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Christmas is that time of the year when you make merry and go out shopping and traveling with friends and family. The chill and the dryness in the air make the whole environment to go around more to keep warm. My Christmas day this year, o I should be saying last year was a good now. The celebration started from Christmas Eve, just after I came out of my office.
I went to the St. Mary’s Basilica, the oldest Church in Bangalore. The Church was decked up with white flowers all around the alter. I presumed it was to show respect to all those who lost their lives in different terror attacks all over India in 2008. That night we had good dinner at one of the well known restaurants in Bangalore and then off to St. Patrick’s Church for the grand celebration. What I have never done before, this time I was there inside the Church and sang along with many others the Christmas carols. It reminded me of those days in school. I still do remember the songs well.
Christmas day without some different things from the kitchen makes it very dull. So, after the day long hovering about from one Church to the other, I thought of baking a cake to mark this grand occasion.
The problem with baking a cake at my home is I don’t have a convection microwave oven, for that matter not a simple oven. So my only resort was my faithful pressure cooker. This was the first time I baked a cake in the pressure cooker and was quite apprehensive about the outcome till I had a bite. The cake was absolutely soft and everyone really liked it.
For one pound cake
Ingredients:
Cake flour or Wheat Flour (Maida): 1 ¼ cup
Baking powder: 1 teaspoon
Castor sugar (Guro Chini): ¾ cup
Unsalted Butter (Sada Makhon): 50gms
Eggs (Dim): 3
Clarified Butter (Ghee): 1 tablespoon
Vanilla Essence: 1 teaspoon
Dry fruits like raisins and cashew nuts, etc
Cadbury Gems for frosting
Sand for heating in pressure cooker
Preparation:
- Add half cup of sugar to the eggs with the vanilla essence and beat well with a blender until the eggs make small peaks the blender is lifted
- In a large bowl put in the flour, baking powder and sift thrice
- Drop in the butter to the sifted flour and mix well with a blender
- As the mixture gets fluffy and soft pour in the egg and castor sugar mixture and blend
- Take a steel bowl (of the shape you want your cake to be like ) and coat it with the clarified butter well
- Pour in the cake mixture into the steel bowl
- Cover the base of the pressure cooker with half inch of sand, sand helps in passing the heating evenly
- Place the steel bowl with the cake mixture in the pressure cooker, and add some dry fruits to it
- Close the lid of the pressure cooker without the whistle
- Let it be there on medium flame for at least 12 minutes
- The smell of baked cake will come when it is properly baked
- Insert a knife through the cake, it the knife comes out clean , the cake is properly baked then
- With a knife scrap the sides of the steel bowl and invert it over a plate
- Frost it in whatever way you like; I frosted it with castor sugar and gems.
Events Participated
- Baking For Beginners – put on those mittens!! hosted by Vandana.
- Winter Treat ‘ Event hosted by Trupti .
- To Purva for her Christmas Feast Event
- Sweet series – Baked sweets & chocolates hosted by Mythreye
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please tell me what we can use instead of vanilla essence
Hi. .could u please tell do we havè to preheat thé cooker first ? & thé sand used is thé sand that’s used for construction’s ?
You don’t need to preheat the sand, and yes the construction sand is fine
looking forward for frosting recipes too 🙂
Loads of thanxx Sudeshna for this user friendly nd Xtrmly delicious recipe.
really works good for creating an impression..Thnxx again..:)
Riya,
you are most welcome, have a great year ahead.
What can be used as a substitute for egg? Coz we dnt cuk Non veg at our home
Hi Arpita,
There are egg substitutes tha you can readily get from the market, and if you don’t wanna use that then try using about 3 tablespoons of cocacola in place of each egg. Though the result is not as good as when you use eggs, but its still ok. Or else use whipped cream, but then you wont be able to keep the cake for long.
wow, thanks for this technique! may i know if you can still use the pressure cooker for other dishes after using it this way? thanks!
Magi, I’m sure you can use it
Hey sudeshna, ur receipe was just supperrb,it really impressd my hubby.
Vrinda,
Thank you so much for the feedback. 🙂
heii..
Sudeshna
i jst lov ur method.. jst awsome thanks dear.
Hi sudeshna,
Thoroughly loved your process. I am going to try this and link it to your blog! Khub bhalo laglo tomar post. Honestly, who said we cant bake without an oven. 🙂
Rukmini,
Thanks a ton for your comment. My idea was the post was exactly this, because even I didn’t have an oven at home.
your method s very simple and user friendly let mee try tomo…
Jo,
Thank you so much for the comment. Would love to see you back soon. Belated Merry Christmas
thnx! thts really kewl!!
Srija,
Thanks for the comment. Hope you enjoy baking and eating the cake.
Hi,
Your receipe is so detailed without any confusion. Thank you so much.
OH, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it
is it necesarry to put sand…as its difficuilt to fint it..id d place i live
@Rosy,
The sand dissipates the heat all through the bowl you are making the cake, if you don’t find sand, then just leave it. Trying putting in a little bowl or sand under the cake bowl so that the cake bowl doesn’t touch the bottom of the pressure cooker.
Hi,
Thanks dear…I really appreciate your method :), little confuse as u said (trying putting……), does that mean we can also put bowl under the cake bowl instead of sand?
You can do that. The sand just makes the process faster as sand retains the heat. You can just use another bowl upside down and place the cake bowl over it. Merry Christmas to you and Happy Baking!
Thanks for your cake receipe ,Please write the method of baking bread in pressure cooker
Hi Akalya,
Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure whether you can bake a bread in pressure cooker, to say I have never tried it out, will let you know, if I try it.
can we bake any kind of cake with this pressure cooker?
thanks
adralia@gmail.com
Thanks a lot. Its detailed.