mitzireddy

The ongoing search for recipes that have new and exciting flavours sometimes make us overlook the simple pleasures of old traditional recipes which might require only the basic of ingredients and yet can be very tasty. I am also guilty of this – with awesome recipes from the food networks, cookery books and fellow bloggers, it’s difficult to find the time to try all the recipes that you fancy. My daughter, Linda, asked me recently to forward her the recipe for a hot milk sponge cake – this was a cake that she baked frequently for her friends when she was still a student. Living in London she has been enjoying the more decadent goodies from the high end shops and craved just plain sponge cake.

I realized that I had also not made this cake for many years and decided to give it a bash and here’s the result.

Instead of the normal icing I just used strawberry jam between the cake layers and sifted icing sugar on top.

HOT MILK SPONGE CAKE

4 eggs

300mls castor sugar

500mls cake flour

15ml baking powder

250ml milk

100gr butter or margarine

5ml vanilla essence

Beat eggs and sugar together until thick and light yellow.

Sift flour and baking powder together. Fold into egg and sugar mixture.

Heat the milk and butter. Do not boil.

Stir the milk mixture and the essence into the batter.

Spoon into 2 greased 20cm cake tins.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 c for 25 – 30 minutes.

Make sure that the cake has cooled completely before you begin icing.

BASIC ICING

100gr soft butter

500ml icing sugar

10ml vanilla essence

About 25mls of milk

Cream the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence.

Add enough milk to make the mixture light and creamy until it is a spreadable consistency.

Sandwich the 2 layers together with the icing and then ice the top of the cake.