White Almond Sour Cream Cake
We LOVE this White Almond Sour Cream Cake! It is so moist and delicious with a velvety soft texture and fine crumb.
This cake has been one of our most popular cake recipes from scratch over the years, and is definitely one of my favorites! We have a cake mix version (WASC Cake) as well!
Table of Contents
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
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.
We also have an a great Almond Cream Cake, Almond Coconut Cake, Lemon Almond Cake, and many more!
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)!
Our Vanilla Velvet Cake and Vanilla Buttermilk Cake are two more popular options!
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White Almond Sour Cream Cake
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)
- ⅓ c milk (73g)
- 1 cup sour cream (242g)
- 2 ½ c cake flour (285g)
- 1 ½ c granulated sugar (300g)
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder (12g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened (170g) unsalted butter, slightly softened (Do not soften in microwave). It shouldn't be overly soft, but soft enough to easily dent when pressed.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Grease and flour two 8 x 2 inch pans.
- This recipe uses the reverse creaming method of mixing- the order of ingredients is a bit different than the traditional method.
- In a small bowl, combine eggs, vanilla extract, 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.
- It is important to SLOWLY add approx. ½ 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 2 pourings, scraping the bowl and beating for 20 seconds after each addition. It is now ready to pour into pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees 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
Hi Carmel, I have not tried that but I think it should work. Our scratch lemon cake in the recipe section has no vanilla extract so I would leave out the vanilla and almond in this recipe and add 2 teaspoons lemon extract and also add the zest of 1 lemon. It is best to use a microplane to zest the lemon. Our lemon scratch recipe uses 1 Tablespoon lemon extract but it has 3 cups flour so I think you will be fine with just 2 teaspoons. It also has lemon juice but I don't think you need to add that. We have tried making a lemon cake with just lemon juice but the lemon flavor was just not there. Hope all goes well.
Would this cake freeze well? I want an almond cake for my wedding and it needs to be able to be made in advance and stay moist. Also, could I substitute part of the flour with almond meal?
Hi Isabel, Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Yes, the cake layers can be frozen. While the layers are still warm from the oven, wrap each layer individually in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil, then freeze. Wrapping them will keep them airtight while frozen. To thaw, remove from the freezer, when condensation forms on top of the aluminum foil, unwrap and let them continue to thaw. You can crumb coat while the layers are partially frozen, if you like. I have never tried using almond meal so I don't know if you would have a good result.
Thank you so much! Melt in your mouth, moist dense cake. I will be checking out your site again!
I live in the UK where we don’t have cake flour. Is there a substitute please?
Hi Sharon, I understand in the UK you use plain flour. To make a substitute do the following: for each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour in the UK) whisk to blend. For this recipe, measure out 2 1/2 cups plain flour and remove 5 Tablespoon. Replace with 5 Tablespoons corn flour and whisk to blend.
If you are not familiar with the Reverse Creaming method that this recipe uses, here is a link to the conventional mixing method.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/images/2015/11/White-Almond-Sour-Cream-Cake-.pdf
I made this cake and it was ahhmazing! It was light and moist. I substituted the milk with buttermilk. It’s my new go-to white cake recipe. Thank you for sharing all of your great recipes Sally!
Hi was wondering if I could turn White Almond Sour Cream Cake into a sour cream pound cake.
Hi Regina, The recipe should work fine in a bundt pan. We have not baked as a pound cake so I am not sure of the time so keep an eye on it. If you are baking in a pan that has a dark interior, lower the temperature to 325 degrees. If you are not familiar to the reverse creaming method, Melissa has a link to a video in the intro to this method. There is also a link to using the conventional mixing method if you would rather use that.
Thank BeBe
Hi Bebe and Melissa,
Love your site! I also love that you have started posting recipes using the reverse creaming method, because I think it produces consistently better cakes - I love the tight velvety crumb and I never worry about those pesky “tunnels” you can get from overbeating the batter using the traditional method.
I just wanted to mention that if you substitute a portion of the butter with coconut oil (which at room temperature (~70°) has a creamy consistency very similar to shortening), the cake will appear more white. And it also gives the cake a delicious boost of flavor - not at all “coconuty” - just delicious!
Cheers,
Rachel
Hi Rachel, That is good to know, thanks so much for posting that information. I am sure many will find it helpful.