weekend I decided to make an Almond Sour Cream Bundt cake.

The recipe goes together in a strange order but I followed it as listed.   The batter was rather thick going into the pan.  It REALLY filled up my 12 cup Bundt pan.  Here’s how it looked after baking (the timing within the recipe was exactly how long it took to bake for me by the way).  You can see that the pan is very full.

When it was done baking and I took it out of the pan, I immediately declared this to be the prettiest cake I have ever made.  And I have made a LOT of cakes.  The cake popped right out of the pan and, as you can see, it did not stick in one single spot.  Gorgeous!

I did not see any reason to slather this with icing and decided to make a simple chocolate glaze instead.  It really would be good with just powdered sugar too.

I found the cutest vintage cake plate at an antique mall.  Here’s a pic which really shows off my new plate.

And I have saved the best for last… this cake is unbelievably good!

The outside has a slight crunch to it, almost a very thin sugary crust.  It is really thick, dense, and soooo good.  The glaze was a great alternative to icing the cake and I am glad I did that.  The chocolate was a great pairing.  If you used the orange extract, an orange or lemon glaze would also be fabulous.

Almond Pound Cake Recipe

adapted from Paula Deen

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, plus more for pan (I used Baker’s Joy spray)

3 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

6 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract (original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. orange extract and no vanilla)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.   Butter and flour a tube pan and set aside.   In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and sugar together and then add sour cream.   Sift flour and baking soda together.   Add to creamed mixture, alternately with eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.   Add extracts and stir to combine.   Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.   Cool cake in pan for about 10 minutes and then unmold and cool completely on a wire rack.