Sour Cream Almond Cake with White Chocolate Orange Ganache

If you've been through a few of my recipes, by now you may know that sometimes I bake things just to use up ingredients that are skulking in my fridge. There are only so many times that I can open the fridge door and see the neglected item sitting there, staring balefully out at me, before I capitulate and go into problem solving mode - and see the cake camouflaged in the sour cream.

I've looked at recipes for almond sour cream cake before, but they used boxed cake mix. I don't have anything against cake mixes, but I am a bit of a baking-snob and prefer to make things from scratch as far as possible. However, I really loved the sound of the combination, and so the sour cream in my fridge had finally found its purpose:

(From scratch) Sour Cream and Almond Cake with  White Chocolate and Orange Ganache

This is an incredibly simple cake recipe. The preparation time is a few minutes, at the most...except if you factor in the 10 days that the cream was sitting idly in my fridge, growing more dejected sour with every passing day ; )

Sour Cream and Almond Cake
recipe by Tea, Cake and Create

300ml sour cream
4 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract / 8-10 drops Vanilla Girl vanilla
1tsp almond essence
2 cups self-raising flour

Pre-heat the oven to 160'C
Grease and line 2x 8 inch round baking tins

Beat together all the ingredients except the flour.
Sift in the flour and beat until just combined.
(How simple is that?!!)

Pour into the prepared baking tins.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, until the middle of the cake springs back when touched.
Allow to cool in the tins for 15min, then turn onto cooling racks to cool completely.

White Chocolate and Orange Ganache 

200ml cream OR sour cream
400g white chocolate discs or chocolate chopped into small, even sized pieces.

Place both ingredients into a heat proof bowl, and put the bowl over a suitable saucepan of simmering water - creating a double boiler.  The bottom of the bowl must not be in contact with the water.

Stir frequently with a silicone spatula until all the chocolate has melted.

Remove from heat.

 Add 2tsp grated orange zest (I added a few drops of Vanilla Girl orange extract to enhance the orange flava!)

Allow to cool and set. When it's a spreadable consistency - spread between the layers on cake, and on the surface, if desired, or cover cake with basic butter icing.

And here's a freebie -  Go here  for a gorgeous gerbera daisy tutorial.

Have a sweet week!

xxM