Making cakes does not come naturally to me .. they require such precision and I tend to *not be so precise in the kitchen .. typically because i’m entertaining and talking and cooking all at the same time. 

But a cake made with sour cream is quite simple and fairly hard to screw up (famous last words!). While the cake is very moist, it’s plain and simple and it does well with a fresh fruit salad served with it. This one is soaked in pink champagne .. it’s an apertif and dessert in one dish!

I used Violette Liqueur because I had the tail-end of a bottle on the shelf. You likely won’t have that liqueur lying around and, certainly, there’s no need to make a special trip to find it. This will work just as well with Sherry. 

Make sure you have a 9 inch spring-release cake tin before you get started on this. 

This feeds 8 - 10 people.

CAKE 

1 ½ cups of sugar

¾ cup of sour cream

a knob of room temperature butter

½ cup of canola oil

3 eggs

1 ½ cups of plain flour (you’ll use some of this for dusting the cake tin)

4 tablespoons Violette Liqueur or Sherry (or some other liqueur you’re a fan of!)

2 teaspoons of baking powder

a spring-release cake tin .. one that is 9 inches (standard).

FRUIT SALAD

Any kind of berries will really work well for this.

2 cups of sliced strawberries

1 cup of blueberries

1 cup of raspberries

2 cups of pineapple

2 cups of pink sparkling wine 

½ cup of sugar

Turn on the oven to 350F.

Combine evenly the sugar and sour cream together, and then trickle in the canola oil. Add the eggs one-by-one stirring enthusiastically so the mix doesn’t get clumpy and remains evenly distributed.

Butter the cake tin lightly and then take a few teaspoons of the flour and dust the cake tin with it. 

In another bowl mix the flour and the baking powder. Important to make sure the baking powder isn’t lumpy so mix well. (If your baking powder is lumpy, you can add it to the flour via a small sieve.)

Slowly mix in the flour mix into the batter, stirring well. Then add the liqueur. 

Now pour the batter into the cake tin. 

Bake for 50 - 55 mins. You should be able to poke a sharp knife into the center of the cake and have no wet batter on it as you pull out the knife.

While the cake bakes, make the fruit salad. Mix up all the fruit, sugar and sparkling wine and let the fruit sit.

Remove the cake from the oven, let cool for 15 mins (you can make this the day prior), slice into portions and put on plate. Put the fruit salad next to the cake on the plate, and spoon over some of the liquid from the fruit salad onto the cake. 

Serve!