Sour Cream Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This moist and tender spice cake is filled with raisins and slathered in a decadent cream cheese frosting!

My love of cooking and baking was passed down to me from my mom and both of my grandmothers. Meme, my mom's mom, was a Southern gem who loved to garden and can just about everything. Her bread and butter pickles were amazing and like no other! Her hush puppies were the bomb too.

Grandma Jane, my dad's mom, loved to bake. Pies, cookies and cakes were her specialty. With their influences, and my mom's too, I was baking and cooking at a young age. The holidays of course were always a time for special treats. We'd have dozens of different cookies and fudge for days. It was amazing!


I was lucky enough to have been handed down both of my grandmas' recipes boxes after they passed away. I treasure a little brown composition notebook of grandma Jane's. It's torn and tattered and barely hanging on, but I love gently flipping through the pages and seeing her handwriting.

This cake is one of grandma Jane's specialties. When I told my older son I was making it he was a bit perplexed. Sour cream in a cake, he asked. That seemed odd. But let me assure you, as I did him, that you cannot taste the sour cream in this cake. It is incredibly moist and tender and almost reminds me of a carrot cake, just without the carrots. I added the cream cheese frosting and it really just elevated it to another level. My whole family loved it and it brought back wonderful memories of my grandma for both my dad and I. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do!

Sour Cream Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Author: Sarah Bates | The Chef Next Door
Serves 12
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Ingredients:
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2/3 cup golden raisins

For the frosting:
8 oz. light cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick baking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the sour cream, sugar, egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients, flour through nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until well blended. Fold in the raisins.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake rest in the pan for 30 minutes, then remove it from the pan and allow to cool completely.

While the cake is cooling, make the frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of bowl as needed. Add the powdered sugar, milk and salt and mix on low speed until smooth. If the frosting is too thick add more milk, one teaspoon at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency. 

Spread the frosting all over the cooled cake, slice, and serve.

Bon Appetit!

Thank you to the United Dairy Industry of Michigan for sponsoring this post! I was compensated for developing a "Holiday Traditions" recipe using Michigan dairy products. As always, all opinions are my own. UDIM is the umbrella organization for the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council of Michigan. Their goal is to promote Michigan’s locally produced dairy products and reconnect consumers with the people behind their food.

For more great dairy recipes, follow UDIM, branded as Milk Means More, on Pinterest. To learn more about nutrition, animal care/well-being and on-farm practices related to dairy products and the dairy industry, you may want to follow Milk Means More on Facebook. You can also follow them on Twitter and YouTube!