Hot Milk Easter Cake

This cake is one of my favorite cakes holding some of my favorite memories. This cake is the cake that my grandma made every Easter when I was a little girl. Every year without fail, it always had tinted green coconut with jelly beans tucked in all around the top. It was as reliable as Easter Mass every year when I was a child.

It's a good cake; it's from scratch. But the real reason it's one of my very favorite cakes is because when I mix the batter, I think about my grandma. And when I whip the frosting, I think about my grandma. And with each and every sweet, tender bite, I think about my grandma. To me that is a perfect food. Not only does it taste good, but it evokes emotion.

The coconut is, technically, optional if you have coconut haters. Just stick the jellybeans into the frosting. You could use candy coated chocolate eggs, but there is just something special about those brightly-colored jelly beans on the green coconut top.

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Hot Milk Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 t. baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 stick (1/2 c.) butter
pinch salt
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8" round pans (or oblong pan).

Sift flour and baking powder four times (this is an old recipe so I don't know if four times is necessary, but if it was good enough for grandma it's good enough for me).

Scald milk (heat just until bubbles appear around the edges of the pan), then turn off and add butter; cool.

Beat eggs and salt with a mixer until foamy. Add sugar one spoonful at a time; beat (again -- old recipe -- I just sort let it rain into the mixing bowl. If you're using a hand mixer, add 1/4 cup at a time). Then add flour one spoonful at a time (I add about 1/4 cup at a time). Add milk and butter, and vanilla and beat until very creamy (don't overbeat -- just until creamy).

Bake at 350 degrees, 25 minutes for two round pans; 40 minutes for 13 x 9 pan, until toothpick comes out clean.

Do not overbake.

Frost with any frosting -- I use buttercream like the recipe below, and top with tinted coconut.

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
1 T. vanilla extract

milk as needed to make frosting of spreading consistency

Beat butter until creamy. Slowly beat in powdered sugar. Add extract and milk as needed for a creamy, spreadable consistency.

Copyright 2017 Barbara Stein