Hot Milk Cake

You have to try this old-fashioned recipe for the most tender and delicious Hot Milk Cake! It’s just like grandma used to make, flavored with vanilla extract, and melt-in-your-mouth amazing.

If you’ve never had this delicate, fluffy vanilla milk cake, you are in for a real treat today.

Not only is this cake recipe completely fail-proof, but Hot Milk Cake has the most amazing texture. It’s buttery, moist and delicate, but also sturdy and fluffy, all at the same time! I’d consider it a cross between a pound cake and a sponge cake in that way.

Hot Milk Cake is one of the easiest cake recipes I have here! If you’re looking for something a bit more involved, try making a classic Red Velvet Layer Cake, or my Christmas Layer Cake with vanilla buttercream and funfetti sprinkles.

Gingerbread Cake, Cinnamon Coffee Cake or luscious Better than Sex Cake are some other recipes I think you’ll love

What is Hot Milk Cake?

This cake gets its name from the method used to make the cake batter. It’s pretty different than a typical sponge cake recipe, so pay close attention to the steps below.

Scalded milk is the liquid component of this cake batter, along with a generous amount of melted butter. Scalding milk is sort of an old-fashioned process, but it’s a simple one, that gives the exact result that we need here, so I’m going to teach it to you!

Eggs are creamed together with sugar, then mixed with flour and baking powder before the hot milk mixture is stirred in.

So, the ingredients in this cake are very similar to a traditional cake, but they are put together in a very different way! The hot milk method is what makes this cake so special and so fuss-free.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

1. Failproof – Hot milk cake combines all of the best parts of chiffon cake, sponge cake, and genoise and removes all of the tricky parts. There’s no need to rely on perfectly whipped egg whites or to be careful not to accidentally tap all of the bubbles out of the batter. Because the cake uses both whole eggs and baking powder as leavening, you can stress much less.
2. Versatile Cake – A Vanilla flavored hot milk cake can be made in a 9×13-inch pan or in a bundt or tube pan. You can also scale the recipe for different-sized cake pans and turn this into a layer cake. Hot milk cake makes the best birthday cake, but it’s simple enough to serve any day of the year too.
3. Amazing Texture– The hot milk also affects the proteins in the eggs, loosening them and allowing them to separate and come back together in a new way, which creates more air, more loft, and a gorgeous cake crumb.

Don’t worry if the technical aspects that I explained above are not particularly interesting to you. Just follow the instructions below and you’ll have an amazingly delicious Hot Milk Cake to share.

Ingredients In Hot Milk Cake

Here’s what you need to make this easy old-fashioned cake.

Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.

• All-Purpose Flour: AP flour works perfectly, but you can also use cake flour if you prefer.
• Baking Powder: Necessary for the tender crumb of this hot milk cake. Blend it in with the flour well so that you don’t get any pockets of it in the cake.
• Salt: Just a bit elevates the simple flavors of vanilla and milk.
• Eggs: The key to a light and fluffy cake is eggs that are well-whipped! Let the eggs come to room temperature, they’re easier to whip that way.
• Granulated Sugar: Sugar makes the cake wonderfully sweet.
• Pure Vanilla Extract: Use a good quality vanilla extract, and avoid imitation vanilla.
• Unsalted Butter: This will be melted into the hot milk, so there’s no need to soften it first.
• Milk: For the best flavor and richness, choose whole milk. You can also use 2%. Non-dairy milk can be used in this recipe if necessary, but note that the texture will not be the same.

How To Make a Failproof Hot Milk Cake

1. Get Ready: Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C, grease or butter a 9×13-inch baking pan, and combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Set the pan and the dry ingredients aside while you handle the next steps.
2. Beat the Eggs: In a separate bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the eggs until fluffy (about 3 minutes on medium-high speed). Then gradually add the sugar and beat until combined. Mix in the vanilla extract. Then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to just combine.
3. Heat Milk: In a small saucepan, combine the milk with butter and place over medium heat. Heat just until the butter has melted. Remove the pan from the heat, and slowly add the hot milk to the cake batter while the mixer is running, mixing until well combined.

1. Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Then bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
2. Cool: Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then you can invert it onto a wire rack to cool completely if you’d like.

Recipe Tips

• Choose your Pan: This recipe makes enough batter to fill a 9×13 pan or a typical bundt pan. If you make the cake in a rectangular pan, you can let it cool in the pan completely and keep it in the pan for storage. For a bundt cake, you’ll want to remove it from the pan after 20 minutes or so, or else it’s more likely to stick in the grooves.
• Beat the Eggs Until Fluffy: This is the key to making hot milk cake light and tender! Beat until the eggs and sugar are pastel yellow in color, thick in texture, and will drop from the whisk in ribbons that sit on the surface for a moment. An electric mixer or stand mixer is going to make this process easy.
• You can choose how many servings this recipe makes. It’s sweet enough that you can make it into 16 small pieces, or let everyone have a big piece, and cut 12 3×3 inch squares.
• Choose your Toppings: I love this cake with a dollop of whipped cream and some fresh berries! You can also drizzle each slice with chocolate or caramel sauce, or try adding a spread of your favorite cake frosting.

Storing Tips

After the cake has cooled completely, you can wrap it, place it in an airtight container and store it for up to three days at room temperature and up to a week in the refrigerator.

Freeze slices of milk cake, or the entire cake for up to 4 months. Be sure to wrap each piece well with plastic wrap and foil before placing it in a ziplock bag or container for freezing.

What To Serve With Hot Milk Cake

Enjoy a slice of this vanilla milk cake with a tall glass of milk or a freshly brewed cup of coffee. It’s lovely with tea as well.

Otherwise, there really is no wrong time to enjoy a piece of cake!

FAQs

This classic old-fashioned hot milk cake recipe is going to be your new favorite! Make it for your next birthday party or get-together and see how much everyone loves it. Pin it for more people to enjoy too!