Readers’ Recipe Contest: Auntie Anne’s Sour Cream Cakes

Submitted by Karen Collins of Bisousweet Baking Company

My mother was never much for baking. Her idea of baking almost always included a box cake mix and margarine. There was one recipe, however, she made for special occasions, and it remains one of my favorite treasures.

The recipe came from my mother’s Auntie Anne who was ‘the good cook’ in her family. My memories of Auntie Anne are hazy. She died when I was in elementary school in a tragic freak accident. She defined the yiddish word, zaftig. Big and round. I remember her most from pictures in old photo albums. These polaroids captured a woman who had a lot of pizzazz. Big personality. Beehive hair, chunky jewelry, make-up, colorful clothing. A coy smile pulling attention away from her sad eyes.

The name of her dessert always seemed mysterious to me. They are called Sour Cream Cakes. However, I always felt like they were much closer to a cookie than a cake. The dough is soft, made with sour cream, and is delicately flavored with lemon zest, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. The dough is rolled flat, layered with raspberry jam, folded in half and baked. After baked and cooled, the cookie is glazed with an almond flavored glaze and sprinkled with walnuts.

I remember watching my mother struggle as she made these. The shaggy dough wasn’t easy to roll out and always seemed extraordinarily fragile. Inevitably, my mother (lovingly known as Marge) would rip the dough and end up patching it together. She didn’t worry about it too much because whatever carnage existed on the tray would be hidden under a thick, white glaze and a substantial sprinkle of chopped walnuts.

In so many ways, I wish I had known how to bake back then, because I would have loved to show Marge that it didn’t have to be so difficult. She mixed the dough and immediately tried to roll it when all the dough needed was a short rest in the refrigerator. She didn’t use flour to help keep the dough from sticking to her counter. She didn’t have a method for rolling it, and always ended up with something the shape of Texas. Or California. Maybe Florida. She couldn’t be bothered with details, and maybe this is exactly why I have always been fascinated and obsessed with them.

Other tiny oddities of this treat remind me of Marge. The walnuts were always raw. I probably would have replaced the walnuts with toasted almonds, but not Marge. She liked the soft texture of raw walnuts, and after all of the ‘fuss’ demanded by this recipe, who had time to worry about one more step and more dishes to wash?

It’s the combination of the flavors of raspberry, almond and lemon paired layers of textures, soft, tender dough, creamy glaze and the slight crunch of buttery walnuts, that makes this special treat stand out from my childhood. These showed up rarely throughout my childhood, but when they did, the day felt magical.

Auntie Anne's Sour Cream Cakes

Dough:
½ cup sugar
2½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1½ tsp baking powder
4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
zest of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sour cream
½ teaspoon baking soda

Filling:
18-ounce jar raspberry jam with seeds
lemon juice to taste (I recommend 1⁄2 lemon)

Glaze:
½ cup sour cream
½ cup powdered sugar
½ to 1 teaspoon almond extract

Topping:
1 cup walnuts finely chopped

In a medium size mixing bowl, combine the ½ cup sugar, 2½ cups flour, ½ teaspoon salt, 1½ teaspoon baking powder. Stir to blend.

Cut butter into 8 pieces and scatter over dry ingredients. Using fingers, crumb dry ingredients and butter until mixture feels like fine sand. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together 1 egg, lemon zest, 2 teaspoon lemon juice, ½ teaspoon vanilla, ½ cup sour cream and ½ teaspoon baking soda. Stir with whisk to blend. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients. Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or a spoon/hands, mix ingredients together until it forms a soft shaggy dough.

Remove dough from bowl, divide into two pieces, flatten into discs and refrigerate for 1–2 hours.

Prepare the filling while dough is chilling.

In small bowl, mix together 1 jar raspberry jam and juice of half a lemon; set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Prepare a place to roll dough: Dust silpat mat or counter with flour. Remove one disc of dough from the refrigerator and dust with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll dough ¼-inch thick in the shape of a rectangle. Using an off-set spatula, spread raspberry jam on the lower half of the rectangle. Fold the top half over the lower half and carefully transfer the loaf to a tray lined with parchment paper.

Remove the second disc of dough, repeat this process, and place on tray next to the other loaf.

Bake the loaves on the middle rack for 15 minutes. Turn tray around and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the dough is a light gold color. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.

While cakes are cooling, make glaze. Whisk together sour cream and powdered sugar. The goal is to make the glaze a consistency that is spreadable and not too liquidy. Add almond extract and stir to blend.

Glaze cakes: Using an off-set spatula, carefully smooth glaze over the two cakes. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over the glaze and let the glaze set, around 2 hours.

Cut the loaves into small rectangles or squares and enjoy!

Editor’s note: This recipe has not been independently tested by the Edible Boston team.