Iyengar Bakery Style Eggless Honey Cake||No Oven Recipe

If you are Bangalorean and a foodie, finding good places to eat isn’t a hard task. The most popular ones among college students apart from street food are bakeries. Why? Because of the rates and relatively more hygiene compared to the steaming Tawa pulao frying on a cart at the corner of the street. There are many days when hostel-ites survive their day over a veg puff and aloo bun.

The recipe I’m posting today has been a childhood favorite of mine from Iyengar Bakeries all around Bangalore. It is the infamous Honey Cake. Do you see how luscious, gooey and soft it is! :’)

Ingredients:

For the cake

• 1.5 cups Maida or plain flour
• 1/2 cup Sugar Powder
• 1 cup thick Curd
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 cup flavorless Oil
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

For the glaze

Honey Glaze:

• 2 tablespoons Honey
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 4 tablespoons water

Jam Glaze:

• 4 tablespoons Mixed Fruit Jam or Strawberry Jam
• 8 tablespoons water
• 1/4th teaspoon sugar
• Desiccated coconut

Procedure:

1. Combine the curd and sugar powder and beat well using a whisk until the sugar dissolves completely. You can add a few extra spoons of sugar in case you have a sweeter tooth 😀
2. Add the Baking soda and Baking powder and whisk again. You will notice the mixture becoming frothy and increasing in volume. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
3. Add the oil and the vanilla essence and mix again until it combines well.
4. Sift the flour into the mixture and whisk until it is lump free and smooth.
5. Take a cake tin or any aluminum tray and smear it with generous amounts of butter and dust it with flour. Do not skip this step, else you will have a tough time getting the cake out of the mold. Add the cake mix into the cake tin.
6. Take a thick bottomed pressure cooker and add about 3 cups of regular salt and place a wire stand or a cooking ring. Close the cooker without the gasket and the weight. Let it heat for 5-7 minutes.
7. Place the cake tin in the cooker and let it bake for 30 minutes.
8. After 25 min, check if the cake is cooked by inserting a toothpick or a knife in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, then your cake is cooked, else let it cook for another 5-8 minutes.
9. Here comes the most difficult part of baking. Once the cake is baked completely let it cool in the mold for at least 2 hours or until it reaches room temperature. [I CAN NEVER WAIT 😥 ]

10. Here’s what you can do when you have to wait, make the glaze. The first glaze is the Honey Glaze. Add the water and sugar into a nonstick saucepan and dissolve over low heat. Let the syrup thicken a little and add the honey. Do not cook the sauce once you add honey. Gently dissolve the honey into the syrup. Your honey glaze is done.

11.The second glaze is the jam glaze. Add the water, sugar and dissolve over medium heat. Add the jam and combine with the sugar water. Keep stirring and it will begin to thicken. In case you take the glaze too far, you can always bring back to a thinner consistency by adding a few spoons of warm water.

12.Now hopefully your cake is cooled, poke a few holes in your cake and generously spread the honey glaze over it. It will absorb most of it. Spread the jam glaze as well and shower it with desiccated coconut.

NOTE: If you can’t find desiccated coconut in your supermarket, powder fresh coconut in a food processor and toast it lightly over a very low flame until it is not sticky. It should not have any color on it. It should remain white or probably pale yellow.