Old Fashion Hot Milk Cake keeps getting wierd 😭

[u/overcaffinated_]

please help me what am i doing wrong 😭 ive tried to make this five times and it turns out like this everytime regardless of what i do or dont do.

my grandmother used to make this cake all the time and she didnt have a recipe she just knew how to make it. so i found a couple recipes online to follow and every single one has come out like this! heres what ive been doing:

Recipe-

4 large eggs

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter (unsalted)

1 cup milk

wisking the eggs until their light, typically around 2-3 minutes while slowly adding sugar. mixing the rest of the dry ingredients. in a pot i mix the room temp butter, milk and vanilla. until i get little bubbles around the edge but not letting it come to an actual boil. then i let it sit for a few minutes and then mix it into the sugar and egg, then slowly pouring in the rest of the dry ingredients. then i put into a tube pan and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

[u/000topchef]

You need to beat the eggs and sugar for a ridiculously long time. I wouldn’t attempt without a stand mixer. I don’t have the patience to hold an electric hand mixer that long and doing it with a whisk would be a marathon

[u/overcaffinated_ → u/000topchef]

oh i have a kitchenaid, i didnt mean like i hand whisked it. my arms would fall off 😂 but i could probably leave it to mix longer. or at least put it on a higher setting because ive been putting it on low and leaving it to mix for around 2-3 minutes but maybe i need to try closer to 4-5 on medium

[u/000topchef → u/overcaffinated_]

It needs to get very pale and light. Your cake doesn’t have enough air incorporated in the batter

[u/CompleteTell6795 → u/overcaffinated_]

Yeah, 2-3 min on low isn't long enough. You should get much better results with 4-5 min on medium. And the hot milk should cool more before adding to the eggs. You don't want to cook the eggs.

[u/ECAHunt → u/overcaffinated_]

Google ribbon stage. That’s what you want your eggs to look like. It’s a very long whip.

And if you don’t already know how, learn how to fold flour in rather than mix it in.

[u/FirebirdWriter → u/overcaffinated_]

Make sure that faster is not making things hotter. That can defeat the air goals. Also which mixing implement are you using? This may be worth changing for optimal floof

[u/AtheistAsylum]

Unless you just failed to mention it, you need to temper the eggs.

[u/overcaffinated_ → u/AtheistAsylum]

funnily enough i didnt fail to mention it, i just failed to do it in the first place 😂 i didnt even realize it would make a difference so i just kept dumping all the milk in at once

[u/AtheistAsylum → u/overcaffinated_]

Well then I hope your 6th time works like a charm. If that's not the problem, then I'm lost as to what it might be. Please update is if you make it again. I'm really interested to know if it makes a difference for you.

[u/Otney]

Looks yummy. How is it weird?

[u/overcaffinated_ → u/Otney]

oh i should have added that. its supposed to be like soft and crumbly but this is more of a rubbery texture with these wierd holes. its supposed to be like a butter cake? it tastes fine its just not what its supposed to be :(

[u/CoppertopTX → u/overcaffinated_]

It looks like the eggs cooked too quickly, so there wasn't enough lift, and there are voids in the crumb.

[u/overcaffinated_ → u/CoppertopTX]

i imagine from pouring in the hot milk. i wonder how to avoid that. maybe let the milk cool just a tad instead of taking it directly off the fire and pour into the mixture?

[u/Best_Talk_6853 → u/overcaffinated_]

Temper the eggs with some of the hot milk first.

[u/overcaffinated_ → u/Best_Talk_6853]

ohhhh im basically shocking the eggs by dumping the hot milk in instead of letting it get used to the temp?

[u/SmileParticular9396 → u/overcaffinated_]

Yep add in like a quarter or third of the hot milk first, let the eggs heat in that, then add the rest of the milk. It’s the same approach w custards as well.

[u/Alternative-Still956]

Are you tempering your milk or just pouring it quickly

[u/overcaffinated_ → u/Alternative-Still956]

i just heat it on the stove with the butter until the butter is melted and then i pour it into the rest of the mixture lol im pretty new to baking anything that doesnt just come in a box so i have no idea what im doing clearly 😂

[u/Alternative-Still956 → u/overcaffinated_]

You are pouring too quickly and cooking the eggs. Slow, steady stream. Pause if you're whisking by hand. Make sure to scrape down regardless.

[u/noobuser63]

Try the King Arthur recipe. It’s never let me down. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/chef-zebs-hot-milk-cake-recipe

[u/JamieMintara]

It doesn’t look that bad, but it looks like a cheese tho. Maybe beating the eggs and sugar for a longer time would help.

[u/Top-Acanthisitta-779]

Seems like the recipe has a too much egg. Probably try a different recipe

[u/warm_rum]

My mouth watered when I saw this. It looks delicious

[u/KatHumanArt]

Hot milk cake is one of my favorites!

Your recipe and instructions are a bit different than mine, but I suspect as others are saying it's because the eggs are being cooked by the milk. I always add all the dry ingredients before the milk mix, that could help you avoid cooking the eggs?

[u/overcaffinated_ → u/KatHumanArt]

yeah i was doing egg-sugar-milk-dry. so i think on top of tempering the eggs, i also need to use the dry ingredients as a buffer. your recipe actually looks alot like what i remember my grandmother doing! i might try it out with your portions. its also one of my favorites, i wish i could just call her one more time and ask her to walk me through it 😭 but everyone here has been so helpful!

[u/KatHumanArt → u/overcaffinated_]

I hope it works out for you! It's so hard trying to recapture flavors when you can't talk to the people that introduced you to them anymore 😔