Mawa Cake is an aromatic teacake with a distinctive and unique flavour that makes them a truly beloved traditional Parsi treat that is fragrant, flavourful and oh-so-moreish!
Beloved by Parsis around the world, this cake is truly oh-so-moreish! It is filled with mawa (I'll explain what that is in a moment) and exotic spices! With a few clever hacks this cake comes out wonderfully moist and makes a decadent tea-time treat!
Although not a traditional ingredient, I used organic spelt flour for this recipe as it is an ancient grain that is, more natural and kinder on the digestive system while maintaining the flavor and texture wonderfully! If you can’t get spelt flour traditional plain/all-purpose flour/maida is fine.
I also like to add a touch of ground clove to these little morsels of joy and while this is not normally added, I think the subtle use of this ingredient adds that little bit of "something special" to the end result.
So…the secret to these treasures is an ingredient called mawa. In India, Mawa also known as mava or khoya is made by boiling down milk over many hours until it resembles something like a loose cottage cheese. While mawa is readily available in India, overseas mawa may not be readily available and who has hours to stand by the stove to make their own?
Cue Mum's fantastic hack that allows you to make these easily by using readily available thickened cream (thank you Mum)! Because it is already partially thickened, it cuts the cooking time down dramatically so you can easily and quickly make your own mawa at home!
MY TIPS
With clove, less is more, don’t be tempted to add too much, a small pinch is all you need.
Regular 35% fat thickened cream is recommended (don't use light cream for this recipe)
If you don’t want to make cupcakes you can bake this in a small cake tin at 180C/375F until cooked for 35-40 mins or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean or the top springs back when gently touched
Please note this recipe makes more mawa than you will use, so follow the recipe and do not pour it all in!
The thickened cream in this recipe will be used to make your mawa and ghee
When the mawa is cooked it will have reduced considerably and the yellow ghee will surface, you just need to pour it off (or strain to separate) for later use in the recipe. If for whatever reason you do not have enough ghee add the equivalent of room temperature butter/ready-made ghee as needed.
