Condensed milk Pound Cake

I remember when milkmaid first came into the market in India. Mom would buy it for payasam or some other dessert, and under the pretext of helping her, I would lick most of the sweet droplets from the lid and the outer surface of the tin. It was a treat to have that can of sweet condensed milk at home. Nestle used to publish a select recipe on the milkmaid tins and we would watch out for a new recipe and immediately bring one such can home, eager to try the new dessert based on Nestle's recipe. It has been ages and I have almost forgotten condensed milk and related recipes. Having a diet conscious husband keeps you away from such ingredients in your kitchen, you see ;).

While going through Divya's blog, I came across this recipe for condensed milk pound cake and got nostalgic about milkmaid. Sis-in-law had purchased this nice two-in-one, 9" springform tin from IKEA when she visited this time and hence I decided to try out this cake in the tube-pan. It was my birthday this Sunday and I had decided to make this cake for that occasion. Does your schedule ever roll out as per your plan when you have a toddler to manage? Especially when the little one is coming down with a cold? If you've been there, done that, you know exactly what I'm talking about... I finally put my little girl down for her afternoon nap and started getting the ingredients together...

I followed Divya's recipe but had to scale it by 1.5 times, since I have a 9 cup tube pan.

Here is the scaled recipe:

Ingredients

All purpose flour or maida - 2 cups
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 1/2 cups [ I used Nestle Milkmaid]
Powdered sugar - 1 cup scant
Unsalted butter at room temperature - 1 1/2 cups
Eggs - 3
Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 1/2 tsp
A pinch of salt

Method

Sieve the flour and baking powder until well combined. I usually whisk it well in a bowl with two spoons.

Beat butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Then add the condensed milk and repeat for the same time, until well combined.






Whisk eggs in a bowl for 2 mins with a fork and set aside.








Add the flour to the butter-sugar-condensed milk mixture and mix until just combined without beating too hard. Add the eggs, vanilla essence and salt and combine well again.
Transfer to a greased cake tin or loaf pan and bake in a pre-heated oven at 150 degrees C for 60 mins. Insert a toothpick at the center to test if the cake is done.
Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Then invert the cake onto a wire-rack and let it cool completely.

Midway through the mixing part, my angel woke up crying :(. So I was holding her in one arm and beating the batter with the other hand. I am not sure I did a thorough job. I finally put the cake pan into the oven and settled down to give my little girl her lunch. I had a full one hour to do that, didn't I... Believe me, even that time interval is not sufficient to get these little ones to eat :(.




I finally had the cake out at the end out an hour. The cake turned out slightly crusty and cracked on the outside and over-browned. I am suspecting if it is because the condense milk did not combine well with butter sugar mixture. Please help with this query!

I usually do not frost cakes. But since this is an occasion I was in two-minds, whether to frost it or not. Moreover, hubby dear did a great favor, publicizing a) my birthday b) my plans to bake a cake to the neighborhood children. Through out the day I had children calling out from the kitchen window if I was baking the cake and when I am expected to have it ready... So finally I decided to make buttercream icing for the cake. The icing tasted  great! But I dare not post a picture of the decorated cake;) forgive me for my clumsiness and lack of creativity, added to the toddler tantrums I already mentioned :). The kids loved it nevertheless.