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If you’re looking for the fluffy, perfect vanilla cake your grandma (and mine) used to make, this Hot Milk Cake recipe is definitely the one. Made with scalded milk, this lovely, old-fashioned cake is soft, sweet, and absolutely foolproof.
Dressed up in a million different ways or eaten as-is, one bite of Hot Milk Cake will take you back to your childhood. For that reason, this time-tested family recipe is the near and dear to my heart. And of course, it makes a fabulous birthday cake, too!
Maurice Sendak said it best in his book “In the Night Kitchen:” milk in the batter, milk in the batter, we bake cake and nothing’s the matter! He’s right. When there’s Hot Milk Cake, very little can go wrong.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Milk: This recipe uses a technique called scalding which heats the milk, thus the name Hot Milk Cake. Do not substitute buttermilk.
Step-by-step instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup tube pan or Bundt cake pan. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Stir in milk and vanilla and continue to heat until small bubbles form around the outside of the pan and the mixture is very hot but not boiling. Reduce heat to low.
- Meanwhile, in an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 minutes.
- Once the egg and sugar mixture has tripled in volume, slowly add the hot milk mixture, mixing on low speed until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in two batches, mixing after each addition until just incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, checking at 55 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean, with a few crumbs attached, but do not over-bake.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack or serving plate to cool completely.
- Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This cake makes 12 delicious slices of Hot Milk Cake (or more or less depending on how you slice it).
- Storage: Store extra cake covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Cool Hot Milk Cake to room temperature, then wrap tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight at room temperature.
- Cinnamon: Add a dash of cinnamon for extra spice and warmth.
- Almond Hot Milk Cake: Add almond extract in place of the vanilla and top with slivered almonds.
- Chocolate Hot Milk Cake: Add ¼ cup of your best cocoa powder to the dry ingredients in step 1, and scald chocolate milk for an ethereal chocolate cake that’s just as easy to make.
- Hot Milk Cake with fruit: This cake makes an excellent peach, plum, or Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Arrange fruit on the bottom of the cake pan, pour batter over, then bake as directed. Invert before serving.
Caramel Coconut Topping for Hot Milk Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar, packed
- 1 ½ cups butter
- ½ cup evaporated milk (or half and half)
- 2 cups shredded coconut
- ¾ cup chopped nuts
Directions:
- Bring butter, evaporated milk, and sugar to a boil, stirring to melt the sugar.
- Remove from heat and stir in coconut and chopped nuts.
- Spread mixture on the warm cake and place under the broiler until golden, watching the topping closely.
Recipe FAQs
One of the first sightings of Hot Milk Cake was in 1911, but it continued to grow in popularity due to it’s simplicity. It really became a well-known recipe during the Great Depression, where modest food had to stretch to feed hungry families, and every last drop of food was used and saved. Grandmothers and mothers had to make do with what they had, and often the last of the day’s milk was used to make this simple cake for special occasions.
While I haven’t personally tested this, readers have successfully made this cake with as little as half the amount of sugar. That can be helpful if you’re looking to cut back on your sugar intake, or you’re planning to serve it with my caramel coconut topping.
This is the kind of cake that I could easily nibble all afternoon until there was nothing left, but if you have patience and intend to serve this for dessert, try a dollop of whipped cream, some fresh berries, or a scoop of ice cream. Readers also love chocolate sauce on top.
More fabulous cakes to try
Cake Recipes
Danish Layer Cake (Dansk Lagekage)
Chocolate Recipes
Slow Cooker Chocolate Lava Cake
Cake Recipes
Vanilla Cheesecake
Cake Recipes
Pig Pickin Cake
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Hot Milk Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting the pan
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup milk (see note 1)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- Powdered sugar for dusting, optional
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup tube pan or Bundt cake pan. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Stir in milk and vanilla and continue to heat until small bubbles form around the outside of the pan and the mixture is very hot but not boiling. Reduce heat to very low.
- Meanwhile, in an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 minutes.
- Once the egg and sugar mixture has tripled in volume, slowly add the hot milk mixture, mixing on low speed until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in two batches, mixing after each addition until just incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, checking at 55 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean, with a few crumbs attached, but do not over-bake.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack or serving plate to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Milk: This recipe uses a technique called scalding which heats the milk, thus the name Hot Milk Cake. Do not substitute buttermilk.
- Yield: This cake makes 12 delicious slices of Hot Milk Cake (or more or less depending on how you slice it).
- Storage: Store extra cake covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Cool Hot Milk Cake to room temperature, then wrap tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight at room temperature.
Loved this cake!! It was gone in minutes. Is it possible to use gluten free flour? I want to make it for a friends bday
Thanks
Hi Erica, I haven’t tested this with gluten-free flour but a few other readers have! One used half coconut flour and half gluten-free flour and the other subbed with gluten-free flour entirely and both were successful! Hope this helps. – Meggan
I made this recipe with half coconut flour and half gluten-free flour! Delicious!
Awesome Abby, so glad you enjoyed! – Meggan
Excellent, easy, really foolproof recipe! I make cakes all the time, but never a hot milk version. It produces a denser, very moist cake. I’ve made this many times since and my family loves it every time. Thank you for this easy recipe!
Thanks Fay, I’m so glad everyone enjoyed! – Meggan
Worst result I’ve ever had baking…did everything to a t… watched the video… went over the ingredients and directions several times…made sure my Bundt pan was greased and floured….not only did it not rise or but it seemed like it fell.. it didn’t even come out of the Bundt pan…. waste of time and money to buy ingredients… I’m at high altitude so I don’t know if I should added something to the mix… either way it’s inedible I hope the chickens will at least eat it ….
Hi Gabriel, I’m so sorry that this was such a bad experience. I’ve not gotten the opportunity to test this for high altitude baking, but keeping the altitude in mind, I would suggest baking the cake at a higher temperature by 15 to 25 degrees, and the baking time reduced. Again, I’m so sorry your cake was ruined! Hopefully these adjustments could help in the future. -Meggan
Made this cake for the first time with a few changes which may explain why it overflowed in the bundt pan and then sank in the middle?! Fortunately, all was fine once the cake was inverted because it looked and tasted great! I made the Apricot Almond Hot Milk Cake version per the recipe except I also substituted one egg with 4 Tb egg whites. Per recipe options, I used 1 cup almond flour and 1 cup all purpose flour. I also added 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots and 1/4 cup slivered almonds. Could any of these changes have caused my cake to fall? Next time, I will make the original recipe!
Hi Diane! Wow, sorry about your cake! It may have been all the substitutions, or sometimes cakes can fall if they are over mixed or they are not all the way done when pulled out of the oven. I’m so sorry about your cake! – Meggan
I make this cake all the time and add a cinnamon sugar topping to it at the end of baking.Once the cake is baked, I poke holes with a fork then drizzle melted butter on the top and then sprinkle cinnamon sugar over. It is delicious!
I just made this and it was SO DELICIOUS! I am 70 years old and have cooked and baked for about 50 years. I never have seen a recipe called hot milk cake until today. Maybe because my mom was from Paris, France and she taught me different types of baking. I switched out a few ingredients: 1 cup flour 1 cup coconut flour, 1 cup coconut milk, 1 1/2 cups vanilla sugar, 3 teaspoons vanilla. I used a flute pan.
DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS! Thank you! We have a new delious coconut “pound” cake! YUM, YUM, YUM!
honestly just a baked dude who makes baked stuff when baked sometimes and this is really good and easy to make lol
If you use cake flour, what is the amount,?
Thank you
Can you clarify the chocolate version? Are you using BOTH cocoa powder AND chocolate milk? Or just adding the cocoa power to the milk and that’s what makes it chocolate-y enough? Also, ever tried with whole milk?
Thank you!