Southern Hot Milk Cakes

One of the best things about hanging out at estate sales nearly every weekend is going through the stacks of beloved vintage cookbooks. While today's bounty included a set of Russian nesting dolls, another day yielded Marion Brown's The Southern Cook Book, in which she says getting the "guarded recipes of the Southern household" proved most difficult. This plain vanilla cake is one of those well-kept secrets, and here it is for all of you.

I needed a base for the strawberries I joyously overbought at market, and I needed something quick to make on a Sunday night. I made some adjustments (the duck eggs and the vanilla paste) to this 1951 recipe by a Mrs. Eugene Shaw of Raleigh, but I stuck to the recipe's straightforward and simple richness.

Southern Hot Milk Cakes

1/2 c milk

1/2 stick butter

3/4 c raw sugar

2 duck eggs

1 c AP flour

1 level tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla paste

Heat milk, but not to boiling. Add butter and wait a minute. Whisk them together in a bowl with sugar. Combine flour and baking powder. Separately, beat the eggs. Add dry and wet ingredients alternately, stirring after each. Add vanilla paste. Brush silicone muffin cups with canola and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until slightly golden around edges. Let them cool and then add macerated strawberries and some cream.