Cardamom Flavoured Eggless Sponge Cake in Mango Rabdi

Namaste 😊

When I was a kid it was a luxury to eat cakes even once in a while. On our birthdays mom used to make kheer, sweet buns or sweet dosa from banana or jackfruit and that used to be our birthday sweets. We would invite our friends from neighbouring house and sit together and eat. Everything used to be homemade, local and seasonal. Absolutely nothing fancy yet fabulous birthdays I have had💛 I remember one year my little sister got very stubborn because she wanted cake for her birthday! One of those days of evolution where kids did not like sugar candies and homemade goodies anymore😄 And my dad who usually doesn't budge for these kind of tantrums surprisingly brought a round vanilla sponge cake from town that year! I also remember it had so much icing on it, I could barely taste the cake but we loved it. Because that was only kind of cake that we knew back then!! I still remember the excitement we all felt, my little brothers who couldn't wait until cake was cut and served. We all waited round the table looking at it in anticipation😃

"Enjoy the little things" in life for these are the best things and can bring a smile on your face 💖

And after few years came the days when I started baking cakes once a week! I had very enthusiastic colleagues and friends who would finish off any cake within minutes. They told me once 'please bake as much as you like and don't worry about finishing it, leave that to us' 😁 I was too happy to experiment. They are major contributors to my success in baking I have to admit 😄

Here is one of my such successful experiments.....

King of fruits as it is called - Mango is my favourite fruit too. It is very hard for me to save the mangoes to be used in cooking (because I finish it as soon as I get it 😉). But this time due I couldn't get enough fruits so I bought a tin. Here is one amazing recipe I made out of it.

Ingredients:

For the sponge cake:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup melted unsalted butter

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp cardamom powder

A pinch of salt

For Mango Rabdi:

500 ml mango puree (fresh or canned)

1 litre full fat milk

1 cup sugar or milkmaid

4 pistachios + 4 almonds + 8-10 saffron strands+ 4 cardamom pods powdered

Method:

Sponge Cake:

-Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Grease the baking tray with butter and dust it with all purpose flour

-Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl.

-Add the sugar, butter and buttermilk and whisk until combined well. Do not over mix

-Pour the batter into the baking mould and gently tap the tray a few times to release any air bubbles

-Place it in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 mins or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

-Allow it to cool down and poke holes throughout the cake using a skewer or toothpick.

Mango Rabdi:

-Heat the milk in a sauce pan until it reduces to half.

-Add the sugar and spice powder mixture and boil it for 10 more minutes

-Once it cools down add the mango puree and mix well

-Pour half of this mixture on the cake and allow it to absorb completely. Keep it in the fridge.

-While serving, pour the rabdi generously on the cake slice, garnish with dry fruits and serve (I have used dried rose petals and almond powder)

Notes:

-I did not have fresh mangoes so I used canned alphonso puree. A lot of times tinned fruits are already sweetened so please check the sugar level before using it in recipes and adjust according to your preference

-If you are using fresh fruits, make sure they are not sour

-While baking the cake - time taken will also depend on the oven you are using. Do a toothpick test after 30 minutes to see if it is baked

-In this recipe both cake and rabdi are sweet. So this tastes a bit extra sweet! If you want, you can either reduce the sugar quantity in rabdi.

Cheers!