This delicious, moist cake is made of Rasmalai(Indian sweet) and eggless cardamom cake. You can use homemade or store bought Rasmalai to make this cake, anything works fine.
This recipe involves following steps - making of rasmalai(cheese balls and sweetened milk), cake, whipped cream and assembly.
RECIPE
Yield : 1, 8 inch round cake
Servings : 6 slices
Video tutorial:
Ingredients
To make malai(cheese balls)
- 6 cups whole milk
- 2 ½ Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
- 4 cups water
- ½ cup sugar
- 4 whole cardamom
- 2½ cup whole milk
- 1 cup condensed milk
- ½ tsp cardamom powder
- few strands of saffron (optional)
- ½ cup oil
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 cup yogurt
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- ½ tsp cardamom powder
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp ras(sweetened milk)
- Saffron (optional)
1) Rasmalai :
To make malai(cheese balls), Boil 6 cups of milk in a large pan on medium high heat stirring occasionally. Add 2 ½ Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice and stir gently to curdle the milk. Add 1 tbsp more vinegar or lemon juice, if it doesn't curdle. Turn off the heat, once it starts to separate cheese and whey. Drain the whey through muslin cheese cloth lined over a colander. Rinse the cheese by pouring fresh cold water to remove the sour taste of vinegar. Wrap the cheese in the cloth and gently squeeze to remove excess whey. Place some weight on it and let it rest 2 to 3 hrs for the excess whey to drain off.
Knead the cheese until a smooth dough is formed. Roll it into a log and cut into 1 inch pieces. Make the pieces into round balls using hands.
Boil 4 cups water, add ½ cup sugar and 4 whole cardamoms. Once it starts to boil rapidly, add the cheese balls. Cover and cook for 10 minutes until doubled in size. Turn off heat and let them rest in sugar syrup for 20 minutes.
To make ras(sweetened milk), Boil 2½ cup whole milk and 1 cup condensed milk in a pot on medium high heat, stirring continuously. Add cardamom powder and simmer 5 to 6 minutes. Turn off the heat. Squeeze the soaked cheese balls gently to remove excess sugar syrup and add them to the ras(sweetened milk). Chill it in refrigerator overnight or at least 6 hrs.
2) Cake :
Preheat the oven to 350℉/180℃ for 15 minutes. Coat 8 inch round cake pan with oil and line it with parchment paper or dust it with flour and keep it aside.
Add ½ cup oil and ¾ cup sugar to a bowl, mix it with a hand whisk for 2 minutes. Add 1 cup yogurt and ½ tsp vanilla, mix for 1 minute. Add 1½ cup flour, ½ tsp cardamom, ¼ salt and 1½ tsp baking powder. Mix gently using a whisk. Do not mix vigorously, just mix until everything is well combined.
Do not worry, if there are a few small lumps left in the batter, cake will be fine. Just don't over mix it.
Pour the batter in the cake pan and bake it preheated oven for 28 to 30 minutes. Check the doneness of the cake by inserting a toothpick or skewer in the center, if the toothpick comes out clean then take out the cake from oven and let it rest in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the cake and let it rest for another 30 minutes before slicing it.
Whipped cream:
Beat 2 cups of heavy whipping cream(should be chilled) with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add ¼ cup powdered sugar and mix it. Add 2 Tbsp ras(sweetened milk) and saffron(optional). Mix it on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
3) Assembly :
Level the cake into two layers using a knife or leveler. Place one cake layer on to the cake stand or any plate. Pour ras(sweetened milk) over the cake and let it soak.
Add good amount of whipped cream and spread it uniformly using an offset knife or spatula. Add the malai(cheese balls) by crumbling them gently. Place other cake layer over it and soak it as well with ras(sweetened milk). Cover the whole cake with whipped cream and smooth it out using a smoother or offset knife.
Place malai cheese balls over the cake and decorate with leftover whipped cream, chopped pistachios or white chocolate drip.
Serve the cake chilled!
1. Start icing the cake, once it has been cooled down completely. Warm cake might lead to the melting of whipped cream. To cool the cake quickly, wrap it up in plastic wrap and chill it for 1 hour.
2. If whipped cream becomes runny, keep it in freezer for 5 to 10 minutes and beat it for 1 minute. This helps whipped cream to hold its shape while piping.
3. To smooth out the whipped cream on cake without air bubbles, dip the offset spatula in hot water for smoother finish.
