Quick & Easy Hot Milk Sponge Cake with Lemon Glacé Icing

I like to try out new recipes or different recipes for the same thing and decide which recipe I think is the best and I came across this recipe for a Hot Milk Sponge cake in my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. I wanted to make a cake for my friend´s birthday so I thought I´d give the recipe a try.





The recipe was really easy to follow and very quick, ideal for when you need to whip up a cake but don´t have much time to spare. It also looks like the resulting sponge cake is very light and fluffy and it gave off a lovely aroma as it was baking. What´s more it´s only 180 calories so it´s fairly low fat.Here is the recipe for the cake as given in Better Homes & Gardens:





Ingredients





2 eggs (it is better if they have been left at room temperature for around 30 mins as apparently when you whisk them, they will have more volume)


1 cup plain flour


1 tsp baking powder


1 cup sugar


1/2 cup milk


2 tbsp butter





Method





1.Grease a cake tin (I used a 22/23 cm round cake tin) although the recipe called for a 9x9x2 inch square tin). Mix flour and baking powder together.


2. Whisk eggs together till thick, gradually add sugar and continue whisking till light & fluffy.


3. Add egg mixture to flour and stir till combined.


4. Heat milk and butter in a pan until butter has melted. Add to flour mixture and mix well.


5.Pour mixture into cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 350º (180ºC) for 20-25 mins.





I decided to decorate the cake with a simple Lemon Glacé icing (adapted from The Dairy Book of Home Cookery)once it had cooled:



Lemon Glacé Icing

225g sifted icing sugar
roughly 1tsp grated lemon peel
2 tbsp of lemon juice ( It seemed a bit stiff so I added a dessertspoon of hot water and about another 1/4 tsp lemon juice)
2-4 drops of yellow food colouring (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together till all ingredients are blended and you get a stiff(ish) but spreadable icing. I only added two drops of food colouring but as you can see on the photo, the icing is a very pale yellow (so pale that it even looks white!) so next time I will double the amount to end up with a stronger yellow. I wanted to use up some of the decorations I already have so I used my chocolate and pink icing pens to write "Happy Birthday" and draw flowers using silver balls as the flower centres. I thought the pink flowers and pale yellow would reflect the colours of spring. It´s quite cute but fairly amateurish....don´t think I would win the Great British Bake Off just yet! I really need to brush up on my piping skills!