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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.
Hi Meggan, I made this last night and my son gave it the thumbs up. Never known him to do that before so it’s a real winner. Looks like I need to make another because it’s just about all gone and it’s only 9am the next morning! I used buttermilk in it since I had some that needed using. It was my first bundt cake ever and it came out looking amazing. Thanks!
Hi Sue, hooray! That’s so great to hear! Thanks for sharing your story, I love hearing that your son gave the cake the thumb’s up. That’s always the true test! Take care and thanks again. 🙂
This is my new cake recipes. Today I added Hersey’s cocoa to make a strawberry short cake. I don’t think there will be any leftovers 🙂
Chocolate strawberry shortcake?! Yeah, there wouldn’t be any leftovers in my house either. 🙂 Great idea, I can’t wait to try adding cocoa powder myself! Thanks for the comment. 🙂
How much cocoa powder did you use.
I just baked this delicious cake! So easy to make! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Thank you Mardia, I’m so glad that worked out for you and that you enjoyed it. 🙂 Take care!
It is ok! AWESOME CAKE! I made it last night, it was amazing!
Hello! Great recipe! How many calories and grams of sugar is in this cake?
Hi Maggie, I’m actually not sure! I don’t normally compute nutrition information for my recipes although it’s something I’d love to add going forward. Sorry about that!
It’s ok! ?? AWESOME CAKE! I made it last night.. SO GOOD!!
Well that’s what matters! I’m glad you liked it. 🙂 Take care!
Hi Maggie, I have finally started adding nutrition info to my recipes and this Hot Milk Cake was top of my list because of your question! Assuming you cut your cake into 12 slices, each slice would be 311 calories with 34.5 grams of sugar. The full nutrition label is on the blog post now, right under the recipe. Thanks for your question!
Help! I have made this cake twice now following the recipe step by step. Both times it has overflowed in the oven and also takes twice as long to bake. What am I doing wrong?! After it is baked through, it’s a mess, but it tastes amazing so I’d really like to bake it successfully at least once.
Hi Allyson! OH NO! What a disaster. I am so sorry, especially since it sounds like my cake = messy oven. :-/ So the first thing is, it sounds like the cake pan might be (must be?) too small. So, I asked my Grandma and she said it should be at least a 12-cup pan. I never specified that (my mistake), I just said tube pan or bundt pan. I must have one that fits the batter and you might not. I’m so sorry! If the walls are not tall enough, that might be contributing to it needing more baking time. Why don’t you look into the capacity of your pan and we can go from there. Do you happen to live in at a high altitude or in a super humid environment or anything like that? I doubt it, but that’s all I can think of to crack this case. :-/ Let me know about your pan size!!! Sorry again.
Okay I feel so stupid now because of course that’s the problem! lol I never even thought of that. I compared my bundt pan to my mom’s and her’s is much larger than mine, so next time I’ll borrow hers or make cupcakes with the rest of the batter that doesn’t fit.
Yes well I’M the idiot that never specified the size of the pan… and do they even MAKE different bundt pan sizes??? I mean, obviously they do, but I never even considered that. So I’m sorry for all the wasted effort on your part. 🙂 Lesson learned! Glad you sorted it out in the end.
Hi the cake sounds great but i’m a bit of a novice can you tell what kind of flour it is you are using
john
Hi John, no problem! We all start out as novices. I just used basic all-purpose flour, nothing fancy. Probably generic brand knowing me! Good luck.
Thanks for the recipe!
But what’s up with this in your notes? : “Reduce the baking powder from 2 teaspoons to 1 1/2 teaspoons. Add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.”
When using buttermilk, I have to remove 1/2 spoon of baking powder, and then add it back in?
That’s the worst written recipe note, ever. I’m so sorry. The second mention of 1/2 teaspoon baking powder should actually be baking SODA. I’m just an idiot who can’t proofread. Thanks for finding it and pointing it out so I can correct it. It should be 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. Sorry Robert.
Ah, OK! So that’s resolved. I’ll be making this on Saturday, with buttermilk. Looking forward to it.
And you’re not an idiot. Your website is a very good and enjoyable read.
Thanks for being kind and understanding. I hope you love the cake! It’s a favorite in my house and I’ve had several emails from other readers who say it reminds them of what they had growing up. Here’s hoping it meets all your expectations! Thanks again for everything.
I baked the cake today. And it is delicious.
My son (22) visited and he always dumps whipped cream on cake. I told him that it was a new recipe and to try without. He ate all 4 slices without whipped cream. You are right, it does taste excellent.
Thanks!
What a great story! If you can get your son to eat it without whipped cream, then that really says something. Thanks for sharing. I haven’t made this cake in a while, so I think it’s time. You’ve convinced me. Thanks again for your comments!
I tried this recipe last weekend. It’s soooo yummy and easy to make.
Thank you for sharing!
You made it?! Hooray! Yes, it’s such a good cake. I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it. 😀 Take care!
Of course I meant IT turned out beautiful… not I! 🙂