Mawa cakes are a very popular item sold in Iranian cafes / bakeries in Mumbai. There is one place thats iconic to Mawa cakes. Its Mumbai Grant Road’s B. Merwan Cafe – B. Merwan & Co. There is a lot of nostalgia surrounding mawa cakes for the mumbaikars.
These mawa cakes are soft and buttery cakes infused with cardamom that are rolled in a wax paper. Mawa/Mava or Khoya is nothing but thickened milk solids that’s obtained by heating milk in an open pan for a long time. It has a special place in a lot of Indian Desserts / Sweets.
Parsi chef Cyrus Todiwala says “In the early 1900s our milk was not pasteurized, neither was refrigeration available. Milk had to be boiled over and over again to stop it from going off in our heat and humidity. This boiling created an automatic mawa and by the end of the day they would have a lot of it. The Irani owner experimented with it by adding it to a cake and created one of the most significant tea time cakes Bombay has ever known.” – reproduced from “Table for One – How the Bombay cupcake survived”
Pic Courtesy : midday
Here is my version of Mawa cakes.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit / 200 degrees Celsius.
Take a bowl and add in half a cup each of melted warm ghee (clarified butter) and milk. Add in quarter cup of oil.
Add in 3 eggs and 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix well with a whisk to combine. Set aside.
Measure all the ingredients listed under dry ingredients except sugar in a separate bowl. Sift all the dry ingredients together on a sieve. Sieving helps in mixing the ingredients uniformly.
I used store bought mawa / khoya for this recipe. Sieve or crumble the store bought khoya and set aside. I have mentioned in the notes section as to how to make mawa / khoya from scratch. Please refer to it if you cannot source khoya. Home made khoya will be like a thick paste. Sieving would not be possible with home made khoya.
Mix the dry ingredients including sugar, mawa and the wet ingredients to combine.
Scoop the batter in muffin tins and bake for 22-26 minutes. Wait for the cakes to brown on the edges. Check with a tooth pick to see if the cakes are done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come clean.
Serve warm with tea or coffee.
- 220 grams All purpose flour (maida)
- 30 grams store bought custard powder
- 250 grams sugar
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
- ½ cup (100 grams) Clarified butter or Ghee
- ¼ cup Vegetable oil
- ½ cup milk
- 3 Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 200 grams mava / khoya (refer notes)
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit / 200 degrees Celsius.
- Take a bowl and add in half a cup each of melted warm ghee or clarified butter and milk. Add in the oil.
- Add in 3 eggs and 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix well with a whisk to combine. set aside.
- Measure all the ingredients listed under dry ingredients except sugar in a separate bowl. Sift all the dry ingredients together on a sieve. set aside.
- Sieve the store bought khoya and set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients, sugar, mawa and the wet ingredients to combine.
- Scoop the batter in muffin tins and bake for 22-26 minutes. Wait for the cakes to brown on the edges. Check with a tooth pick to see if the cakes are done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come clean.
- Serve warm with tea or coffee.
2 cans evaporated milk
1 cup ( 250ml ) heavy cream
Heat the evaporated milk and cream in a heavy pan preferably non stick pan on medium flame for 30-40 minutes stirring constantly until the mixture is grainy and the color of the mixture is slightly brown. Please stir continuously else the mixture will scorch to the bottom. The final consistency should be like a thick pudding. Let it cool to room temperature.
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