Recipe from Christmas Cake Day
Ingredients:
3 cups of sifted flour (I don’t always sift mine)
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of butter (two sticks slightly softened)
4 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk ─regular evaporated, not sweetened condensed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 TABLESPOON baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Grease and flour 4 cake pans.
*You can use three and monitor closely. I’ve never used two pans but you can try and see. I’ve probably made this into a sheet cake as well. I’ve also made this into cupcakes, a standard back in the day when we brought food to class birthday parties or potlucks.
Get out your stand mixer or hand mixer and get ready to beat this thing together.
1. Cream butter
2. Add sugar and beat well
3. Add eggs one at a time and continue beating until fairly fluffy
4. Mix salt into the flour.
5. Using a 2-cup measuring cup, fill with one cup of evaporated milk and add the tablespoon of baking powder. Stir. It should puff up. (Mine puffed up to the 1¾ mark) Then add one teaspoon vanilla. Pour half of the milk mixture into the batter, beat. Add a cup of the flour mixture and continue beating.
6. Add remaining flour and milk mixtures to the batter. Beat well. After you add the remaining milk mixture add about two tablespoons of water to the measuring cup and slosh it around to collect the remains of the mixture and add it to the batter.
The batter should be nice and light, sweet, and creamy yellowish white. Scoop out and spread evenly into your cake pans. Place all four pans in the oven.
These will bake for 15-20 minutes. 350 degrees
Put two pans on the top rack and two on the next shelf down. After ten minutes switch up the pans for more even baking.
After five minutes take a peek.
The layers will be light yellow, and if you touch them, they should have a little spring, but your pints may show just a little. If the edges are beginning to look golden pull them out. After a few minutes when the pans are cool to the touch you may want to remove the cakes and allow them to finish cooling on waxed paper.
Please make your own necessary adjustments for high altitude. This is a sea level recipe.
When frosting, pierce the layer several times with a fork. Cover with frosting. Add the next layer, pierce and repeat.
Typically we frost this with a stovetop chocolate fudge frosting.
I use the leftover evaporated milk in the frosting.
At Christmas we also make a stovetop vanilla meringue icing that gets coated with freshly ground coconut or candy canes both between layers and on top.
