RECIPE: THANDAI RAVA CAKE
Thandai Rava Cake is so soft, egg free and with amazing flavours of thandai spices,rose and saffron. A perfect bake for the Holi Festival. Who doesn’t love cakes, whatever the festival maybe.
What Is Thandai Rava Cake?
Thandai is a spice mixture that is quite popular during the Holi festival. Besides making thandai drink, it can be used for several other festive dishes like kulfi, mousse, cookies, muffins, chia pudding, malpua, etc.
Rava is the hindi word for semolina. Semolina cakes turn out so soft and are easily to bake. Add a sugar syrup on top to keep it moist or don’t. The choice is yours.
A Bit About The Group Shhh Cooking Secretly
This group brings like minded food bloggers together where each one cooks a dish based on a theme. The theme is chosen by a member of the group. The fun part is where the partners give each tow secret ingredients to use in their dish. Other members then try and guess the secret ingredients.
Theme: Festive
This month’s theme, Festive Cooking has been chosen by Priya Vijaykrishnan. She wanted us to prepare a dish, sweet or savoury for any of the upcoming festivals. I chose Holi which falls around the month of March.
My Partner:
My partner is month is Priya Vijaykrishnan who blogs at Sweet Spicy Tasty. I like her blog for the traditional and easy South Indian Dishes. I gave her green chillis and toor dal. With those ingredients she prepared a delicious Paruppu Urundai Mor Kuzhambu which I definitely will be trying out soon as I love yogurt based dishes.
Must admit that I had baked this cake for Holi in 2022 and didn’t get the chance to post it on my blog. Since I didn’t have a functional kitchen, I asked my partner if I could use a recipe that is in my draft. She agreed and luckily gave me baking powder and butter as my secret ingredients. These two ingredients worked well for my Thandai Rava Cake.
Ingredients Required For Thandai Rava Cake
- Semolina – sooji, rava. I prefer to use medium.
- Plain Flour – all purpose flour.
- Baking Powder – when you measure out the baking powder, scoop it up with your measuring spoon. Remove the excess by swiping the spoon surface with a straight edge of the knife to level out the baking powder.
- Baking Soda – Soda Bicarbonate. When you measure out the baking soda, scoop it up with your measuring spoon. Remove the excess by swiping the spoon surface with a straight edge of the knife to level out the baking soda. Too much will result in cracked top.
- Sugar – white caster sugar. If the sugar is very coarse, then grind it in a food processor to a finer texture but don’t powder it completely.
- Salt – I like to add a bit of salt to balance out the flavours.
- Plain Yogurt – thick. Dahi or curd. For vegan version use vegan yogurt which is available in your grocery store. Use room temperature yogurt.
- Butter – I have used salted butter. Melt it gently in the microwave oven or place the butter in a heat proof bowl and melt it over hot water. For vegan version use vegan butter or oil.
- Milk – I have used dairy milk. Can replace it with vegan friendly milk. Use room temperature milk.
- Saffron – kesar. Soak the saffron in the measured milk for at least 10 minutes. Heat the milk till it becomes hot before adding the saffron.
- Thandai Spice Powder – please find the recipe for the homemade one here. Can use ready made one too.
- Mixed Nuts – I have used chopped pistachios and almonds. I used them as a topping. This is an optional ingredient.
Watch How To Make Eggless Thandai Rava Cake
THANDAI RAVA CAKE
Ingredients
FOR THE THANDAI RAVA CAKE:
- 1¼ cup semolina
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ¾ cup caster sugar
- ½ cup plain yogurt thick
- ⅓ cup butter melted
- ¾ cup milk hot
- ¼ tsp saffron
- 2 tsp thandai spice powder
- 2 tbsp nuts chopped
FOR THE SUGAR GLAZE:
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
SOAK THE SAFFRON:
- Heat the measured milk till it becomes hot. Not boiling.
- Add the saffron and allow it to soak in the milk for at least 10 minutes.
SOAKING THE SEMOLINA:
- Add semolina, sugar and thandai spice powder in a mixing bowl. Mix well.
- Add melted butter, yogurt and the saffron milk. Mix well using a whisk.
- Cover with a plate, lid or cling film and allow the mixture to rest for 30 minutes.
KEEP FLOUR MIXTURE READY
- Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a mixing bowl. Keep it on the side till required.
PREPARE THE CAKE TIN
- I have used a loaf tin 9X5 inches. You can use a square or round tin cake.
- You can either line it with parchment paper or grease it the way I do.
- Take little butter about ½ tsp. Rub the insides and middle of the tin with it.
- Add about 1-2 tbsp flour. By moving the tin and tapping it coat the greased tin with the flour. Tap over the sink or on your worktop to remove the excess flour.
PREHEAT THE OVEN
- Just when about 5 minutes are left for soaking the semolina, switch on the oven at 180°C. Allow it heat up.
FINAL BATTER PREPARATIONS
- After 30 minute soaking time, add the flour mixture to the semolina mixture.
- Using a whisk or spoon mix the flour and semolina batter.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared tin.
BAKING TIME:
- Sprinkle the top with 1tbsp chopped nuts if you want to.
- Put the cake batter in the preheated oven to bake for 40-50 minutes at 180°C.
COOL THE THANDAI RAVA CAKE:
- Remove the cake from the oven. Insert a toothpick, knife or fork in the middle.
- If the cake is done, the toothpick, knife or fork should come out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes.
PREPARE THE SUGAR GLAZE:
- Mix water and sugar. Stir till the sugar melts.
REMOVE THE CAKE FROM THE TIN:
- Using a spatula, loosen the edges gently.
- Cover the cake tin with a plate, wire rack or a wooden board.
- Hold cake tin and the plate, wire rack or board with both hands.
- Flip it over. The cake tin will be on top. Give a gentle tap.
- The cake will come out easily.
- Remove the cake tin gently.
GLAZE THE THANDAI RAVA CAKE:
- Using a pastry brush, dab the cake with the sugar syrup, the top and sides. Don't add too much glaze. Just enough for it to be moist.
- Sprinkle the remaining chopped nuts on top. Add rose petals if you have any.
SERVE:
- Slice the cake and serve on its own or with some whipped fresh cream or ice cream.
Notes
- Allow the semolina to soak well.
- Don't be in a hurry to remove the hot cake from the tin as it will break.
- Keep the cake covered to retain the moisture.
- Instead of thandai spice powder, can add any flavouring of your choice.
- Baking time may vary. It differs from oven to oven.
Pin For Later:
A Little Request:
If you do try this recipe then please either
- add a comment below,
- send a picture to my email mayuri.ajay.patel62@gmail.com
- tag me as #mayuri_jikoni on Instagram
- or tag me on Twitter as #Mayuri1962