Retro recipe: Sour milk cake

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Aug 25th 2008 @ 1:58PM

Ever since I switched to buying raw milk in bottles a couple of months ago, I've been searching with ways to use up slightly sour milk. I'm working at incorporating more milk into my diet and cooking, so that I'm able to use it up before it goes off, but I'm just not always able to manage it. However, I'm learning that there are a number of ways to incorporate the sour milk into cooking and baking and I'm beginning to see it as a culinary asset as opposed to a hassle that must be dealt with if I want to prevent waste.

Saturday afternoon, knowing that I had about two cups of sour milking hanging out in the fridge, I started googling around and discovered that in addition to biscuits, pancakes and waffles, a number of people make cake using sour milk. There was one story that I found particularly endearing, about how when one woman was young, she and her siblings would hide a glass of milk in the back of the fridge, so that it would sour and their mother would have to make this cake.

I cobbled together pieces of several recipes and came out with a cake that was light, fluffy and with just a bit of tang from the milk. I used a lot of cinnamon and so it ended up tasting a bit like coffee cake. The next time I make it, I think I'll dust the top with the turbinado sugar, in order to end up with a caramelized, crunchy top. It would make a great addition to a brunch menu, or would be wonderful for a special treat, especially topped with a cream cheese frosting. The recipe for my sour milk cake is after the jump.

Cinnamon Sour Milk Cake

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sour milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9 inch square baking pan.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add in egg, sour milk and vanilla. Stir to combine and set aside.

Mix together all dry ingredients (I tend to skip the sifting step and just combine using a whisk).

Add half the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to incorporate. Repeat and stir until batter is just combined.

Pour into the baking pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes (until a cake tester comes out clean). If you decide to try sprinkling the top with sugar, as I suggested earlier, I would recommend doing it after the cake has been baking about fifteen minutes. That way you give the cake a chance to spread and set up, but the top is still moist enough to accept the topping. This cake would also be amazing if you included a half cup of toasted and chopped pecans or walnuts.

Filed Under: Methods
Tags: baking, frugal cooking, FrugalCooking, sour milk, sour milk cake, SourMilk, SourMilkCake

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-29-2008 @10:31AM Dawn said... Great recipe, yummy!
I had just gone apple picking and had lots to use up.
When I made this cake, I placed approx 1/2 the batter in the pan, spread it out, then layered one large cored & thinly sliced apple. Sprinkled a bit of brown sugar over the apples, then added the rest of the batter.
Came out great!
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