Victorian Hot Milk Sponge Cake

[Eleanor Rose]

​

Hot milk sponge cake is a traditional, quick, one-layer cake served in the South. This old-fashioned treat can be enjoyed as is, but some folks like to dribble warm chocolate or caramel sauce over the top before serving. It's great either way. Hope you enjoy this fall treat!

Victorian Hot Milk Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
1 dash salt
1 egg
1⁄2 cup sugar or Splenda
1⁄4 cup milk (cane be lowfat milk)
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour a 9x1 1/2 inch or 8x 1/2 inch round baking pan. In a small mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set pan and flour mixture aside.

In a medium mixing bowl beat egg with an electric mixer on high speed for 3 to 4 minutes or until thick and lemon-colored. Gradually add sugar, beating on medium speed 4 to 5 minutes or until sugar is almost dissolved. Add flour mixture. Beat low to medium speed until the mixture is combined.

In a small saucepan heat the milk and butter just until butter melts. Stir warm milk mixture into egg mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.

Bake about 18 minutes or until the cake top springs back when touched. Cool the cake in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen cake from sides of pan. Invert cake onto a wire rack and cool completely.


Note: This is a great cake to make ahead of time for an upcoming social. Just wrap the cooled cake in freezer wrap or foil. It can be frozen for up to a month and still taste fresh. Thaw at room temperature before serving.

* @mofederal, this may be a good dessert option for you.

 

[donna]

I think butterscotch sauce be good too. Since butterscotch pudding day, may try with that sauce.

Thanks for posting.

 

[Patrick H]

Sponge cake?! Get back, Jack! If ya' don't, ya' won't!

(When I was a kid, I loved my Mom's sponge cake and this just awakened an OLD memory.)

Hey, Jack: Keep yourself a polite distance from my sponge cake. I likes me some sponge cake! Especially with fresh picked strawberries!

 

[jackt62]

Never heard of this one, but it sure looks delicious!

 

[JOHN42768]

Looks good enough to eat

 

[Shalom Hobbitess]

I'd love to know if this cake does go back to the Victorian era. It certainly might (I've seen claims that this recipe or that wasn't known in the Victorian era, then found a newspaper recipe for it), but I haven't seen it.

For some reason I always get Hot Milk Cake (which I have not made) mixed up with Texas Sheet Cake (which I have). No idea why.

Hot Milk Cake Science:

This cake is a science nerd's dream! Why? Because of mixing methods, of course! What is a mixing method? A mixing method is how you mix your cake, and depending on how do that can really affect that texture and final product of your cake. There are three major mixing methods that I've experimented with:

1. The traditional creaming method. You cream together the butter and the sugar for as long as seven minutes in order to produce lots of air bubbles. Because baking soda and baking powder do not create their own air bubbles but rather expand already existing bubbles, lots of creaming of the butter and sugar can yield a really fluffy cake.
2. My preferred mixing method is the reverse creaming method. Rather than creaming the butter and sugar together, you add all of the dry ingredients and then mix in the fat. The fat (cubed butter or oil) coats the flour particles and prevent it from forming lots of gluten networks. This results in a more dense, velvety crumb.
3. The final method is the muffin method. This is rarely used in cakes because it yields a large crumb and lots of open holes. You mix all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and all of the wet ingredients in the other. Then you combine them only until they're just incorporated. Because you're directly incorporating all of the wet ingredients into the flour, over mixing will result in formation of gluten networks. The longer you mix flour exposed to a liquid, the more gluten will form and that leads to tough, icky baked goods.

But this cake used an entirely different mixing method. And it is beautiful and science-y. Instead of creaming the butter and sugar, you cream the eggs and sugar. Then you add the dry ingredients and finally, you add the melted butter and hot milk. Normally in a cake recipe, you add the fat early on during the mixing process. Here it is quite the opposite. What makes this cake fluffy if you're not creaming the butter and sugar? It all begins in step one when you beat the eggs. You must beat the eggs for at least five minutes. At this point, you are incorporating tons of air bubbles into the eggs, which the baking powder will act on while the cake is baking. Once again, baking powder does not create its own air bubbles, but rather expands pre-existing air bubbles. The more air bubbles you beat in, the lighter your cake will be. When you add the sugar, continue beating until light and fluffy. Once again, you're incorporating more air bubbles.

From here:
https://bakingisascience.com/2014/07/11/hotmilk-cake/

 

[Mike Serpa]

Looks yummy!

 

[mofederal]

it looks very good. I remember eating some when I was much younger. Very tasty.

 

[FarawayFriend]

I'd love to know if this cake does go back to the Victorian era. It certainly might (I've seen claims that this recipe or that wasn't known in the Victorian era, then found a newspaper recipe for it), but I haven't seen it.

For some reason I always get Hot Milk Cake (which I have not made) mixed up with Texas Sheet Cake (which I have). No idea why.

Hot Milk Cake Science:



From here:
https://bakingisascience.com/2014/07/11/hotmilk-cake/

Thanks for the lesson in "Creaming Science"!! I'm often too lazy to cream cold butter and sugar together, so usually I just let the butter melt in the microwave and then stir in the sugar, eggs and whatever. But my cake never has the fluffyness I admire in a cake. Maybe next time I will try to do it as recommended. I never thought there was much sense in these directions, I thought that whatever method is used, the result looks the same, but now I do understand there is a difference! Interesting that baking powder does NOT create bubbles, but only enlarges the existing ones. I did not know that!

As for the Hot Milk Cake, that one looks really yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

 

[GS]

YUM!! My mother made that cake.

 

[nitrofd]

Basic sponge cake can be used for so many things,it is a great base for many desserts.with the butterscotch sauce on top i am all in.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

Another yummy cake! Sponge cake to enjoy! Thanks for sharing

I'd love to know if this cake does go back to the Victorian era. It certainly might (I've seen claims that this recipe or that wasn't known in the Victorian era, then found a newspaper recipe for it), but I haven't seen it.

As to if this is truly a Victorian recipe, while variations of it may have been around during the era this site claims it's a more recent development. Seems it was particularly popular during the Depression and WWII years owing to the expense and/or lack of sugar.

Hot Milk Sponge Cake is not a true old-fashion sponge cake in that it has baking powder and milk to supplement the leavening power of its eggs which adds both lightness and moistness. Source​

 

[Shalom Hobbitess]

I never thought there was much sense in these directions, I thought that whatever method is used, the result looks the same, but now I do understand there is a difference! Interesting that baking powder does NOT create bubbles, but only enlarges the existing ones. I did not know that!

You're welcome! I fool with a lot of recipes, but leavenings of all kinds all have their own little quirks and requirements. Understanding the science behind them helps to know what changes you can get away with!

this site claims it's a more recent development. Seems it was particularly popular during the Depression and WWII years owing to the expense and/or lack of sugar.

She's right about the baking powder being modern, but there are recipes we make now with baking powder that were known then with other ingredients (biscuits topping that list!), so I don't consider that a guarantee it wasn't known then. OTOH, there are a lot of other sources mentioning that Hot Milk Sponge Cake was prominent during the Depression and WW II. Does that mean it was developed then? Maybe, but not necessarily.

Thanks for the article -- reminds me that, if I make this cake, best to bring my eggs up to room temperature! There are so many things I know about cooking, but don't think about when I'm actually doing it.

 

[donna]

There are several threads on Sponge Cake. Thought I would bump this one.