This is a soft eggless marble cake made using rock sugar/misri/kalkand, all-purpose flour, butter, milk, milk powder and coffee. One of my attempts to satisfy my kids’ dessert cravings while still attempting to maintain a healthful balance of ingredients. This recipe is inspired by Marble Cake recipe in Sharmi’s Passions.
Ingredients (makes 8 large servings or 16 small servings of cake):
- Butter (unsalted) (1/2 cup)
- Rock sugar/kalkand/misri (3/4th cup)
- Warm milk (1 cup)
- Vanilla essence (1 tsp)
- Milk powder or Condensed Milk (3 tbsp)
- All Purpose Flour (Maida) (1.25 cup)
- Baking Powder (2 tsp)
- Baking Soda (1/2 tsp)
- Instant Coffee Powder (2 tsp)
Method:
- Mix flour, baking soda and baking powder. Sieve the mixture and keep aside.
- Grind the rock sugar into a fine powder.
- In a mixing bowl, add powdered sugar and butter. Whip it together well until soft peaks are formed.
- Warm milk and add it to the butter-sugar mixture. Whip it well so that it all comes together.
- Add vanilla essence and milk powder. Mix well.
- Add the sieved flour mixture to the above and whisk till the batter becomes nice and homogeneous.
- Take aside 1/3rd of the batter in another bowl.
- In a small cup, add coffee powder and a little (couple tablespoons) hot water and mix till the coffee completely dissolves.
- Add the coffee paste to the batter that we kept aside. Mix well.
- At this point, start preheating the oven to 350 F.
- Now, grease your cake pan with butter and dust with a little flour.
- Add half of the light batter (the one without coffee in it) into the cake pan first.
- Using half of the brown batter (the one with coffee in it), pour 3 circles of it on the light batter.
- With a fork, using circular motions, draw swirls on the batter.
- Pour in the remaining light batter and make the 3 dark circles on it again.
- With a fork, draw the swirls again.
- If the oven has finished preheating, place the cake pan inside the oven. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
- Check on the cake after 15 minutes. Depending on how well baked it looks at this point, set another timer for taking the cake out of the oven. Mine took 30 minutes total to bake.
- The cake is fully baked when a toothpick that is poked at the center of the cake comes out without any batter stuck on it.
- Switch off the oven. Take out your cake. Let it cool down for 10 minutes or so. Done!
Tastes (Rasa):
Sweet (flour, rock sugar, milk, milk powder, butter), sour (none), salty (none), bitter (coffee), pungent (none), astringent (none).
Doshic Influence:
This eggless marble cake, like most desserts is a kapha aggravating dish, without a doubt. It should be okay in moderation for kaphas and in general for all people – even the pitta and vata types. Rock sugar is regarded as a therapeutic ingredient in Ayurveda and is the “sweetener” of choice in many herbal formulations. It is a great way to reduce aggravated vata among its many uses. Overall, exercise moderation while enjoying this cake!
Effects on the Mind (Gunas):
The sweet, nourishing, mild qualities in the cake definitely increase points for sattva. But again, in excess, the same qualities will be tamasic.