4-Ingredient Light and Fluffy Condensed Milk Cake

Make a cake from scratch in under an hour with this super simple condensed milk cake. Also known as 4-ingredient magic cake, it’s perfect for birthdays, parties, and anytime you need a sweet treat!

This recipe for condensed milk cake has been a long-time favorite of mine. Unfortunately, it has 6 ingredients, which is a no-no around here. This recipe keeps the fluffy texture and caramel flavor that makes the original recipe such a stand-out, but does it with only 4 ingredients!

This version of condensed milk magic cake has a prep time of 10 minutes. It needs about 40 to bake, which means you can have a made-from-scratch cake in under an hour. 

Another thing I love about this recipe is that manages to have a fluffier texture for a cake, but still have enough structure to be used for cake layers Who knew such a set of simple ingredients could make such a perfect dessert!

What’s in 4-ingredient cake? 

There are only 4 basic ingredients in this cake. You can add flavorings to the base ingredients as an optional 5th!

• Butter: You can use butter or margarine for this cake. I recommend unsalted butter as the self-rising flour already has salt, but you can also use salted butter if you like!
• Eggs: This recipe uses the full egg You’ll need 4 large eggs. 
• Sweetened Condensed Milk: This gives the cake a delightfully caramel flavor. You’ll need one 14 oz can. 
• Self-Rising Flour:  Self-rising flour combines all-purpose flour with baking powder and salt. With this pre-mixed blend, you can measure once and get both the structure and lift your cake needs. If you’d like to make your own, King Arthur Baking has a great recipe.

Making 4-ingredient fluffy cake

Step 1 | Mix the Wet

This cake is so easy that all you need is a large mixing bowl and a whisk to whip it up! You can also use an electric mixer or a hand mixer, if you’d like. 

Melt your butter, then add the eggs to the melted butter.

Whisk them together until they’re completely combined. Then, add the condensed milk and whisk that in to to get a smooth batter. 

To the wet ingredients, you’ll add the dry ingredients (or ingredient, rather). Add your flour 1/4 cup at a time and whisk it until you don’t see any streaks of flour. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl as you whisk. You’ll get a nice, thick batter like this: 

Set the batter to the side and grease and flour a 8 or 9 in round or square cake pan. If you’ve never greased and floured a pan, this video is super helpful!

Then, use a spatula to add the cake batter to the prepared cake pan. You can tap the pan against the counter to get the batter to smooth out. 

Bake your cake at 350° for 35-40 minutes in a preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The top of the cake will be raised and golden brown and springy to the touch. 

Allow your cake to cool for 10-15 minutes, then remove it from the pan. Allow it to cool on a plate or wire rack. 

Step 5 | Enjoy!

You can eat this cake warm from the oven on its own or with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. If you’re looking to frost this cake, make sure that the cake is completely cooled to room temperature before you frost (and use my 3-ingredient frosting recipe. It’s so yummy!).

You can also drizzle with melted chocolate, make a glaze with lemon juice, or top this with fresh berries or fresh fruits. It’s not hard to enjoy this cake!

Take it up a notch

You can add mix-ins and flavorings to add flavor and fun ot this base cake recipe. 

• Add flavorings: You can add 1 tsp vanilla extract, almond extract, butter flavoring, lemon flavoring, or more. If you use lemon flavoring, you should definitely top this with lemon glaze and lemon zest!
• Add mix-ins: Add sprinkles to make a funfetti birthday cake. Add chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or caramel chips for delicious bursts of flavor. You can also add coconut, nuts, or cinnamon.