Recipe Ingredients
1 cup butter
3 cups sugar
6 eggs (separated)
3 cups all-purpose cake flour (Swan's Down preferred)
1 cup sour cream
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
(Can substitute almond, lemon, rum, or coconut flavoring.)
Liquid Glaze:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Recipe Instructions
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Add the sour cream and mix thoroughly.
Add the vanilla, flour, and baking soda, and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until fluffy.
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the sour cream mixture.
Grease and flour a tube pan thoroughly to prevent sticking.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 300°F for 90 minutes.
Glaze Instructions:
In a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water.
Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
When the cake is done, remove it from the pan and place it on a cooling rack set over a tray.
Thoroughly soak the warm cake with the sugar–water mixture.
(Momo used a clean butter squirt bottle to distribute it evenly.)
Let the cake cool completely before slicing.
Serves: About 24
Story behind the Dish
Momo Mary — Mary Rachal — was my uncle-by-marriage’s mother, and one of the hardest-working, most generous women I’ve ever known. During my years in law school in New Orleans, I spent nearly every weekend at her house, learning her recipes, listening to her stories, and soaking up the kind of kitchen wisdom you only get from sitting with an elder who does everything with love.
Her pound cakes were famous across the city. People ordered them from St. Charles Avenue to the 7th Ward to Chalmette. We baked them in big batches, wrapping them up and delivering them all over New Orleans — especially during the holidays. You could always find one of Momo’s cakes on someone’s table, bringing joy and sweetness wherever it landed.
But the best memories aren’t the deliveries or even the cakes themselves. They’re the moments spent beside her, helping mix batter, greasing and flouring pans, and hearing her talk about life, family, and faith. Those afternoons in her kitchen were priceless. This recipe isn’t just a dessert — it’s a piece of New Orleans tradition, a family treasure, and a memory of a woman whose hands shaped so much love into everything she baked.
