Old Southern Standby's

I am kicking off this new blog with a recipe for a cake that I just made this week for a friend's birthday. The recipe is for Hot Milk Cake with Caramel Icing. When you mix this up, do not be freaked out by the consistency. It is fairly thin, but bakes up beautifully. When I made this, I poured the batter into 2 round pans to make a layer cake. After pouring the icing over it, I wished I had done it as a 9x13 "sheet" cake. The icing is quite thin; however, it hardens up as it cools on the cake. You do not have to use the Caramel Icing for this cake, that is just what I used.

Before I give you the recipe, I will say that unless otherwise noted, I use the hound out of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer for all my recipes. I typically let batter beat on medium high for a minimum of 4 minutes. I use the paddle attachment and do stop halfway through to scrape down the sides of the bowl. If you do not have a stand mixer, a GOOD hand mixer will work just fine. Blah Blah Blah onto the recipe!!

Hot Milk Cake

Preheat oven to 325 and grease/spray either 2 round pans or a 9x13 pan.

Beat together:
4 eggs (preferably room temperature)
2 cups sugar

Add in:
2 cups sifted flour (I only use Swans Down, but regular flour is okay too!)
2 teaspoons baking powder

Let this beat/mix until the flour in mixed in and then add:

1 cup milk, in which you have melted 1 stick of butter

Beat this mixture for about 4 minutes and then add:

1 teaspoon PURE vanilla extract

Pour batter into prepared pan at bake for 30-35 minutes or until knife comes out clean from the center. Cool.

Caramel Icing

Boil together the following:
2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt

Boil until the temperature reaches 'soft ball' on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.

Beat (I used a hand mixer at this point) adding up to 1/2 cup more of milk while beating to prevent icing from becoming cement.

Pour over cake. let the icing "set up" on the cake before cutting.

Enjoy.........Let me know how it goes for you!

A few additional notes:

I only use real unsalted butter. I also only use a good quality pure vanilla extract. If you belong to Costco or BJ's, you can get a 16 oz bottle for short money. Seriously y'all, please do NOT use that cheap imitation mess that cost 99 cents at Wal-mart. If you are taking the time and effort to make a "from scratch" cake, then use quality ingredients.

Can't wait to hear from you! xoxox