March 25, 2021

Eggless Mawa Cake – Glazed

An Indian style Mawa Cake that’s made with ghee, mawa (milk solids) flavored with cardamom and adorned with lots of nuts. It’s perfect teatime cake. I went extra step and glazed it.

I have been over-thinking for creating something for Holi. We have so many traditional recipes for Holi, like Malpua- Rabdi, Jalebis, Ghujiya or Ghughra etc. But I wanted to be little creative and make something slightly different. First, I contemplated in making colorful marbled cookies, then a splash cake. But by the time I can execute my ideas, someone else had already shared their creativity. This happens a lot amongst South Asian food bloggers. We tend to think from our collective memories and sometimes we can think so similar. Its okay, but then people get blamed for copying or mimicking others. I am not disappointed though. My overthinking led me to make this cake and also another dessert that I will be sharing soon with you all in coming days. You will love both desserts so much.

What is Mawa?

Mawa or Khoya is achieved by reducing milk for hours and what remains at the end of the long tedious process are milk solids that resemble marzipan texture. All the liquid has been evaporated to achieve that texture and it has much more developed deep milky taste. Mawa is one of the most used ingredient during Diwali festival. All those Burfi’s you see use mawa in their recipes.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to make it mawa at home. You can easily buy it at Indian grocery stores, or I have also shared how to make instant mawa without standing at the stove for hours.

This cake is so good as tea-time cake. Everyone in your friends and family will love it. I love it without the glaze. Glaze was my touch to it specially for Holi festivities. Ideally the cake is unglazed or unfrosted. You can also make Mawa cake into muffins or any other shape. I have made them into madeleines too.

Let’s talk about ingredients needed for this cake

Flour – All-purpose flour and almond meal

Ghee or Unsalted butter

Dairy- Milk, Yogurt and Mawa

Leaveners- I have used both baking soda and baking powder

Flavoring – cardamom, nutmeg and saffron

Other ingredients – Dry nuts, rose petals

I have glazed it with some powdered sugar and milk mixture. I have also added extra cardamom in the glaze, but if its too overpowering for you, then leave it out. I have garnished them with rose petals, chocolate pearls and freeze-dried raspberries.

This cake is

Easy to make

Strong in flavor

And best thing about, it is eggless.

Tips – I have used a 9-inch round baking pan, but you can use any pan sized 6 -inches to beyond. I wanted a very flat looking cake so, I used some batter to bake a small cake separately. If you bake it in one pan, it will come out slightly bigger.

If you plan not to glaze the cake, then increase sugar by 1/4 cup. If you prefer less sweet then, 3/4 cup sugar is perfect for your taste even without the glaze. It will make cake not overly sweet.

Print Recipe

Eggless Mawa Cake

The famous mawa cake full of milk and cardamom flavor and studded with nuts and rose petals. Then its glazed in sugar.

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: dessert, desserts, eggless, glazedcake,, khoya, mawacake,, teacake

Servings: 8 servings

Author: Devangi Raval

Ingredients

Cake

1/2 cup ghee or unsalted butter room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
pinch of nutmeg
½ cup plain yogurt
½ cup milk
pinch saffron optional
1 cup mawa see notes
2-3 tbsp Dry fruits – almonds, cashews, pistachios
1 tbsp rose petals optional

Sugar Glaze

1/3 cup powdered sugar
¼ tsp cardamom powder
2-3 tbsp milk
Few drops food gel color
rose petals, freeze-dried raspberry etc for garnishes

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 350 F. Grease the baking pan with some butter.
In a bowl, add dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom and nutmeg powder.
Take butter in mixing bowl, add sugar and beat the mixture for few minutes until it becomes light and fluffy. Add, yogurt and beat for another few seconds to incorporate it.
Add half of the flour mix and half of the milk (dilute saffron in the milk), and gently mix everything and add remaining flour and milk. Do not over mix it. Add the mawa/khoya and mix it using a spatula or a spoon.
Stir in the dry fruits and rose petals or you can also sprinkle dry fruits on top.
Bake it for 30 minutes or until it looks golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.
Let it cool in the pan for few minutes and then remove it on the cooling rack.
Slice and serve.

Sugar Glaze (optional)

In a bowl, mix powdered sugar, cardamom and couple of spoons of milk. It should have slightly runny consistency. Pour the glaze on cooled cake. You can add few drops of gel food color of your choice.

Notes

I used store-bought mawa/khoya, but if you want to make some -use ¼ cup milk plus ½ cup milk powder. Just cook the two for a couple of minutes until it becomes a lump and looks dry like marzipan. Let it cool down and then add it to the cake.

If you make it without glaze, increase sugar 1/4 cup.

Did you try this recipe?

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