Flour, butter, sugar and eggs are the most important ingredients for a baker. And I’ve been having a hard time for the past few days because we have been faced with a short supply of butter in the market. Yes, butter. The butter I have been wanting to drench my toast with (topped with Nutella, even better!). The butter I wanted to use for herb butter mushrooms. The butter that makes everything better (watching Julie and Julia has its influence, alright!).
I was itching to bake and I could not for the life of me find a way around this (no butter substitutes, please). As luck would have it, my grandmom had a handful of sticks stocked up in her freezer and she sent some to me!
I had seen an eggless cake recipe on Divine Taste and couldn’t resist making something similar just for the lovely crumb. When I saw the recipe, I instantly knew I’d use Dulce de Leche instead of condensed milk. And then later it struck me that steeping the vanilla in milk would add so much more depth to the flavor instead of using extract.
One point to note here is that besides the sweetened condensed milk, there is no sugar added. I found that I needed something to increase the sweetness in the form of an icing – I drizzled some milk-sugar icing, you could use anything. Most might be stumped about a recipe that doesn’t call for eggs, but this recipe works beautifully without them and yet results in a soft, moist cake. I have finally found my go-to eggless recipe!
just look at the specs of vanilla!
Dulce de Leche Cake with Vanilla Beans Steeped Milk
Inspired from: Divine Taste
Yield: A 9 inch cake or 1 8 inch bundt cake + 4 cupcakes
7 fl oz / 200 milk
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
8 oz. / 225g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
14 oz. / 400gm dulce de Leche (oh, you must click though – just for the photos!)
110 gm/1 stick butter
4 tbsp yogurt
For the icing
125g icing sugar
2-3 tbsp milk
- Scrape out the innards of the vanilla bean and stir it into the milk along with the remains of the bean. Simmer for 2-3 minutes and remove from heat. Let this continue to steep for at least another 30 minutes.
- Grease tin generously with butter. Preheat the oven at 175C/350F.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
- In a large bowl beat the butter and the dulce de leche together until it is combined. Mix in the yogurt and beat again.
- At this point, reheat the milk until it is hot and mix it with the butter and dulce de leche mixture.
- Fold in the flour mixture, with a spatula.
- Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes for an 8 inch bundt cake or a little longer for a 9 inch cake at 175C/350F.
- To make the icing, put the icing sugar in a small bowl and add 1 tbsp of milk at a time to moisten the sugar. Keep stirring and add the milk a little at a time until the icing is thin enough to drizzle from a spoon. Drizzle this icing over the cooled cake. Did you know the tines of a fork work beautifully for this?
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Cake looks yummy. Nice and neat presentation……
oh incredible flavors shaheen! simply wonderful. i need to make some more dulce de leche!
Beautiful flavours…and yes, cannot believe life without buttah! This is a lovely cake, and a gorgeous platter too!
Hi, I am a little lost, when do I use the condensed milk? Any ideas where to find dulce de leche in the USAS, is that Italian or Mexican maybe? I really would like to make this, looks wonderful. Thank-you
Wow, anything with Dulce de Leche will taste divine. What a clever idea to use that instead of regular condensed milk. That cake is oh-so-beautiful.
Did you mean butter shortage at the stores? Because I didn't find any low salt Amul at Hypercity and I thought it was just me.
I've taken to making my own no salt butter anyway.
Cake looks delicious.
Lovely clicks! and a beautiful cake!
Thank you, Tina, Meeta and Deeba and Mona!
Katklaw777: Hi you can easily make your own dulce del leche. Smply follow the instructions in my post here. You can find a jar of it at Publix in the USA if you don't have the time or paience for making your own.
The Little Teochew: Yes, I'm so glad this idea struck me!
Simran: Tes, no butter ANYWHERE
making my own butter would be awesome but given that we used skimmed milk, it's hard to collect the fat.
the one thing more sinful that condensed milk in cake has got to be DDL in cake! yummo!!
Yum! I love dulce de leche with anything. Most recently I had dulce de leche icecream at an Argentinian restaurant…my poor teeth!
Your eggless cake looks so moist and delicious.
Mimi
The cake looks mouth-wateringly good. The spoonful of dulce de leche I would wrap my mouth around this very instant and the vanilla bean photo is striking! LOVE vanilla beans!
Hi
I'm new to this blog, do you have a converter system where I can transfer the ingredients to volume measurements.
Oh, my those photos are terrific and definitely do this fabulously yummy sounding cake justice!
Can I trade you some butter for a slice?
~ingrid
Your cake looks beautiful and it sounds absolutely delicious!
Thanks Nags, Mimi and Jen!
Helen: Oh i have got to make DDL ice cream.
Barbara: Ha! I was too happy licking away the dulce de leche after taking the photographs.
Jackie: Here is a Measurement Converter.
Ingrid: I finally found some butter yesterday!!!
Will definitely be bookmarking this! Love the fact that it's eggless, since I have some friends who don't take eggs. Now at least I know what to bake for them
This cake looks incredible. I can almost see how moist it is from the picture!!
what a genius idea to substitute ddl for condensed milk!!.DDL i know is quiet versatile but i never ventured beyond having it on my toast. Thanks for the idea purple. The vanilla bean click is simply mind blowing!.
Wow. Brilliant sub to use dulce de leche instead of the condensed milk. I can imagine the richness of flavor. Bravo!
Ovenhaven: This is exactly the same reason why I love this recipe – now I won't disappoint my Jain friends who don't take eggs.
Jessica and Ann: Thank you!
Nandini: I was going to make it with condensed milk but then it struck me that DDL is *almost* the same thing so it would behave the same way in the cake batter!
I love a cake like that! It looks tender and moist and super vanilla-y! Yum!
Wow Shaheen I don't know how I missed this…I'm sure Dulce De Leche added an exquisite richness and taste to this cake. All I can say is: When am I getting a slice? I also loved your idea of making this in a bundt pan.
Hi Shaheen!
Thanks for stopping by my blog. This cake looks so moist and beautiful! I especially love the photos of the vanilla beans and dulce de leche. If you can afford it (it's so expensive!) definitely go to Le Cordon Bleu. I had such a great time studying in London. If you've never been there, you will love it! Email me if you have any questions about the program
Nice web:-)
Vanilla Farmer from Indonesia
http://www.organicindonesianvanilla.blogspot.com
hey.. just thought will let u know..the link for the measurement calculator does not open.. the link seems broken..
maya
Will fix it in a bit.. glad to hear the cake turned out fab!
Hey.. i made the cake and i added some fresh nutmeg powder to it.. it turned out to be the perfect tea cake
hey shaheen…me so glad i stumbled upon this wonderful blog of urs…the recipes are so good…
i made dulce de leche and the cake too…it turned out fab.
I just made one change…instead of using the vanilla bean i added my vanilla extract. I have been making my own vanilla extract for some time now. This one i infused for 4 months and the flavor is awesome.
It turned out fab !!
always looking for eggless recipies !
wish you could help out with some more
My dulce de leche turned out a little lumpy, and not as smooth as yours..is that normal? Is there anything I can do to smoothen it out?
That’s weird, Avanti. I’ve made it a few times without lumps. Are you sure it’s immersed in water at all times? I’m guessing that the water in the pan dried up and the condensed milk that came in contact with the hottest spots got heated up more than it should have and probably formed lumps.
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