Hot Milk Cakes with Strawberries and Cream

Prior baking these hot milk cakes from the book, Bon Appetit by Barbara Fairchild, I have seen many positive opinions of this kind of sponge cake. Some say that it is the hot milk that makes the cake very moist. Some say it is a traditional American sponge cake recipe that can't go wrong. Some say it is so simple yet so good...

Hot milk cake? According to its name and Wikipedia, hot milk cake gets its distinctive flavour from the addition of scalded milk. Instead of beating the yolks and whites separately, this kind of sponge cakes are made by beating the whole eggs together, then followed by the addition of flour plus baking powder and scalded milk-butter mixture.

When Joyce from Kitchen Flavours suggested baking miniature hot milk cakes with strawberries and cream for our bake-along with Lena from Frozen wings, I'm super excited!!! This is me feeling lots of positive aura when I baked my hot milk cakes...

Hot milk cakes with strawberries and cream

Using an electric mixer, I beat an egg and sugar until pale and thick.

Then, I did these...

Here is the HOT milk!!!

I can't wait to "test" one of these!!!

Wow! Wow! Wow! It is true that it can be so simple and yet so good!!!

I cheated!!! - Instead of using an electric mixer to whip the cream, I'm using this easy and reduced fat option.

Instead of adding sugar into my strawberries, I'm enjoying my cakes with a dollop of homemade strawberry jam.

As much as I don't wish to "cheat", I can't deny that it is a hassle to use an electric mixer to whip only 1/4 cup of cream as required for half of this recipe.

After baking and enjoying these cakes, my husband came home with a parcel of interesting gadgets from Tovolo (Australia) and one of them is this...

A mini whipper!!! Hurray!!!

I have to explore this interesting tool instantly! And, this is what I found ...

1) I tried it with regular and reduced fat cream and found that it works well with cream with 35% fat. This is not a surprise to me because NO electric mixer with whisk attachment can whip any cream that is less than 35% fat too!

The reduced fat cream thickens but it is still sloppy!

2) I tried whipping with a minimal amount of 2 tablespoons (30ml) of cream and up to 60ml and found that 60ml works better.

Yay! The silly me was excited when I saw this!!!

3) Do you know that excess whipping of cream can cause cream to become butter and it can be a nightmare to wash!!! Whether I'm over-whipping the cream or not, I'm happy that this mini whipper is dishwasher safe. To wash, press pump handle and lock it into the lid. Do the same to minimise space for storage.

Do this to wash mini whipper in dishwasher or store it.

Yay! - Now, I can enjoy freshly whipped cream anytime I want!!!

Wish that I receive this gadget before I had baked these cakes... maybe again if I can find some extra time to bake these cakes again... 

Here's the recipe that is mostly adapted from the book, Bon Appetit by Barbara Fairchild or here

Note: The original uses 2 eggs to bake 6 cakes but I have used half the recipe to bake 4 cakes

Makes 4 cakes / servings

Non stick vegetable oil spray
1 extra-large eggs, 70-80g
65g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or paste
85g self-rising flour, preferably the cake flour kind with 7-9% protein, sifted
80ml (1/3 cup) milk
40g unsalted butter
4-8 strawberries, to serve
1/4 cup chilled heavy whipped cream

icing sugar to dust, optional and I didn't do that.

strawberry jam, optional to serve - I made mine using the recipe from here.

Preheat oven to 425°F or 200°C fan forced. Spray four 3/4-cup (180ml) baking cups or ramekins with non stick spray. Using electric mixer, beat egg in a mixing bowl at high speed until thick about 3 mins. Gradually beat in sugar; beat until thick and pale yellow, about 4 mins.Beat in vanilla into the egg mixture. At this stage, decrease mixing speed to low. Add flour and beat 30 secs or until well combined.

Meanwhile, bring milk and butter just to boil in small saucepan, stirring until butter melts. Add hot milk mixture to batter; beat in low speed for 30 secs or until mixture is well blended and smooth. Divide batter among prepared cups. Place cups on a baking tray.

Bake cakes until tops rise (tall rounded peak will form in center of each), turn pale golden, and are firm to touch, about 14-16 mins (I baked mine for 14 mins). Cool in cups at least 20 mins. Transfer cakes to a wire rack to cool completely at room temperature.

Place cakes into serving bowls. Serve them with strawberries, whipped cream, icing sugar and strawberry jam.

Happy Baking

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Please note that the linky tool for bake-along is no longer available.