First off, I’ve never met my grandmother Ella. She died a long time before I was born. However, there’s this cake my mom makes that’s amazing and she tells me it was her mother’s recipe. I’ve made this cake twice now and it’s pretty darn good. As I’ll be making it today so that I have it for the holidays, I’ll be able to put up pictures of the process. If you want a nice tall cake, you make double the original recipe. That’s what I’ll be putting up. You can easily halve it if you want.

Another note: this cake needs to sit for a day or two to reach optimal moist-ness, so it is best to leave plenty of time for making this recipe.

Here is the recipe:

The Dough:
2 cups sour cream
1.5 cups sugar
6 egg yolks
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
4-5 cloves – crushed
1/2 tsp cinnamon

liqueur

The Cream:
3 cups sour cream
3 Tbs sugar (this ends up being a bit tart so feel free to add more sugar if you want a sweeter cream)
1.5 tsp vanilla

First, preheat the oven to 375F.
Mix the sour cream and sugar. Add the cocoa powder and spices. Then, add the eggs yolks.t

Mix well, though not too much (that would kill the eggs).
In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda. Sift in.

Split the batter between two 8-9inch pans (you might want to put a layer of parchment paper on the bottom)

and place in the oven. Bake for about 28-30 minutes.

Take the cakes out and let cool. Once cool enough to handle, use string or a really sharp knife to cut each cake into 2 layers.
Lay the layers out on separate plate and drizzle 1-2 Tbs liqueur of your choice (I used Godiva) over each layer.

Let stand for at least half an hour.

In the meanwhile, mix the cream in a separate bowl (or sour-cream container if you’re lazy like me and don’t want to do extra dishes).
Slowly build the layers by spreading an even coating of cream between each.

I also like to stab through it all with a fork to make sure it’ll get soaked through well. Once done, cover liberally in the remaining cream.

Let sit in the refrigerator for at least a day before serving. (You want to let the cream soak through the layers.)

Before serving, dust with a bit of cocoa powder for decoration.

Tada! Now you have cake. I still wish I knew how to make it prettier.
Let me know how it turns out for you!

P.S. Just heard from my mom that they’d also sometimes decorate it with slices of chocolate candy on top. I’m sure that would look even nicer!