Simple Eggless Vanilla sponge Cake
Simple Eggless Vanilla sponge Cake (without oven or pressure cooker)
This specific blog is really close to my heart. For as long as I remember, my birthdays were never celebrated lavishly until I got into college. Do not get wrong, my Ma and Didun always made sure that I had plenty of my favourite dishes and the quintessential “Nolen gurer payesh” (creamy rice pudding made with date palm jaggery). But I never actually got a big birthday bash with a big cake topped with delicious frosting, and a nice cool part with my friends. When I was about 12 or 13 years old I tried my hand at baking in the microwave, but the cake was always either overcooked or undercooked. I still remember, once it came out to be a huge chunk of biscuit (it was delicious though).
However a few years ago, when my microwave broke down, I was left with only two options – either bake a cake without a microwave or do not bake at all. My father, who used to support me in all of my culinary adventures (and sometimes misadventures), was an ardent lover of cakes, especially on the Christmas and New Year’s Eve. So I decided to try out something new, and made this cake in a kadai. And voila, it turned out to be perfect. I admit there is no fancy frosting, but that five year old kid who never got a cake on her birthday becomes very happy at the sight of this modest, simple cake.
History of origin of cake
The term “cake” has a long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word “kaka”.
The ancient Greeks called cake πλακοῦς (plakous), which was derived from the word for “flat”, πλακόεις (plakoeis). It was baked using flour mixed with eggs, milk, nuts, and honey. They also had a cake called “satura”, which was a flat heavy cake. During the Roman period, the name for cake became “placenta” which was derived from the Greek term. A placenta was baked on a pastry base or inside a pastry case.
The earliest known recipe for sponge cake (or biscuit bread) from Gervase Markham’s The English Huswife (1615) is prepared by mixing flour and sugar into eggs, then seasoning with anise and coriander seeds.[5] 19th century descriptions of Avral vary from place to place but it sometimes described as “sponge biscuits” or a “crisp sponge” with a light dusting of sugar “. Traditional American sponge recipes diverged from earlier methods of preparation, adding ingredients like vinegar, baking powder, hot water or milk.
Sponge cake covered in boiled icing was very popular in American cuisine during the 1920s and 1930s. The delicate texture of sponge and angel food cakes, and the difficulty of their preparation, meant these cakes were more expensive than daily staple pies. At the historic Frances Virginia Tea Room in Atlanta sponge cake with lemon filling and boiled icing was served, while New York City’s Crumperie served not only crumpets but toasted sponge cake as well.
Recipe –
Ingredients –
Flour/Maida – 1cup
Vegetable oil – ½ cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Milk – ½ cup
Baking powder – ½ teaspoon
Baking soda – 1/3 teaspoon
Salt – a pinch
Vanilla essence – ½ teaspoon
Method –
1. Grind the sugar into fine powder.
2. Add the dry ingredients through a sieve into a mixing bowl.
3. Add the oil and milk and whip thoroughly until the batter turns into a smooth runny consistency. In this step you can adjust the amount of sugar too.
4. Add a pinch of salt and vanilla essence.
5. In a kadai add about 2-3 cups of sand. Cover the kadai with a lid and preheat the sand.
6. Grease a deep bowl with some oil and transfer the cake batter into it.
7. Put a rack inside the kadai on the heated sand and place the bowl containing the batter on it.
8. Cover with a lid and cook on low flame for about an hour. Open the lid and put a knife trough the centre to check if it’s cooked. If the knife comes out clean put out the flame and let the cake rest inside the kadai with the lid on.
9. If the knife does not come out clean cook over low flame for some more time and check in between.
