Making a cake more moist ideas needed please.

I have this cake recipe which I really like cos it's so easy to do the variations.

But it gets dry very quickly.Is there any way I can adjust it to make it more moist and to keep it moist.Thanks.

Plain Cake
125gm butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teasp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
2  cups sr flour

Beat butter and Sugar until light and fluffy
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well in between
Add vanilla
Add flour and milk alternately and mix lightly 
Pour mixture into a greased cake tin (or loaf tins)
Bake in a moderate oven for approx 35 minutes
Spread with Icing - 
Today - Passionfruit Icing (because I have 2 ripe passionfruits,Yeh!)
Two passionfruits, approx 1 cup of icing sugar and a dash of water, mix to make a nice smooth icing.

Variations:
Orange Cake (Hubby's favourite) 
Reduce milk to 1/4 cup and add 1/4 cup of orange juice and add grated rind from one orange
Ice with orange butter icing - 2 cups icing sugar, 2 tab butter, 1 - 2 tab orange juice, grated orange rind.  Beat Well

Coffee Cake
Add 1 tab instant coffee dissolved in small amount of water
Ice with coffee butter icing - 2 cups icing sugar, 2 tab butter and small amount of dissolved instant coffee, depending on taste approx 1 - 2 teaspoons.  Sprinkle with chopped Walnuts.

Sultana Cake - Add 3/4 cup sultanas to cake mix. 
No need to ice.
Great easy recipe for Patty Cakes, just pour mixture into patty pan cases instead of a cake tin, you may have to reduce cooking time slightly though. I think it makes about 1 doz.
It can also be used to make a nice warm Pudding, just pour mixture on top of Stewed fruit (Apples, Apricots, Peaches, Rhubarb & Apple, Mulberries etc.) and bake.
Serve warm with cream or ice-cream
Icing Variations 
Chocolate icing sprinkled with coconut
Pink or plain icing sprinkled with sprinkles, 100's & 1000's
Topped with cherries, grated chocolate, the sky is the limit!

cautis, my suggestion would be to use either sour cream or yoghurt instead of the milk in your recipe.

Hope that helps.:-))

Add more milk to the cake mix eg another quarter of a cup.

A very old Aunt Daisy hint to keep a cake moist is to put an apple in the cake tin with it :)

Lol, all different options but I will try them all, thank you!

245sam, could I use cream cheese as well!I just have some to use up, that's all.

Glycerine is used in a lot of commercially baked cakes, and is primarily to ensure the cake remains moist. I use a very old fruit cake recipe as a Christmas cake (it was originally a wedding cake recipe) and it has a tablespoon of glycerine in it.Try googling "glycerine in baking" and you'll get a fair bit of info.

.not sure about using cream cheese cautis, and IMO it would alter the flavour too - personally I would use any of the other above options rather than the cream cheese, although having said that.If you're prepared to give it a go and use the cream cheese, you may well have another very acceptable variation to your recipe, but alternatively if you have ½ cup cream cheese to use, you might like to try this.
CREAMY COFFEE PIE
Crust:
¾ packet wholemeal or malt / maltmeal biscuits, crushed
85g (3oz) butter, melted

Mix the butter and the biscuit crumbs together well, then press the mixture into a 23cm (9”) pie plate and refrigerate.

Filling:
1 tbsp gelatine
2 tbsp water
2 eggs, separated
½ cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 tsp instant coffee
½ cup (125g) cream cheese

Add the gelatine to the water. Leave to stand for 5 minutes.
In a double boiler or basin mix the egg yolks, half of the sugar and the milk. Stir over hot water until the custard coats the back of spoon, then add the coffee and the gelatine and stir until dissolved. Cool.
Beat the cream cheese until soft, then gradually add the cooled custard.
Beat the egg whites and the remaining sugar until stiff, then fold the meringue-like mixture into the setting custard mixture. Pour the filling mixture into the biscuit crust and set it in the refrigerator. Decorate with whipped cream and kiwifruit or strawberries.
Serves: 4-6
Note: This cheesecake freezes well and can also be made in individual portion-sized containers e.g. yoghurt pottles.:-))

Sounds revolting rpvr, but that's cos I use glycerine for making soap lol!

Thanks 245sam, sounds like a yummy recipe to do for Christmas!

You're welcome, cautis - we think the Creamy Coffee Pie is good / "yummy" anytime and with it using only ½ tub of cream cheese, it's a lot more economical to make than a lot of other cheesecakes.Hope you enjoy it.:-))

I'm sure we will, we all love cheesecake type things but don't have them often cos of dairy allergies, but once every few months we can indulge, and do!

2nd!
Also how are you storing the cake! Gladwrap and then in a sealed tupperware would be the way I would do it, or if in large portions I would freeze some of it.

If my cake is a little dry I make a simple syrup (just sugar and water) and brush this over my cake. You can flavour it if you want i.e. lemon rind, to go over lemon cake, etc

I store it on the baking paper it's cooked on and in a sealed container.This keeps all my other cakes fresh and moist, but they are all moister than this recipe anyway.