Sock-It-To-Me Cake, from scratch

A Sock-it-to-me-Cake is a type of coffee cake that has a pecan, cinnamon and brown sugar filling that is baked in a bundt or ring pan. It is moist and almost always made with a generous amount of sour cream. It is also almost always made with a yellow cake mix, preferably a Duncan Hines brand mix. With the cake mix, the recipe is very easy and fast to put together. As easy as it may be, I still like to have a from-scratch version of the recipe available to me, so I put one together that bakes a very similar Sock-it-to-Me cake without the mix.

Cake mix cakes are designed to be very tender and moist, and this cake is, too. I used cake flour, rather than all purpose, to give it an even lighter and more cake-mix-like texture than it might otherwise have. I also used a combination of butter and vegetable oil in the cake. The vegetable oil, along with a good portion of sour cream, gives it some extra moisture and helps to keep the cake tasting fresh even a few days after baking. The butter helps the tenderness of the cake, but more importantly, it lends a really nice flavor to everything. This cake has a good, light texture and a soft crumb. I baked it in a tube pan because it’s so easy to get a cake out of a pan with removable sides. That said, you could easily bake this in a bundt pan instead.

The filling for this coffee cake is not a streusel, which many coffee cakes have. Instead it is a mixture of cinnamon, toasted pecans and brown sugar. It is a bit dry on its own and may seem to be too strongly cinnamon flavored before you put it into the cake. Don’t worry too much about this because the cake is relatively plain and all of that cinnamon in the filling really balances out well with the rest of the cake when you’re eating it. Speaking of cinnamon, I also added some cinnamon to the glaze on top of this cake, which adds a little extra sugar and spice to each bite.

This cake is great in the morning with coffee and is equally good served with dessert. As coffee cakes go, it is very easy to throw together because you don’t need to fuss with streusel or any special fillings, just a simple and flavorful mix that comes together in a few seconds before going into the cake.

Sock-It-To-Me Cake
3 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vegetable oil and the eggs, adding one in at a time. Mix in vanilla extract.
Working in two or three alternating additions, stir in the flour mixture and the sour cream, making sure to end with an addition of the flour. Mix only until no streaks of dry ingredients remain visible.
In a small bowl, stir together cinnamon, brown sugar and toasted pecans.
Add half of the cake batter to the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer. Top evenly with cinnamon mixture, then spread the rest of the cake batter on top.
Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake completely in the pan, on a wire rack. When cool, drizzle with cinnamon glaze.

Serves 12

Cinnamon Glaze
2 tbsp milk
approx 1 cup confectioner sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all glaze ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. If glaze is too thick to drizzle easily, add a bit more milk. If glaze is too thin, add an extra tablespoon or two of sugar.