Parsi or Irani mawa cake is a classic tea time favorite made popular by Parsi or Irani bakeries. This cake is generally flavored with freshly grounded cardamom and topped with almond flakes and pistachios. This very tea-time delicacy is very light and moist; however, has an intense caramelized flavor from the khoya or mawa that is evaporated or reduced milk.
In case you have ever been to a Parsi cake, then you are familiar with their love and affection for food, as well as wonderful baked items. However, the one, which deserves a special place in their hearts is certainly mawa cake.
Get to know about mawa/khoya:
Khoya or mawa is basically evaporated milk solids. In the 19th century, when the Parsis first came to India, no refrigerators were there. And this meant that the owners of the cafes had to boil the milk over and over again to prevent it from being spoilt. And the continuous heat gradually reduced the milk to solid, thus giving birth to mawa/khoya.
If you have enough time, then we recommend preparing mawa at home from scratch. But if you don’t want to be bothered at all, then you can also buy it from the market.
Ingredients and their proportions:
Dry ingredients:
• All-purpose flour 1 ½ cup
• Baking soda ¼ teaspoon
• Baking powder 1 teaspoon
• Salt ¼ teaspoon
• Ground cardamom ¾ teaspoon
Wet ingredients:
• Unsalted butter 1/2cup
• Low-fat yogurt ¼ cup
• Whole milk ¾ cup
• Khoya/mawa ¾ cup
• Vanilla extract ½ teaspoon
Garnish:
• Chopped almonds 4
• Chopped cashews 1 tablespoon
• Chopped pistachios 1 tablespoon
Method to follow for making eggless mawa cake:
Preparation:
First, preheat your oven to 3500.
Grease an 8-inch pan (preferably springform pan) with butter.
Take a medium-sized bowl to set aside all your dry ingredients – flour, salt, cardamom, baking soda, and baking powder.
Prepping the batter:
Take a large bowl, mix the butter with the help of an electric hand blender until it becomes creamy.
To your creamed butter, add the sugar. Blend them for a couple of minutes or until the sugar and butter form a very creamy mixture.
Now time to add khoya or mawa and vanilla extract. Blend everything for around 1-2 minutes until all your ingredients are combined well.
Now you have to add all your dry ingredients and blend them for around 30 seconds until your flour gets mixed with the sugar-butter mixture. Make sure your batter is crumbly.
Now add the yogurt and milk. Fold the yogurt and milk into the prepared flour mixture using a spatula. Remember that you have to fold the flour mixture.
Pour your batter into the baking pan. And top it with chopped nuts.
You need to bake the cake for about 45-55 minutes.
Important recipe notes:
As mentioned above, khoya or mawa is nothing but solidified milk. If you don’t find mawa/khoya at your nearby store, then you might substitute milk powder for khoya.
You can use ghee instead of butter. Ghee would also give your cake a richer taste.
So, if you find this cake recipe easy, then try this out.
Last Updated on September 3, 2021
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