Bundt cake with a cinnamon-brown sugar swirl and lemon glaze. A 1970s Pillsbury contest winner that became a Black family staple and cultural touchstone.
The name 'Sock-It-To-Me' comes from the Laugh-In catchphrase of the late 1960s, which Pillsbury used in a Bake-Off contest. The recipe won the contest in 1968 and immediately crossed into Black American home baking culture, where it stayed for 30 years. It is the Bundt cake of church potlucks, family reunions, and holiday gatherings for an entire generation of Black families.
Sock-it-to-me cake is a sour cream Bundt with a brown sugar cinnamon swirl and lemon glaze. Sour cream contributes calcium and fat; cinnamon has modest anti-inflammatory properties. Overall it is a treat-category dessert with no significant therapeutic benefit.
The swirl is the signature: a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans is layered into the middle of the batter before baking. The lemon glaze — powdered sugar and lemon juice — is drizzled while the cake is still warm so it soaks in slightly. Sour cream in the batter makes it unusually moist and tender.
Free, no account needed to ask.