In a cake recipe, can I replace milk with cream to get a better end product? Thanks

Hi Sharon,

Rose has developed her recipes so that there is perfect balance of ingredients.  There is more fat in cream than there is in whole milk,  depending on what type of cream you use, half and half, light, or heavy cream.  It might throw off the percentage of fat in the recipe and you might not get the results that are expected.  I have never made this substitution, unless it is described in the recipe, so I don’t know what your results would be like.

i also agree.  NO.  you can however replace whole milk with half evaporated milk and half water.

In general our friends are right. If you want to reliably make a great cake follow Rose’s recipes as written. But I think one of the great things about cooking is adaptation and experimentation. A really great thing about Rose’s books is that she provides explanation and rationale for her ingredients and methods. I have successfully adapted many of her recipes and I have failed miserably from time to time. A careful reading of Rose’s books can give you guidance for creating your own recipes.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.  You can always bake another cake.

I substitute heavy cream or half and half for milk all the time.  I don’t drink milk and often find I don’t have any.  I just dilute the cream until it is the same consistency as milk (1:1?).  I had some failures when I was trying to add flavored coffee creamers as a milk substitute which was the same issue (too much fat).  Substituting 1:1 coffee creamer for milk caused the cakes to fall in the center and be too wet.  I diluted the creamer and all was well.

Hi, Sharon!

Please see this recent post:  http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/index_ee.php/forums/viewthread/2671/

In that post, nararabbit was out of whole milk and subbed 1/2 heavy cream and 1/2 1% milk, and the cake was too tender and could not hold up to moving, frosting, etc.  You wouldn’t think a cake could be too tender, but I guess it is possible!!!!!!!!

If you don’t have evaporated milk as suggested above, perhaps you could figure out how much fat 1c. milk has and then how much 1T. cream has, you might be able to add the heavy cream to skim milk, maybe even water, to get the correct fat-to-liquid ratio.

Good luck!

—ak

Hi everyone

Thank you for your suggestions, I guess I will stick by milk, its so easy to get.

Getting evaporated milk where I live is next to impossible and for half and half, I usually use the substitute: Use 1/2 cup heavy cream and half cup whole milk to get 1 cup of half and half.

So milk it is.

I read nararabbit’s post. Cake failure is way too much of a heartache but its part of the game, I guess.

Also Gene, i still have not discovered the funda behind making my own recipes, even though I peruse Rose’s TCB like a textbook nearly everyday. Frankly, its like a code that I would LOVE to decode someday!