It is well known that I have a thrift store and yard sale habit. But what is less widely known is that I have a china addiction. Yes – I am addicted to buying place settings. To date, I think I have about 15 or 16 different place settings. I recently found the gorgeous blue and gold place setting featured in this article’s cover photo at a yard sale for surprisingly low price. Of course, I snatched it up to add to my embarrassingly large and growing collection. But what I didn’t anticipate was getting a little piece of recipe gold with my purchase.
The dishes were wrapped in a 1980s era newspaper. According to the family, it marked the last time the place setting was used. Unwrapping each piece was like unearthing a time capsule. News articles, movie ads, and sale inserts all transported me to a different place in time. But the real gem was the recipe for Orange Sour Cream Cake. I’ve recreated the recipe here, with a few tweaks of my own. These cakes freeze well, so you can make these in decorative mini bundt pans, or muffin tins, and freeze them.
Beat the butter and sugar until lightened in color.
Add eggs one at a time and mix well until mixture lightens even more. (This could take several minutes.)
Add the orange zest and extract and stir to combine.
In another bowl, add dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and stir until just combined. Add ½ of the sour cream, mix. Add 1/3 of the dry, mix. Add the rest of the sour cream, mix. Add the remaining dry, mix. After each addition, stir just enough to combine – be careful not to overmix.
Spoon mixture in to greased mini bundt pans (or muffin tins) and bake at 325 degrees. After 20 minutes, start checking for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of a cake. The toothpick should come out mostly clean. Continue cooking until done. Remove from oven and turn out onto cooling rack. Let cool completely, or mostly, or as long as you can stand to wait, before glazing.
If you’re going to freeze any of the cakes, place completely cooled cakes into freezer bag and place them in the freezer. If you’re going to serve them right away, continue with the glaze. And try to resist eating all the glaze before it makes it onto the cakes.
For the glaze, add four tablespoons of orange juice to ½ cup powdered sugar. Mix with the cream cheese. If the glaze is too stiff, you can add some milk a teaspoon at a time until it reaches your desired consistency. Drizzle cakes with glaze, an serve on pretty yard sale china.
Here’s the complete recipe. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Cake:
½ cup room temperature butter
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup sour cream
Glaze:
4 oz. softened cream cheese
½ cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoons orange juice
Instructions
1) Beat the butter and sugar until lightened in color. Add eggs one at a time. Add orange zest and extract. Mix until combined.
2) In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients.
3) Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients alternating with sour cream.
4) Spoon batter into greased mini bundt pans or muffin tins.
5) Bake in preheated 325 oven for 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out mostly clean.
