White Almond Sour Cream Cake

Name: White Almond Sour Cream Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 3 Large eggs, room temperature ((If in a hurry, place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)); 2 tsp. vanilla extract ((8g)); 1 tsp. almond extract ((4g)); 1/3 c milk ((73g)); 1 cup sour cream ((242g)); 2 1/2 c cake flour ((285g)); 1 1/2 c granulated sugar ((300g)); 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder ((12g)); 1/2 teaspoon salt ((3g)); 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened

How to Make White Almond Sour Cream Cake

This delicious scratch White Almond Sour Cream Cake is a creamy and flavorful cake, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture.

This is thanks in part to the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing, which calls ingredients to be added in a different order than the traditional creaming method. The result is a slightly dense, velvety soft cake (as with our chocolate cake from scratch and orange dreamsicle cake).

You can find the full white almond sour cream cake recipe below, but here is a quick look at our steps!

First, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 x 2 inch pans.

In a small bowl, combine eggs, vanilla, almond extract, milk, & sour cream. Whisk until blended & set aside.

Mix the dry ingredients (cake flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt) in the mixer for 30 seconds so the baking powder and salt will be well incorporated into the flour and sugar.

Slowly add the pieces of butter a few at a time while the mixer is on medium speed. Beat for approximately 1 minute or until the dry ingredients are crumbly and moistened by the butter, giving it the look of coarse sand. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl.

Next, slowly add approx. half of the egg mixture with the mixer on very low speed then increasing to medium speed for 1½ minutes. The batter will be thick and fluffy. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl. Add the remaining egg mixture in two pourings, scraping the bowl and beating for 20 seconds after each addition.

Divide the cake batter between the prepared cake pans.

Finally, bake the cake layers at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pans 10 minutes then turn out. Makes 7 cups batter

Recipe FAQs

You will notice in the photo that the white almond sour cream cake itself is not stark white, due to the fact that we use the whole eggs (rather than just the egg whites), and butter instead of shortening.

This gives the cake a soft yellow shade. The egg yolks and butter add richness and flavor to the recipe, and so we do not mind the yellow crumb.

If you'd like to try a cake that is lighter in color, don't miss our delicious White Velvet Cake! It contains cream cheese which adds richness and seems to lighten the color as well! Our scratch White Cake is another great option too!

I just love the balance of vanilla with a hint of almond in this flavorful recipe. However, as subtle as the almond flavoring is, if you are truly not a fan of almond, you are going to notice it.

No worries! Simply leave out the almond flavoring and you will have an amazingly moist and flavorful White Sour Cream Cake! You can substitute additional vanilla for the almond extract if you'd like!

This White Almond Sour Cream Cake is amazing with so many different fillings and frostings. It is hard to pick a favorite! In the photo, we have frosted our cake with our Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe.

You can find a listing of our favorite frostings in the Frostings and Glazes category of our Recipes section. Here are a few more ideas:

Yes! Just as with most of our cake recipes, from orange cake to lemon cake, pound cake, and more, these white almond sour cream layers freeze beautifully. Make life easier and work well in advance! They will stay fresh in the freezer for up to three months.

Once your cake layers have cooled (or almost cooled completely), wrap each layer individually in plastic wrap followed by foil. For more stability, we often freeze each layer on a foil-wrapped cardboard cake circle before wrapping. Into the freezer they go!

To Thaw: Move the wrapped layers from the freezer to the kitchen counter. Allow to sit, still wrapped, on the counter for 30-45 minutes before unwrapping. Thaw to desired amount for assembling the cake. (Some bakers like to assemble their cake layers while still partially frozen as they are less fragile.).

Sour cream adds a wonderful richness to cakes and it also enhances the texture. The boost of acidity softens strands of gluten in the cake batter, making for a more tender cake.

Some of our other favorite cakes that call for sour cream are: Chocolate Bundt Cake, Orange Dreamsicle Cake, Chocolate Cake from Scratch, and Pumpkin Spice Cake!

Amazing White Almond Sour Cream Cake Recipe from Scratch! Super moist and delicious! My Cake School Cake Recipes, Cake Tutorials, and More!

More Cakes with Almond Flavor

We've made several almond cakes over the years! While this White Almond Sour Cream Cake has a light almond flavor, others like our popular Almond Cake recipe have a rich almond flavor.

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this recipe. Make sure to check out our full collection of Vanilla Cakes (which also includes yellow cakes and white cakes)!

Keep this White Almond Sour Cream cake in mind the next time you need a birthday cake recipe, potluck dessert, bridal or baby shower cake, holiday cake recipe, and more.

We have hundreds more cake recipes and free cake decorating tutorials to share with you!

Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!

4.43 from 57 votes (57 ratings without comment)

317 Comments

Melissa Diamond says:

February 12, 2018 at 9:21 am

Hi Marcela,

Yes, it will be fine to wrap your cake layers in plastic wrap, then foil, and freeze.

To thaw the layers, place them on the countertop still wrapped, so that the condensation will form on the foil rather than the cake itself.

You'll still want to unwrap & carve the cake layers while still partially frozen so that the cake will not be as fragile.

We have never attempted to carve our pink champagne cake. It is not as dense as the white almond sour cream cake recipe, but I think if you are only doing light carving while the cake is partially frozen, it should be fine.

Let us know how it goes!

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Marcela Amaral says:

February 12, 2018 at 9:38 am

Melissa, THANKS A BUNCH!!!!! For sure I'll let you know! I'll make the cake today, and frozen them. I was really waiting for an answer so I can confidently baking them.=P Just one more thing: I read a lot about freezing with the cake while still warm or while the cake is completely cool. What do you say? Thanks again!
I will take this post to say that I loved your pink champagne cake! I made already twice and I am in love!=P I will post a picture later. I wanna also give my compliments to the caramel cake, OMG, it is absolutely delicious!! With your recipes, you finally made me believe that cakes made with cake flour are really , really yummy, delectable, luscious, scrumptious, etc...=D THANKS, THANKS, THANKS!!! You guys ROCK!!!! I am super happy to have found you!=D

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BeBe says:

February 12, 2018 at 10:58 am

Hi Marcela, Melissa and I freeze our cake layers while they are still warm because it makes the cakes more moist. Thank you so much for your nice compliments about the recipes. We are happy to have you on the site!!

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Mandy says:

February 22, 2018 at 8:44 am

Do you know if I could use a strawberry cake mix and strawberry extract in the place of white mix and almond extract to create strawberry cupcakes?

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BeBe says:

February 22, 2018 at 1:41 pm

Hi Mandy, Yes you can. We use cake mix that does not have pudding in the mix. We also have a doctored Strawberry Cake recipe, if you would like to see it, here is a link:

https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes-tutorials/strawberry-doctored-recipe/

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Narnia says:

April 9, 2018 at 12:38 pm

Hi! I noticed this recipe use cake flour. Can all purpose flour be used in place of the cake flour?

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BeBe says:

April 9, 2018 at 3:25 pm

Hi Narnia, Here is how to turn your all purpose flour into cake flour:

For each cup of all purpose flour in the recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch. For this recipe, measure out 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, remove 5 Tablespoons and replace the AP flour with 5 Tablespoons cornstarch. Whisk to blend.

This recipe uses the Reverse Creaming Method, if you are not familiar with that method, Melissa has a link to a video of reverse creaming in the text above. Also, if you prefer to make the cake using the conventional mixing method, there is a link for that also. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

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Gloria says:

June 16, 2018 at 3:15 pm

Melissa or BeBe, (or anyone who has tried both recipes), Which do you prefer? The WASC box or the scratch recipe? What are the pros and cons of each? I don't want a "wet" texture, just moist. Thanks so much!

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BeBe says:

June 16, 2018 at 6:37 pm

Hi Gloria, Melissa and I prefer the WASC scratch recipe. It has a light moist texture. The WASC box recipe is also a very popular recipe. It is also good and quicker to make. We use it often. I don't think you will go wrong with either one.

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Margie Brinkmann says:

July 7, 2018 at 6:33 pm

I'd like to make a semi naked cake using the scratch recipe, reverse creaming method, is it dense enough to hold up?

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Amber Pimentel says:

July 10, 2018 at 3:32 pm

The pictures of this cake are so BEAUTIFUL and refreshing! My children LOVED this cake the first time I made it. Thank you so much!

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Michelle says:

July 13, 2018 at 9:20 pm

I tried this recipe two days ago. I use the normal cleaning message because is going to be covered in fondant. My only complaint was is that it doesn’t rise a lot. Are used to eight-Inch 2 inch tall pans and they only Rose about an inch. I like the taste. Is it normal for this cake not rise a lot? And yes before you ask my baking powder is fresh

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