Eggless mava cake with leftover mithai
Moist and flavoured with cardamom, my take on the famous Indian tea cake uses rabdi, an Indian dessert and it works beautifully with some leftover mithai as well.
Living away from home makes me miss some of the most simple things in life…a walk by the worli seaface and the call out of the bhaiya for the roasted corn, early morning darshan to Siddhivinayak temple that ends with a delicious breakfast at Café Madras, accompanying mummy to the vegetable market and buying goodies like brun maska, mava cake etc from Merwan, the famous Parsi bakery and so many many memories!
My son often listens to me with fascination as I take the trip down the memory lane. As I told him about the parsi bakery, the brun maska and the mava cake, he looked me with confusion and wondered about the connection. Essentially mava cake is a rectangular or oblong shaped tea cake served in parsi/Irani bakeries. It has a moist and yet crumbly texture with a bite from the caramelized top. It gets it a typical Indian flavor due to the use of mava (reduced milk till it reaches almost a dry consistency) and is a rich cake with buttery flavour and a hint of cardamom.
I tweaked the classic version by using my 5 minute instant rabdi and it turned out beautiful. Semolina gives a great texture to the cake and a caramelized top goes perfectly well with the moist crumb.
I have also made these petite cakes with some leftover milk cake (kalakand) I had in my fridge. I crumbled the milk cake in a coarse, crumbly texture similar to the mava or khoya and used it in the batter. Following picture is of the mava cake when I baked it with the milk cake. This cake is versatile enough as it uses leftover mithai beautifully, though do note that it will take the colour of the mithai used.
I would love to know your feedback when you bake this beautiful Indian flavoured tea cake. Do tag me on social media with your recreations and give star rating to this recipe. It would help this blog tremendously.
Some other recipes that may interest you:
- Eggless chocolate banana brownie with whole wheat flour
- Tender coconut ice-cream with jaggery
- Quick malai kulfi with tahini caramel (no sugar)
- Masala grapes popsicle with popping candy
- Eggless pancake cereal
Recipe Card
Eggless mava cake with leftover mithai
Recipe Rating
AUTHOR
Hema B Kathrani
CUISINE
Indian
PREP TIME
10 minutes
COOK TIME
18 – 20 minutes
SERVINGS
makes 12 cupcakes
Author: Hema B Kathrani | Cuisine: Indian | Category: All things Sweet
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 18 – 20 minutes | Servings: makes 12 cupcakes
Moist and flavoured with cardamom, my take on the famous Indian tea cake uses rabdi, an Indian dessert and it works beautifully with some leftover mithai as well.
Ingredients
- Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup plain flour
- ¾ cup suji/semolina
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup milk
- ½ tsp vinegar/lime juice
- 2 tbsp yogurt
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup flavourless oil
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- few drops of butter essence (optional)
- 1 cup of 5 minute instant rabdi (or leftover mithai – read notes)
Method
- Prep:
- Preheat the oven to 180 C and line the cupcake tin with the liners.
- In a small bowl, mix milk with the vinegar/lime juice and keep it aside.
- Prepare the batter:
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and sift twice.
- In another bowl, mix the milk mix that you had kept it aside along with all the other wet ingredients.
- Add the instant rabdi (or any other leftover mithai that you are using) and whisk till it all comes together.
- Mix the dry ingredients to the wet mix and fold gently taking care not to overmix the batter.
- Bake:
- Fill up the cupcake liners with the batter till they are ¾ full.
- Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes till the skewer comes clean.
- Remove from the oven and cool the mava cakes in the cupcake tin for 5 minutes.
- Gently remove from the cupcake tin and cool on the wire rack.
- Enjoy it warm with tea or coffee.
Notes
- Skip the salt if you use salted butter.
- I use US cup measurement which is 1 cup = 235 ml
- Few leftover mithai like kaju katli, white malai peda, barfi and milk cake also work beautifully in this recipe. Crumble the mithai in a coarse powder and use equal measure of the leftover mithai instead of rabdi and proceed with the recipe. Do note that the cake will take the colour of the mithai used.
- To get a fine cardamom powder, roast the cardamom on a slow flame till aromatic. Grind it with 1 tsp of sugar to get a fine powder.
- Overmixing the batter can affect the airy texture of the cake so once the dry and the wet mix comes together, immediately fill the batter in the cupcake liners and bake.
- You can also do this cake in a round tin pan by increasing the bake time to 28-35 minutes. Check for doneness, at every 2-minute mark after 28 minutes till the skewer comes clean.
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