Mango Cardamom Pound Cake (Eggless) and The Baking Club

Am the last to post this fab cake we made as a result of some chatting with friends on facebook. A few weeks ago, my namesake and I were chatting. Its a ritual that we catch up even if its only online…. infact thanks to blogging, this is a friendship for keeps. i was in the midst of some heavy baking and was keeping her updated with my progress when she said all this baking talk made her want to bake too. I was just too happy and asked her to keep me company and bake alongside. So what if our kitchens were in Hyderabad and Singapore respectively! small difference it made.

When she wrote about this on fb, remembering another occasion where she and nandita had baked together, both Aparna and another namesake (yes, there are three of us… with differently spelt names mind you!) thought it would be fun to do something like a baking club, get together and bake together.

Since mangoes are in abundance, we decided to make a mango cake, zeroed in on a mango pound cake. Each one was free to choose a recipe of their own choice.

I went with the same recipe that Raaga chose, from Divya’s blog. Which i am told is from Deeba’s blog…. if you are confused with all the names, let me just say, i have been fortunate to find like minded friends in the blogosphere….and these are people i would keep in touch with even if i were to stop blogging.

So here goes. We were supposed to post on the 7th. but i was too busy celebrating my new car, a hectic weekend, and some fun stuff including chaperoning a couple of 10 yr olds to watch Kung Fu Panda -2. Excuses aside, here is the cake. Mine was a little underbaked but still yummy. the only change i  made was to make  mine eggless.

Eggless Mango Cardamom Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour / Maida

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cardamom, Powdered

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter

2/3 cup Sugar

3 tablespoons thick curd / or 2 eggs

100ml Buttermilk (add 1 tsp white vinegar to 100 ml room temp milk, leave for 10 mins till it curdles and use)

1/2 cup Mango Pulp

1 cup mango pieces chopped small

Icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F. Prepare a cake tin with butter and dust it with flour (i skipped this cos i used a silicon bundt pan)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Cream the butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the curds (or eggs if using) and beat well. my mixture curdled a bit at this point.

Add the buttermilk, mango pulp and cardamom and beat again.Add the dry ingredients into the batter, a little at a time.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a knife/ tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.

My tester came out clean at 40 mins, but i think i needed to increase the baking time to 50 mins

Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan. Dust with icing sugar, slice and serve.

Notes:

This is the first time i am baking with mango and cardamom. i loved the combination (yeah i know it is classic, but i am slow like that). I used 1 cup of mango pulp but in the recipe i have written 1/2 cos the liquid was too much in the batter. I also reduced the sugar to 2/3 because i found the original of 3/4 cup a bit too sweet. If you like your cakes sweeter, add all the sugar in the recipe. I’d also skip the dusting with sugar, this was for purely cosmetic value!

Beat the Heat Series ~ Kairi ka Panna/ Aam ka Panna

This is a thirst quencher for hot summer days. Of which there seems to be no end in sight in my part of the world. But since there are mangoes as compensation, I will not crib just a little .

Raw mangoes are almost on the wane now, so before they finish, i made kairi ka panna. Its an easy to make drink that can be made and stored in the fridge, either as a concentrate or diluted in a ready to drink form. It keeps in the fridge for about 10 days in a closed bottle.

Kairi ka Panna

1 cup pulp of raw mangoes (i skinned and sliced about 2 medium sized raw mangoes)

3/4 cup sugar (adjust according to the tartness of the mango)

2 cups water

large pinch of salt

in a pan (i use the pressure cooker and cook upto 3 whistles) add the mango pulp, sugar and the water and boil till the mango is fully cooked. cool and add to the liquidiser and pulse till it forms a frothy mix. this will be like a thick sauce. add the salt, check and adjust salt / sugar. this is now the concentrate.

To serve: dilute with chilled water in a 1:5 ratio, top with ice and serve. Alternatively dilute the whole amount with 1.5 litres of water and store in bottles.

Note: a lot of recipes will call for a spice mix of pepper, black salt and cumin to be added, but i prefer it plain. go ahead and add the spices if you enjoy it.