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Lazy Daisy Cake
2 EGGS, WELL BEATEN I CUP SUGAR I TEASPOON VANILLA I CUP FLOUR I TEASPOON BAKING POWDER 1/4 TEASPOON SALT 1/2 CUP MILK, HEATED I TABLESPOON BUTTER Mix eggs with sugar and vanilla. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Heat milk to boiling point with butter, and quickly stir into mixture. Pour this thin batter into a buttered square pan and bake 35 minutes at 350°. When done spread with following mixture: 3 TABLESPOONS MELTED BUTTER 5 TABLESPOONS DARK BROWN SUGAR 2 TABLESPOONS CREAM, OR EVAPORATED MILK 1/2 CUP SHREDDED COCONUT After spreading mixture on cake, brown it if you can.
A hot-milk sponge with a broiled brown-sugar-and-coconut topping, of the type that turns up under the name Lazy Daisy in mid-century community and camp cookbooks. The method is straightforward once you sort out the order of the mixing, which the original leaves implied.
- The order of mixingBeat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla until pale and thick, stir in the combined flour, baking powder and salt, then add the boiling milk and butter and stir just until smooth. The hot liquid goes in last and fast; it sets the crumb and gives the cake its fine, slightly custardy texture.
- Pan sizeThe original says only "a buttered square pan." For this quantity an 8-inch square is the likely intention; a 9-inch pan will work but gives a thinner cake that is likely to be done well before the stated 35 minutes, so check early.
- Don't overbeat after the milkThis is the hinge. The batter is deliberately thin, and prolonged stirring once the flour is wet toughens it. Stop as soon as no dry streaks remain.
- Browning the topping"Brown it if you can" suggests the writer did not assume every reader would have top heat available. In a modern kitchen, spread the topping on the hot cake and run it under the broiler 1 to 3 inches from the element for 1 to 3 minutes, watching continuously. Brown sugar and coconut go from golden to burnt in seconds.
- CoconutShredded coconut sold for baking in this period was commonly sweetened and fairly moist. Sweetened flake or shred is the closest match; unsweetened desiccated coconut will make a drier, less caramelised topping.
- Cream or evaporated milkThe recipe offers both and either works. Evaporated milk is shelf-stable, which may be why it appears as an alternative here; being more concentrated, it may also colour a little faster under the broiler.
- YieldAn 8-inch square cuts into 9 generous or 12 modest squares. Best eaten the day it is made, while the topping still has some chew.
The hot-milk sponge behind this cake is an old workhorse of American home baking: no creaming, no separated eggs, no shortening beyond the single tablespoon of butter melted into the scalded milk. Adding a broiled brown-sugar-and-coconut topping produced what is generally known as Lazy Daisy cake, a name that turns up widely in twentieth-century church, club and lodge collections and is usually explained as a nod to how little work it asks; no single originator is documented. The ingredients are all pantry-stable, evaporated milk included, and the topping needs only a brief blast of top heat rather than a second bake.