Hot Milk Cake

March 13, 2006

As birthday’s come and go we are occasionally held responsible for baking birthday cakes. This happy chore recently placed itself squarely in my kitchen and I set out to complete the task. I am no great baker, and rarely actually bake any pastries, so I went with a simple but elegant recipe that brings absolutely no pretense. I decided to bake a milk cake. I discovered this recipe years ago in an article by Elinor Klivans of the Boston Globe and have enjoyed making it ever since.

Why do I write about milk cake in a chocolate column, you ask? Well, my favorite thing about this cake isn't mentioned in Elinor's recipe: It happens to be GREAT with dark chocolate. The milky-ness and the slightly bitter caramelization of the crust merge perfectly with chocolate.

Though the recipe calls for vanilla extract, I find extracts generally off-tasting and avoid using them. I have become accustomed to having vanilla sugar around the house for making chocolate confections, so I use that instead. Vanilla sugar can be made by slicing a vanilla bean lengthwise and stashing it in your sugar container. One bean will infuse about 15-20 pounds of sugar after 4 or 5 days, the longer the better.



Milk cake is very much like a pound cake, but so wonderfully creamy tasting. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about it and it fills your kitchen with a wonderful sweet cream smell when it is baking. Much more so than pound cake, it is absolutely the better for a drizzling of melted dark chocolate on each slice. The bitterness of a 75% chocolate contrasting with the milky softness of the warm cake is oh so complimentary. Serve this fresh out of the oven if possible.

MILK CAKE
Makes 2 bread pan cakes or 1 large bundt pan cake

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups whole milk

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

5 eggs

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
(if using vanilla sugar, leave out the extract)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

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1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch bundt pan or 2 bread pans very thoroughly. Dust it with flour.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and butter over medium heat just until the butter melts and the mixture is hot (150 degrees on a food thermometer).

4. Beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture is thick and light colored. Mix in the vanilla if you aren't using vanilla sugar. Gently mix in the flour. Slowly add the hot milk mixture, mixing just until smooth.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and transfer to the hot oven. Bake the cake 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake's center comes out almost clean.

6. Let the cake cool slightly in the pan, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into thick slices and drizzle on some melted dark chocolate for serving.