Welcome to our blog! It has been years in the making but we are finally ready to launch it. It all started with my grandmother’s recipe box and my mother’s desire to workshop and perfect the recipes before sharing them with our family in a cookbook. It did not take us long to realize that this was no easy task and could potentially take years before completing. So, I thought, let’s start a blog and share the recipes as we workshop them, and why stop there? Why not share the recipes we have gathered ourselves over the years? Now here we are, and I must say that we are both nervous and excited to put ourselves and our recipes out there for all to see. Perhaps some of these will inspire you to create your own memories, we sincerely hope they do.
It was not easy deciding which recipe we wanted to start our blog with. It had to be a recipe we were confident with and one that has a close tie to our family. After thinking about it long and hard we decided to start with a recipe that has been baked by four generations of our family, Lazy Daisy cake.
Neither mom nor I have specific memories surrounding this cake, it’s just been in our lives for as long as we both can remember. Mom has vague memories of having it at family gatherings or making it for us from time to time. For myself, I will always remember making this cake with my mom in preparation for this blog. We have had so much fun together, so I think that now, whenever I have a piece of this delicious cake, I will think back to the memories we created together in our kitchen.
It’s not a great mystery as to why this cake has always been around in our family. It is easy to make and is perfect for whipping up when company is coming over or if you are having a craving for something sweet.
The base of this cake starts with a hot milk sponge cake, a cake which is light but springy and e sturdy. It differs from a butter cake or box cake in that you often slice and serve the cake directly from the pan and is best to eat with your hands. You can try using a fork, but you will most likely end up lifting the entire piece of cake off your plate. The cake itself is not overly sweet making it very versatile for other applications but the magic of the lazy daisy cake comes from the caramelly, coconutty, topping.
Cake Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp butter
½ cup milk
Between the cake and topping this recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of butter. There are four tablespoons in a 1/4 cup. Divide the butter into four, set aside three tablespoons for the topping.
We prefer salted butter, but unsalted will work as well.
Next heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan. Remove when the butter has melted and steam starts to rise from the milk, set aside to cool.
When measuring your dry ingredients it is important to measure the flour correctly. Use a spoon or small measuring cup to scoop the flour into your dry 1 cup measure before leveling the flour with a straight edge. If you use your measuring cup to scoop the flour it will pack the flour down and you will end up with more flour than the recipe calls for. This may result in a dry cake.
Once measured sift flour, salt and baking powder in a small bowl or thoroughly whisk.
Next beat eggs on medium speed gradually adding the sugar until it reaches the ribbon stage. The texture should be thick, almost foamy. The colour should have lightened to pale yellow and the volume will have increased to approximately three times the amount. Getting the eggs and sugar to this stage will allow your cake to rise properly.
Add the flour mixture to the batter beating gently on low speed until incorporated. Combine the vanilla extract to the milk and butter mixture before pouring the liquid into the batter, beat on slow speed.
Pour the batter into a prepared 8-inch pan. We prefer to line our pan with parchment paper as we can then lift the cake out of the pan before slicing. If you will be serving the cake directly from the pan you can grease and flour it to prevent sticking.
Learn how to line your baking pan with parchment paper.
Bake for 25-30 minutes in a 350 ̊F oven, remove when a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Don’t turn off the oven yet. The cake will be going back in to briefly bake the topping.
If you have used parchment paper and binder clips to line the pan don’t worry if the cake rises past the binder clip. If it is fully baked it will pull away from the clip on its own.
Topping Ingredients
5 tbsp packed brown sugar
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp whipping cream (or milk)
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
If you do not have whipping cream for the topping don’t let that stop you from making this cake. Milk will work as well, the topping won’t be as rich but will still be delicious.
Add your topping ingredients to a small saucepan. On medium heat bring the mixture to a boil for 30 seconds.
Pour the topping onto the cake and spread it evenly using an offset spatula or spoon. Place the cake back into the oven for 10 mins until the topping starts to boil and brown. If you need to you can always turn on the broiler to finish getting the topping nice and brown.
Let the cake cool completely before cutting or removing from baking pan.
If you chose to line the baking pan with parchment paper you can pull the entire cake out of the pan before slicing. Or you can slice it directly from the pan as it is traditionally done. Enjoy!
The Lazy Daisy Cake recipe card has been pulled out of my grandmothers recipe box many times over the years, you can even see a tea stain on the bottom left hand corner.The next time you want something sweet come pull this recipe out of the recipe box and make yourself this delicious treat. Check out the collage below for more pictures or swing by the Gallery page, we love taking pictures of our baking.
Lazy Daisy Cake
Ingredients
Sponge
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp butter
- ½ cup milk
Topping
- 5 tbsp light brown sugar
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp whipping cream
- ½ cup coconut
Instructions
- In a small saucepan heat butter and milk until the butter is melted and steam starts to rise from the pot. Set aside to cool.
- Sift flour with salt and baking powder in a small bowl or whisk thoroughly.
- In a large bowl beat eggs adding the sugar gradually until the mixture reaches the ribbon stage. It should increase in volume, thicken and lighten in colour.
- Add the flour mixture to the eggs and gently beat until incorporated on low speed.
- Combine the vanilla extract to the butter and milk mixture before adding it to the batter and beating it on low speed until incorporated.
- Bake in a prepared 8 inch square pan at 350°F for 20-30 minutes. When a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean remove from oven. Leave the oven on.
- In a small saucepan bring the topping ingredients to a boil for 30 seconds over medium heat.
- Spread the topping evenly on the cake, cook in oven until the icing bubbles and browns for approximately 10 mins.
- If necessary you can turn on the broiler to brown the icing further.
- Allow the cake to cool completely before cutting or removing.
