Low fat hot milk sponge cake

Coming off the delicious high of the chocolate lava cake and cookies, I wanted to make something low fat. So I opted for a simple cake. The hot milk sponge cake is nice and easy because it doesn’t require you to beat the egg white and yolks separately. I believe that this changes the crumb of the cake a bit. Compared to the chiffon cake, this cake has a very fine and even crumb with no opportunity for large air bubbles.

For this recipe, I adjusted a hot milk sponge cake recipe I found on RecipeZaar. I used directions from Alice Medrich’s hot milk sponge cake because her sponge cake is the best I’ve ever made. It retains its moistness days later and freezes very well. However, there are many egg yolds and more fat in that I recipe and I wanted to see if I could cut down on that.

Taste: The aroma was nice and it was definitely delectable. For my tastes, it was a tad on the sweet side. So I think that I would cut back on the sugar to 1/3 cup and see if it still tasted sweet enough. I will try to cut down on the baking powder to 1/4-1/2tsp. I think that this might have affected the depth of the flavour, so I would adjust this before increasing the butter a bit.

Texture: It was very very soft and moist. I really liked the fine crumb of this compared to the chiffon cake. So I think that I would prefer to make this to the chiffon cake because the crumb is more beautiful. Sorry, but the picture doesn’t do it justice. The compromise is in the height of the cake, as it is not as high as the chiffon. But this cake will also give more consistent results, and there is not as much room for error in the folding.

Hot Milk Sponge Cake

A: 1/2 cup skim milk

1tsp butter

1/2tsp vanilla extract

B: 3.5oz cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

C: 1/2cup sugar

2eggs

1/4tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line your pan. I used a 6″ round pan.

2. Heat A in a small pan over medium heat until butter melts, then turn to the lowest setting to keep hot, but not simmering.

3. Sift B twice. Return to sifter.

4. Whisk C together over a pan of barely simmering water until lukewarm. Then beat at high speed until volume has tripled and mixture has cooled. It should look like thick whipped cream.

5. Sift B into C in thirds and fold in until almost no flour is obvious.

6. Pour A into batter and fold well until it is homogenous.

7. Baking times depend on your pan. I cooked it for 30min. Check doneness with a cake tested inserted into the center. It should be golden brown. Unmold after 5min of cooling in the pan. Continue cooling on the rack.