Recipe - Mawa Cake With An Indian Touch

Mawa Cake is a cake with an Indian touch. It is made using ingredients commonly used in Indian sweets like mawa (also known as khoya), saffron and cardamom.

The cake is popular in Parsi/Irani bakery shops in Mumbai and Pune. It is made from mawa which is nothing but dried whole milk. Mawa is used to make a lot of Indian sweets like peda,gulab jamun and making a cake out of it feels like you are eating a cake cum mithai!

I baked this cake when I was trying to come up with a recipe for my in-laws who were visiting us from India. They aren’t too fond of chocolates and regular flavors seemed too common and so I attempted this. The cake turned out quite well and everyone enjoyed eating it.

Look how soft and buttery it looks.

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
½ cup mawa crumbled
2 eggs
6 tbsp milk
¼ tsp cardamom powder
¾ tsp baking powder
? tsp salt
¼ tsp vanilla extract
6-7 saffron strands soaked in 1 tsp water
2 tbsp sliced almond for garnishing
2 tbsp sliced cashews for garnishing

Method

* Preheat your oven at 350 F [180 C].

* Grease a 8 inch round pan or line it with parchment paper. Set aside.

* Roast the mawa in a pan for few minutes. Roast till you get a nice aroma and the mawa turns light golden brown.

* Sieve together all purpose flour, baking powder, cardamom powder, salt and set aside.

* In the meanwhile, soak some saffron strands in 1 tsp of water.

* Take butter and sugar in a bowl and using your blender, cream till the mixture becomes soft and fluffy.

* Add in the roasted mawa next and using your mixer, incorporate the mawa into the butter and sugar so that everything comes together.

* Beat the eggs and add it to the mix, also add the vanilla essence.

* The saffron goes in next, it not only gives a wonderful flavor to the cake but also gives it a nice color.

* Now add in the flour mixture and milk alternatively in 3 parts, starting and ending with flour.

* Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread some sliced almonds on top. You can use any nut of your choice here.

* Bake the cake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

* Let the cake cool before cutting into slices.