The Neely's Sock-It-to-Me Cake

By Addie

"This is Momma Neely's calling card (and when Momma Neely comes calling, people answer). It's a traditional Southern butter cake filled with pecans and cinnamon and finished with a light sugar glaze. At the restaurant, this dessert rules the house! You can serve it with ice cream at the end of a meal, or for breakfast with coffee to start your day. When Patrick gets to the restaurant early in the morning, it's the first thing he reaches for. Our recipe yields an extremely moist and delicious yellow cake. It will knock your socks off!" Gina says.

Courtesy "Down Home With the Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook"

Ingredients

• FILLING:
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• .....................................
• YELLOW CAKE:
• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 large eggs, unbeaten
• .....................................
• GLAZE:
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• .....................................
• Nonstick cooking spray

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 9×13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

To make the streusel filling, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans in a small bowl, and set aside. To make the cake, sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the oil, 3/4 cup of the milk, the vanilla, and lemon juice, and, using the paddle attachment, beat for 2 minutes at high speed.

Add the remaining 1/4 cup milk and the eggs; beat for 2 minutes longer. Pour two-thirds of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the batter evenly with the streusel filling, then spoon the remaining batter evenly over the filling. Bake for 28 to 33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. The cake will bounce back when lightly touched with a finger. Allow the cake to cool for 25 minutes in the pan. Run a knife around the edges, invert onto serving plate or cooling rack, and cool completely.

To make the glaze, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, milk, and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake. Makes one 9X13-inch cake
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REVIEWS:

This cake was really good, but the glaze was a bit sweet. The filling was delicious, can't go wrong with pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon! This cake makes a ton and would be good for a party!

I made this cake for Thanksgiving to try somthing. Easy recipe to follow and the cake was yummy.

This cake is very moist and may be one of the best semi homemade cakes I've ever made. I'm 7 months pregnant with a very big sweet tooth right now, and when I saw this recipe, I was skeptical at first, but something told me to just try it. I made it in a bundt pan and made the cake as it read on the box, added the filling(used Splenda brown sugar), and it turned out very moist. The glaze is fantastic also. I would definetly make this for a family gathering! Go Neely's!!!!

I made 3 of these cakes yesterday and the oven at 375 was to high I guess because I used dark bundt pans. However the third one came out a beautiful brown with the oven at a little lower temp. Topped it off with the glaze and some pecans sprinkles....just lovely.

This cake came out great... almost as good as my grandmother used to make. I didn't add the extra ingredients to the cake mix (just used the directions on the box). The glaze came out great and so did the streusel. I think I will double both next time.

I made this cake today and despite having issues with the pilot light staying lit in my oven-the cake came out great. Although I can see the brownness from the cinnamon in my cake but not in the Neely's pictured cake. I think without oven trouble it would have been better. But once it started baking it smelled great and I really like the glaze on top. I think I'll try this cake recipe without the streusel filling-just cake recipe with glaze. Another great one from the Neely's.

The recipe was perfect! Delicious!

Not much consolation for those of you who purchased "Down Home with the Neely's Cookbook" but the publisher did acknowledge the error and posted the following: Correction: It has come to our attention that the recipe for Sock-It-To-Me-Cake in Pat and Gina Neely?s cookbook contains an error. The amount of cake flour to use is written as ? cup; it should be 2 1/4 cups. You will find the revised recipe below: http://cooking.knopfdoubleday.com/2009/05/21/revised-sock-it-to-me-cake/ The difference between what is posted on food network versus what is in the book is that food network recipe calls for store bought cake mix. The one in the book contains a homemade yellow cake recipe.

I made this cake yesterday using the DOWN HOME WITH THE NEELYS cookbook and it came out terrible. I should have known when the recipe called for only 1/4 cup of flour. The recipe in the book is quite different from the one on the web site.

Mystery solved! I made this cake the first time, it was terrific, used a 12 x 9 pan. I also tried it in a bundt pan last week and it flopped. I used a toothpick to test for doneness and thought it was finished cooking after an addition 8-10 minutes in the oven. It was not completely cooked. the middle to bottom was soupy. I had to throw it all out. My girlfriend also made it in a bundt and it flopped for her as well. I will make it again, in a 13 x 9 as it is so vey good and for the record, who cares what they call it or who made it first, some people forget this is a cooking website where receipes should be discussed and taken apart to be made better, what difference does it make who makes it better---grow up people.

My husband is not a fan of nuts so I added chopped up pieces of apples and it was perfect!!! So yummy!!

I made this cake today, and let me be the first to say that the cake was delicious. I have some slight concern on the other hand. If you really like the flavor of lemon then the glaze is absolutey perfect. However, if you do not like lemon so much, like myself, then consider substituting the lemon juice for some more milk. Besides that, the cake is AMAZING!

Out Of Sight Cake! This was my first time making this cake and after I made it I call my family over to taste it and they said {that it was the bomb! }.

Great taste! I used 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice the 1st time I made the cake. The glaze was just too sour. The 2nd time I made the cake I used 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice. This was my first Sock-It- To-Me cake and I love it. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I love your show.

LOVE THIS CAKE WITH MILK! Thank you so much this recipe - it was wonderful! It was very easy to make and my family loved it. I made it for Christmas and I will make this one again soon. I am hopeful that I will get more than just a small slice this time!

It's 7 am and I'm confused from the start!!! As soon as I saw the 1/4 cup of flour I knew something was wrong. I have many cook books and family recipes that I am passing down to my daughter, who is a culinary major. I AM DISAPPOINTED with this recipe!! Do I have worry about some of the other recipes in this book? I went straight to this website to get the recipe and had no idea others had the same problem. I will make it and decided to add the 2 eggs and sour cream like the other commentor suggested. Never had a cookbook with such an error. I LOVE the Neelys but come on you guys make enough money to get a better PROOFREADER!!!! I'll let my family rate it!

It was the best Sock-It-To-Me cake ever! my kid ate it all in one day!

BEST CAKE EVER!!! THIS IS A VERY GOOD CAKE..EVERYONE LOVED IT..VERY EASY TO DO I'VE MADE THIS CAKE A NUMBER OF TIMES!!

I thought this was a very good recipe and my family really enjoyed it