The month leading up to my 3 year old’s birthday, he told everyone who would listen that his cake will be a strawberry cake! Maybe it’s because I have been making the Berry Tea Cake a lot recently and he loved the berry-ness so much that he wanted his birthday cake to be just like that!
I decided to make something a bit more special than my berry tea cake for a kids birthday cake – that I made him my Mom’s hot milk sponge. The hot milk sponge is a cake my mom learned to make while she was at high school in home economics class and was her “go-to” birthday cake to make each year for mine and my sister’s birthday parties.
I’ve tweaked the recipe, only slightly and covered it in homemade buttercream icing and pink and orange sprinkles. Yes, my 3 year old son’s birthday cake was covered in pink sprinkles. It was his request – after all he wanted a STRAWBERRY cake, and what’s more strawberry thank pink sprinkles? I used all natural sprinkles and ingredients.I topped the cake with fresh strawberries, making the cake a little more neutral than an all-pink cake!
Hot Milk Sponge Recipe
2 Cups Unbleached Plain Flour (where to find unbleached plain flour)
2 teaspoons Aluminium Free Baking Powder (where to find alumiunium free baking powder)
pinch of Salt
60g (2.11 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Water
4 Eggs
3/4 Cup Raw Sugar (where to find raw sugar)
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (where to find vanilla extract)
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C (347°F) and grease a baking tin. (I’ve used both square and round for this cake)
2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
3. Combine the butter, milk and water together in a small saucepan over a low heat on the stove top. Heat until the butter is melted then remove from heat and allow to cool.
4. In a large bowl, using electric beaters, beat the eggs until smooth and thick.
5. Add the sugar and vanilla to the beaten eggs and continue beating until smooth.
6. Gently fold the flour mixture through the egg mixture until well combined.
7. Lastly, pour the butter mixture over the cake batter and quickly mix through until you have a smooth cake batter.
8. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
9. Allow to cool completely before icing.
This is a really wonderful cake to make with the kids. They love measuring and sifting and mixing the ingredients. If you’d like to get cooking with your kids in the kitchen, then this Kids Cooking Set will help:
To assemble the cake, I took my cooked and completely cooled hot milk sponge cake…
I then gathered together a bowlful of sliced strawberries, the natural colored sprinkles, made a batch of natural icing and got my icing knives ready. It’s really important to be organized and have everything at the ready so the decorating process can be a seamless one. (where to find an icing knife)
I then iced the cake and topped it sparingly with sprinkles. I wanted just enough for the color to be there without adding mountains of sugar in addition to the sugar in the cake and icing!
Finally, I placed his candle in the middle and surrounded it with sliced strawberries.
Here’s the moment of glory. The candle lit and the cake about to be enjoyed…
The kids (and adults) enjoyed the cake and Mr 3 ADORED the strawberries!
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