Making Sock It To Me Cake From Scratch

How this Green Bay, Wisconsin girl came to make Sock It To Me Cake from scratch is a bit of an interesting story. Jade and I were chatting about recipes that remind us of the holidays. He mentioned how Sock It To Me cake became a holiday tradition for his family because his mother loved it so much, his family often made it for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other special occasions. They even left it out for Santa one year!I had never heard of this cake before, but after a bit of research, it seems to be quite a southern classic. (From all accounts, “sock it to me” seems to be taken from an Isley Brothers song from the late 60s.) Most recipes I found used a boxed cake mix – something we try to avoid, so I decided to give Sock It To Me Cake from scratch a try.Traditionally, this cake is make with a bundt cake pan. However, given that I’ve never had it before, and I already had this mini bundt pan (from the mini lemon bundt cakes we made), I thought I might as well give it a shot too. The recipe is pretty easy, I urge you to make it from scratch. Making it from scratch is only a little extra effort and I think it yields a better quality cake.However, if you don’t feel like putting in the extra effort, you can definitely swap in a yellow cake mix. I adapted this recipe, which includes the option of using a boxed cake mix rather can going all in with the Sock It To Me cake from scratch route.Mini Bundt Sock-It-To-Me Cake

Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks of butter
3 cups white sugar
6 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Nut Crumble Filling:
2 tablespoons reserved cake batter
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 stick of butter

Glaze:
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour mini bundt pan. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the oil and vanilla. Add half the sour cream and beat well. Beat in half the flour mixture until well blended. Add the other half of the sour cream and incorporate. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix well.

Pour half of batter into prepared tube pan.

FILLING: In a medium bowl add pecans, brown sugar, 1/2 stick of butter, 2 tbsp cake batter, and cinnamon. mix till well incorporated, but not creamed. It should clump together.

Sprinkle the topping into each of the cakes. Top with batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Repeat with remaining cake batter.

To make the glaze, combine milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Drizzle over the cooled cakes.