Eggless Custard Powder Cake

This was back home, before coming here. When it was decided that we’d be traveling here, Hima, my little niece was obviously upset, that atte-mava would not be around for a loooong time, almost as long as ‘hundred days’ in her terms! And one of her concerns was that no one would make cakes for her! She is so used to baking with me, that most of the times, she’d sit with me when I bake, helping ever so obediently to sift the flour, which is her favorite, getting things from fridge and keeping them back, and then peeping through the oven glass and screaming that the cake is becoming ‘bigger’. And asking me to turn off the oven and get her a slice as the cake has become big enough and it is time to take it out!

It had been quite a long time since I had baked anything at all, because of the house painting and weddings that followed. And when everything was settled, I promised her that I’d bake her a custard cake and she was eagerly waiting for it, esp because it had two of her favorites – cake and custard combined. And when I set about it, I found that my measuring jar – yes, the only one I have, was missing! In all the mess, one of us had misplaced it and we didn’t find it… By the time I searched for the rest of the things like pan, rack, etc, I was drained out of energy and called it quits.

I told Hima, that the measuring jar, ‘the blue colored glass with markings on it’ is not there and that atte cannot bake without it that day. She was visible upset, but suddenly went off into the other room, and sat silently doing something. I and D continued to search for it, just because we had promised her, and finally found it.

By this time, the little angel, came running to me with her creation -  another plastic glass, on which she had made some markings and written some numbers!!! And she said, ‘Atte, you can use this now, and make me a cake’!!! I was truly bowled over with her creation! 

And now though tired, I couldn’t say no to baking her the promised cake… and it did come out good, for which she waited till past her bed time and happily ate a couple of pieces before sleeping.

Recipe Source: Divya’s CookBook

Eggless Custard Powder Cake

Preparation time       : 10 min

Baking time                : 45 min to 1 hr 

Ingredients:

All Purpose flour - 1 ½ cups

Vanilla flavoured Custard Powder - ¾ cup [or Cornflour]

Baking powder - 2 ¼ tsp

Sugar - ¾ cup

Vanilla extract -  ½ tsp

Butter – ¾ cup, room temperature

Raising -  a handful

Milk - 1 cup

Method:

• Grease and dust an 8” round pan with flour. I’ve used a ring mould
• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
• Mix all the dry ingredients and raisins in a large bowl using a wooden spoon.
• Mix milk and the butter and beat with the spoon till creamy
• Mix in the dry ingredients and beat until you get a smooth batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake at 180C (350F) for about 45 min to an hr or till the cake is done and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Cool on a rack and slice after cool.

Notes:

• The cake tasted very good the day I made. The next day it felt a bit dry, but still tasty.