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In India where a large group of people are vegetarian, which means not just meat or fish but also no poultry or even eggs, eggless baked goods are very common. So over generations chefs and home cooks have developed a whole range of cookies, tarts, pies and cakes using no eggs at all. One such cake from the childhood that is still etched in my mind is Malai Cake.
Traditionally a Malai cake uses just Malai a hindi name for heavy cream and mixed with sugar and nuts. Whipped until light and baked into a cake. And the flavors are just out of the world! Light, airy, smooth and ever so delicate. But then slowly cooks started building on that recipe which honestly asks for years of practice and finesse. As a result, this cake of my childhood was born!
And then I took THAT childhood cake of mine and played with it a little more. This time using one of my favorite new appliances, the Crock-Pot Express Crock Multi-Cooker. This is a multi-use cooker that doesn’t just slow cook but can also be used as a pressure cooker (behold all my chicken curry recipes!), steams, browns and sautés food. But what caught my eye was the “dessert” button and so I had to put it to test. And what better recipe than my tried and tested Malai Cake recipe?
The texture was definitely different from a typical oven baked cake and understandably so because of the use of steam in the pressure cooker. But the cake was moist and light (lighter than when I bake it in the oven). I tried several methods to cook the cake in the multi-cooker. With the cake pan covered and uncovered. With the steam vent open and shut. Several different settings. But figured the best to make the cake light and airy, was to cook it uncovered, with the steam release vent open until all the water escapes the multi-cooker and making the cake rise properly in the process. Turning the heat off and letting the cake finish off cooking in pressure towards the end, helps the cake through.
I served the cake with a side of Orange Whipped Cream or you can just try a simple vanilla ice cream. I used the 6-Quart version for this recipe, but the Crock-Pot Express Crock-Multi Cookers are now also available in a 4-Quart and 8-Quart model. My favorite part is pressure cooking can cook meals up to 70% faster!
Eggless Pressure Cooker Cake
A play on a traditional Indian recipe called Malai Cake, this eggless pressure cooker cake is vegetarian version of a sponge cake. Other than being completely vegetarian this recipe also uses a pressure cooker to make the cake instead of the traditional use of an oven.
Ingredients
- All purpose flour- 1 cup
- Granulated Sugar- 1/2 cup
- Vanilla Custard Powder- 2 tablespoon
- Baking Soda- 1/2 teaspoon
- Baking Powder- 1 teaspoon
- Salt- 1 pinch
- Malai Heavy Whipping Cream- 1/2 cup
- Milk- 1/2 cup
- Cardamom powder- 1/2 teaspoon
- Chopped nuts- 1/4 cup almonds or walnuts go best
- Raisins- 1/4 cup
- Oil spray or butter or canola oil to grease the cake pan
- Water- 2 1/2 cups
Instructions
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Bring all the wet ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add sugar. Using a whisk or an electric mixer beat liquid until the sugar dissolves.
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Sift remaining dry ingredients and add to the bowl with wet ingredients. Whisk it all together well, to combine. Make sure there are not lumps in the batter.
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Grease a 9 inch springform pan with either oil spray or butter or canola oil. Transfer cake batter into the springform pan.
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Add 2 1/2cups of water to the New Crock-Pot Express Crock Multi-Cooker. Place steaming rack into the pan. Transfer springform pan into the multi-cooker and place it on top of the steaming rack. Put the multicooker lid in place and make sure its locked. Turn the steam vent to OPEN. Select "Dessert" setting and increase the time to 25 minutes. Press START.
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Now this stage is crucial because it can also get confusing. Display on the multi-cooker will show HEAT but will not show how much time has passed as the cake is cooking because the steam vent is open. But cook the cake as long as the steam is coming off, which is about 25 minutes +- 1 minute.
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Once the steam stops escaping from the vent, press STOP. Replace the vent to sealed position. Leave it that way for 5-8 minutes. This step is equally important because its necessary to finish off the cooking process.
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Release pressure from the pressure cooker. Open the lid. Carefully pull the springform pan out of the multi-cooker. Let the cake cool down completely before taking it out of the springform pan. Run a butter knife around the edges and take the cake out of the pan.
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Serve with a side of Orange Whipped Cream or a simple vanilla ice cream.
Disclaimer: This Eggless Pressure Cooker Cake was my contribution to Crocktober. This post is brought to you in partnership with Crock Pot. All opinions in this post are, as always, my own.
I bought a crock pot pressure cooker before Xmas and have been trying to find a cake that I can cook in it since I dont have a oven so ill try this but the ones I’ve tried I cant get done in the middle also I cover the top to keep the steam water out of cake batter I had great success with my beans also the ribs I made for Xmas I keep looking for recipes on internet