Gulab Jamun Cake

Few things can compare to gulab jamun. They are soft and sweet, taste divine and smell like cardamom and rose. However, making them well requires some serious skills and techniques.

So here we are with a recipe for the cake version of the delectable dessert. We think of it as one large gulab jamun; the same scrumptious taste minus all that fuss.

Milk powder is a key ingredient of gulab jamun and it’s the same for this cake version too. Milk powder actually adds a layer of extra richness and sweetness to the cake. Plus the extra sugar in the milk powder caramelizes while baking giving the cake a deep golden colour. 

In our recipe we’ve used Nestle Nido Instant Full Cream Milk Powder, which we got from one of our partners MHA.

Nido is trusted by mothers because it provides their kids with growth supporting nutrients and loved by kids probably because it tastes great. We love Nestle Nido Instant Full Cream Milk Powder because it made our cake so tender and so luscious.

Our gulab jamun cake tastes superb on its own. However, for those of you who like things extra sweet and extra pretty, we’ve included a recipe for a simple cardamom glaze you can put on top of it. 

Ingredients:

For the cake

• 135 g flour (1 cup)
• 18 g Nestle Nido Instant Full Cream Milk Powder (2 tbsp.)
• 15 g baking powder (2 ½ tsp.)
• 1 tsp. cardamom powder (heaped)
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 125 g sugar (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp.)
• ½ cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk (dissolve 2 tbsp. Nestle Nido Instant Full Cream Milk Powder in 1/3 cup water)
• 2/3 tsp. vanilla essence

For the syrup

• 1 cup water
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 8 cardamom pods
• 3 inch cinnamon stick
• 2 tsp. rosewater

For the glaze

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2/3 tsp. cardamom powder
• 6 tsp. water

Topping

• 10 crushed pistachios

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Rub 2 teaspoons of oil on the bottom and sides of a 7 inch circular cake tin. Then dust the bottom and sides of the tin with around a tablespoon of plain flour. Set it aside.
3. Sieve the flour, milk powder, baking powder, cardamom powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
4. Beat together the eggs, sugar and oil until you get a creamy texture. For this you can use a hand held electric mixer, or even your juice blender. If you are using your juice blender, running it for around 2 minutes on low would do. If using your hand mixer, 2 minutes on medium should do it.
5. If you used the blender, transfer the egg mixture to a large bowl. If not, you can just go on to the step below.
6. Add around 4 tablespoons of the flour mixture into the egg mixture and mix until the flour is fully incorporated. You can just use a spoon for the mixing.
7. Then add in around 2 tablespoons of milk (2 tbsp. Nestle Nido Instant Full Cream Milk Powder dissolved in 1/3 cup water) and mix until combined.
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 until you run out of flour and milk.
9. Mix in the vanilla essence.
10. Pour the mixture into the cake tin you prepared before.
11. Place the tin on the middle rack of the preheated oven and bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. For us this took 35 minutes. But oven temperatures differ, so keep an eye on it, especially towards the end and make the necessary adjustments.
12. When the cake is baked, remove it from the oven and let it cool down for 10 minutes in the tin.
13. While the cake is cooling down, add all the ingredients needed for the syrup except for the rosewater to a pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Then let the mixture simmer gently until the 10 minutes is up and then switch off the stove and mix in the rosewater.
14. When the 10 minutes is up remove the cake from the tin (place a plate on top of the tin and then invert it. When you do this, the cake will be upside down on the plate. To get it right side up, place another plate on top of it and invert again).
15. Make holes on the top of the cake using a toothpick; around 1 cm apart would work. And then using a spoon, pour the sugar syrup over the cake. It might look like a lot of syrup but trust us, the cake will absorb it all.
16. Let the cake cool down completely (you need to do this if you are putting the glaze on top of it. Otherwise you can enjoy it while it’s warm). Cool it at room temperature; no need to put it in the fridge.
17. If you are using the glaze, mix all the ingredients for the glaze in a small bowl and pour it over the cake. The cake has to be at room temperature when you do this.
18. Top the cake with some crushed pistachios (and edible rose petals if you have them) and that’s it.