HOT MILK CAKE

1940 poster from Cleveland, encouraging milk drinking

 

 

Cake is always good but some cakes are, or seem to be, made for home. Ruth Graves Wakefield's hot milk cake falls into the second category. When I came across the recipe in Toll house tried and true recipes (1931), I thought it unusual because the general advice for making a cake is to use the ingredients at room temperature. But the cake turned out just right so here's a post.

Around the time Ruth's cookbook was published, milk was or about to give rise to a "civil war". In 1933, right in the middle of the Great Depression, Wisconsin cooperatives began a strike in the hope of raising the price of milk: individual farmers who sold to butter and cheese units made a very small profit compared to those who had their own milk bottled. There was a lot of turmoil, sometimes resulting in violence, and more strikes in other parts of the U.S. but the government finally gave out subsidies. Milk went on to become a staple, promoted as food of great nutritional value for children.

 

 

 

 

HOT MILK CAKE

The original recipe yields more of a sponge cake than anything else. In the version below I used half the sugar.

 

I n g r e d i e n t s

8 eggs, separated

2 cups plain flour

2tbsp baking powder 

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup lukewarm milk

1tsp vanilla extract

 

M e t h o d

Preheat the oven to 180oC. Grease a baking pan of your choice. Sift the flour with the baking powder. Whisk the egg whites until very stiff and the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla until very light, gradually adding the milk. Alternately stir in the flour and meringue. Transfer to the baking pan and bake for an hour or so.