Bake the ultimate Pistachio Mawa Crumb Cake! This eggless cake combines mawa, aromatic saffron and cardamom with a buttery, crunchy pistachio crumble.

You can taste the saffron, cardamom and mawa. And the topping is outstanding, caramelized mawa, pistachio crumble.

I was also inspired by my phyllo gujiya bites in which I bake them in the oven and mawa gets the caramelized flavor of the dessert.

There was a time when I disliked crumb cake, but few years ago I had a nice one and it changed my mind. The recipe is easy to assemble if you have few things ready. Store-bought mawa, coarsely crushed pistachios, bloom the saffron, and crushed cardamom powder. Once you have all these prepped then its just matter of making it.

Method:

I am really impressed with America’s Test Kitchen reverse creaming method and had to try it for this cake. It works so well. This technique impressed me. Instead of creaming/mixing butter and sugar before adding the dry ingredients, in reverse creaming process you add dry ingredients along with sugar, and then mix in the butter. This way, gluten is not overworked therefore making a nice soft texture in the cake.

This cake is adapted from my own apple crumb cake and mawa cake. So, perfect for fall. Try it, if you haven’t tried it yet. The cake is moist and buttery that has nice milky taste and borderline taste like mithai. You will not get enough of the pista crumb thats soft but also has some texture to it. It is perfect for dessert with some ice cream or even for breakfast or brunch. I also kept in mind that it would be good to take to Diwali, Thanksgiving parties.

You might think there are lot of components or too much going on with flavors but listen to me. It’s all perfectly pairs and compliment the dish. While making this cake recipe, all I imagined was the taste of caramelized mawa and I wanted to combine flavors of Indian desserts. The classic saffron and cardamom.

There are three main components to the cake baking

Make the pistachio crumb, its just like making any crumb with the addition of pistachios.

Make mawa at home or use store-bought one. Bloom saffron for the cake.

Make cake batter.

Ingredients for the cake:

Flour: all-purpose flour works best for this cake; you can also use cake flour.

Butter: I used unsalted butter, but you can use salted butter, either works fine.

Cardamom: Cardamom is one of the main flavors, so I would suggest you use it. I would not swap it out for another spice.

Yogurt and Milk: It’s an eggless cake and these are important ingredients.

Butter: Both the cake and crumb part uses butter. I have not tried it with oil, or other substitutes so cannot suggest that.

Sugar: Use white granulated sugar.

Mawa/Khoya: I made mawa at home, but it is easier to use store-bought. I like vadilal mawa the best. I have used unsweetened mawa.

Leaveners: Baking soda and baking powder are used.

Saffron: Cake has nice flavor from saffron.

Pistachios: Pistachios add nice nutty taste to the crumb.

Drizzle some pistachio cream once it is baked. This is totally optional.

Pistachio Mawa Topping — Pistachio Crumb

Suggestions:

Use store bought mawa for ease.

Do not overmix the crumb topping, or it will not have that texture.

Important to have all ingredients at room temperature.

When you add crumb part, make sure cover overall cake batter.

You can easily double the crumb topping for more crumb layer.

You can also layer half of the crumb topping in the middle layer – half cake batter, half crumb, rest of the cake batter and remaining crumb topping.

Storage of the cake:

This crumb cake will stay fresh stored at room temperature for 2 days. Because it has mawa, I would store it in the fridge for longer time just to be safe. I would recommend you warm it up slightly in microwave before serving for best results if you store it in the fridge.

Freezing:

You can easily freeze this cake, allow it to cool down completely before doing so. Best way to freeze it, tightly wrap it with plastic wrap and then foil. Store upto a month or 2. When ready to eat it, thaw it overnight or for few hours, reheat it in the microwave or oven.

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