Simplicity at its best!
I have a special relationship with this simple, spongy, sweet eggless cake made with sooji and lots of ghee! During my school days, my Aajji has made this cake on many special occasions like me winning an award or doing better than average in exams. This cake symbolizes the celebration of those small successes in my life and has a very special place in my heart.
This recipe was very popular during the 70s and 80s and then somehow got lost during the “Internet era” of food evolution. It’s very similar to Revani – which is a Greek Semolina cake with few differences. Revani contains both flour and semolina while this Rava cake is made with only Rava /sooji/semolina and has no wheat flour. They both have a tangy element, yogurt in this recipe and orange syrup in Revani.
Rava, yogurt, and ghee are not our regular cake ingredients, yet this is truly magical. Instantly melts in the mouth! It gets its spongy texture from Yogurt and a pinch of baking soda. And it’s eggless!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup unroasted medium coarse rava
- 1 cup yogurt (preferably whole milk)
- 3/4 cup sugar (start with 2/3 cup and add more as needed)
- 3 tbsp melted ghee (or softened butter)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
- a pinch of saffron
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
Method:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together rava, yogurt, and sugar. Add softened ghee and mix everything until batter is formed.
Let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour. - Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees / 180 degree Celsius.
- Add baking soda, cardamom powder and other optional ingredients – vanilla extract and sliced almonds. Mix well.
- Line your cake pan with parchment paper and gently grease it with a few drops of ghee. Pour the batter evenly into it. Tap the baking pan a few times on the counter, this will help spread the batter Sprinkle some saffron strands on top.
- Bake for about 25-27 minutes. It will be soggy while it’s hot. Let it cool completely before you cut it into pieces.
This cake stays well for a week and is a great healthy option for kids lunch boxes or as after-school snacks. Make sure to leave out almonds if your school is nut sensitive.
Hope you will enjoy this simple divine cake! Do let me know how you like the recipe in comments below.
Love,
~ My Home Mantra ~
Thanks for making it for me too 🙂 Loved it ! I will be making it tomorrow
Anytime 🙂 Let me know how it turns out.
Super hit! I made two 🙂 Perfect recipe. Check my instagram pic .
Looks great! Keep some for me 😛
Glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know by email as well. Since you hadn’t linked to it, I wouldn’t not have known about this post, but I ambled here anyway.
Hi ET, i have linked it now 🙂
Hi,
Nice recipe must try for sure.When I saw ur site I was in big shock u know y????cuz u and me share the same layout of the site.check my site u will understand what I am talking about.By the lovely pic.I didn’t know we could do cake in rava nice.
Thanks Janani! I am sure you will make it. Let me know how you like it.
Mast ga! even mazi aaji pan karaychi ha cake! nakki try karen. Btw microwave cha temp setting kay asayla hava coz baking oven nahiye mazyakade.
Thanks Gayatri! Tu lavkar ek convention oven gheun tak, Rohit la saang 31st Oct la gift dyayla 🙂
mhanje mag mala as nahi mhanav lagnaar, ki mala kharach nahi mahiti ki microwave madhye kasa karaycha. Ideally it’s hard to get baking action in microwave karan baking is slow heating vs microwave is instant heating.
Ani ho fb var MyHomeMantra like kar kinva email subscribe kar, to stay updated 🙂 Thanks!
Amazing! Thanks for posting
Thank you 🙂
Hi! Please alter the date to make the post fall in any day of August 2012 🙂
Bake Fest Event & Giveaway!
Updated, thanks for reminding me 🙂
Thats really healthy .. what a brilliant Idea..
Thanks for linking it to the event !
hii dear…
please mention wtml logo and link back annoucement page… and please mail me your shipping address , phone number with post link…. @ my id within oneday
Here is roundup link
http://preeti-kitchen.blogspot.in/2012/12/wtml-celebration-roundup.html#.ULmXAIOmhQE
i love to cook but i dont have ovan can any one help me how to cook rawa cack in gas
You can use the pressure pan without the lid. Place a cooker perforated plate in the pan and over it place the cake pan. Cover the pressure pan with an inverted tava and keep the flame on medium. You may need to check intermittently to avoid burning.
Hope ‘homemantra’ approves this since I am not a kitchen expert but have made cakes this way.
Hi Sanjivani, thanks for your suggestion!
Hi, I tried this recipe and the cake was so perfectly baked and sweetened. I liked it! 🙂
Hi Deepti, thanks for the lovely feedback!
Hello Madam,
The recipe is really very simple and the cake turns out to be delicious as well. However, on the last 2 attempts the cake was very dry (khup sukhaa zaalaa hotaa) and the batter did not rise well (khup fulala naahi – khup halke zaale naahi) after adding Baking Soda.
What could have gone wrong? How can I improve upon it?
Do i need to add milk to the batter so that the cake is not very dry?
Or did I add more quantity of Baking soda?
Please help and guide.
Warm Regards.
Thank you for the feedback, I am sorry if it turned out dry. Please don’t add milk because milk and yogurt have opposite qualities. You may add more yogurt to make it wet and also more ghee if you feel it’s dry. I feel it might become dry if you bake it for more than needed and it happened with me last time. So please try 25 minutes and checking frequently after that.
Hank you so much for this receipe. I made it yesterday and it is absolutely easiest and best receipe ever baked…..love you a ton…keep sharing… If I do any variations will definitely post it here…
Hi Shweta,
Thank you so much for the feedback!
Hi. I have been wanting to make a rava cake since a long time and this looks like the perfect recipe. But can you please provide the ingredients in grams. I can’t figure out the cup measurements.
Thanks. – Deepti
If I want to add kharik,has it to be soaked and in what?
That’s a nice idea, soak them in milk. Would be a good addition. I will also give it a shot
sahiiiii…..
Can we use buttermilk instead of yogurt?
Tried witj buttermilk.. Turn out good
Thanks was wondering the same thing. Good thing you again posted about how it turned out. Theres always lot of buttermilk left after making ghee