Parsi Style Mawa Cake Recipe

Mawa cake is a tradionaly Parsi recipe that the community just adores. The trick is to get the cake light and airy despite it being dense because of the mawa. In Mumbai you’ll find these at several popular Parsi bakeries and most of the time they come in these convenient cup cake size portions. It’s a lovely tea time snack and a very simple recipe you can easily make at home.

What Is Mawa ?

Mawa or Khoya as its commonly called, is made from burnt milk. Actually you keep simmering the milk in a large kadhai and wait till all the moisture evaporates. Eventually all that’s left is milk solids and that is your Mawa or Khoya. It’s commonly used in cooking and specially for sweets or Mithai in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangaladesh. It is an integral ingredients for making Indian sweets like pedas and gulab jamun among many others.

Is Mawa & Paneer The Same Thing ?

While both are made from Milk, Mawa and Paneer are not the same and are made differently. Paneer is made by curdling boiling milk, straining the liquid and compressing the solids till it forms a block of cottage cheese. Mawa is made by slowly simmering the milk in a large pot/ kadai until all the moisture evaporates leaving only solids behind.

Can I Make An Eggless Mawa Cake ?

While the traditional recipe for Mawa Cake contains egg, you can absolutely make an eggless Mawa Cake. Just replace the eggs with whipped yogurt or even cream. You can’t however make this a vegan cake as there is just too much butter and dairy that makes this cake. I haven’t tried an eggless version of this cake but you can certainly experiment.

Recipe

Ingredients

100 grams Butter

1&1/4th cup Maida/ Flour

1/4th teaspoon Baking Soda

1 cup Icing Sugar/ Granulated Sugar

1/2 cup Milk

150 grams of Mawa/Khoya

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder

2 Eggs

Method

In a bowl add in your butter and sugar and whisk it together with an electric beater till it’s all combined. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla essence and mix it all together.

To this batter use a sieve and add in the flour, cardamom powder and baking powder. Gently fold it all into the batter. Again use your electric beater to mix it into a smooth batter. Add in your grated mawa and mix it well.

Once the batter is all ready, grease your baking tin with butter and a parchment paper and pour in the batter. Smoothen it out and you can add some chopped nuts to garnish the top but it’s optional. I used sliced almonds.

Bake the cake in the oven at 180degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes. Stick a skewer or tooth pick to check that it’s ready. I recommend covering the top of your cake so you don’t burn it.

You can use any baking tin, a rectangular or circular shape or even make small cup cakes out of the batter. If you are making cupcakes they won’t take as long to bake and should be done in about 20 minutes.

Once it’s baked remove it from the oven, let it cool for a bit and then demould the cake and enjoy!

Goes best with your evening tea of coffee.

How Do I Store Mawa Cake ?

Once the cake it baked and cooled, you can cut it into manageable slices or pieces and store it in an air tight container. The cake will last up to a week.

Where Can I Buy Mawa Cake In Mumbai ?

There are several bakeries in Mumbai where you can buy good Mawa cake. The most popular of course is B Merwan in Grant Road ( East ) opposite the station. They start retailing their cakes at 5 am and come 9am they’re almost always sold out. You can also buy Mawa Cake in Mumbai from Paris Bakery, Kyani Bakery, PAC, Belgaum Ghee Depot,

Other Parsi Recipes