Eggless Mango Semolina Rava Cake

I have a bakery dangerously near my home, that many Mumbai folks would know of. An Iyengar bakery. There are many versions of this. New Iyengar, Original Iyengar, Iyengar Returns, Iyengar the Rising, etc etc. I kid I kid.

What they're all the same in, is the heavenly baked goods. This is not a bakery where I need to rob a decent enough bank to pay for one slice of opera cake. No sir. This is the old school bakery, where we still get khari and rusk by weight, cheese straws and jeera toast and their Rava Cake. Now I can't explain the texture and flavour of this rava cake to someone who hasn't had it. It's the definition of tender, lightly sweet, tastes just as good cold as warm, and is good for breakfast, snacks and any meals (I know, I've tried it).

And if one adds mango pulp into this, I give you something that you will finish in entirety for breakfast itself. It's dense, but tender, mildly sweet, bursting with juicy mango flavour with an occasional hit of black pepper. 

Mango Rava Cake

Recipe from BetterButter

You need:

• 1 cup of fine semolina or rava
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup of castor sugar, depending on how sweet your mango is
• 1 cup of thick mango pulp (fresh or canned)
• about 1/4 cup of oil, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1 tsp bakingpowder
• Flavouring: the base recipe uses cardamom powder optionally, but you can use vanilla, or omit it as well. I used a generous pinch of crushed black pepper

The How:

• Mix the semolina, sugar, baking powder, and flavouring together. If using liquid vanilla, omit at this stage.
• In a small bowl, mix the mango pulp and oil together (add the liquid vanilla here if using), and pour it into the dry ingredients.
• Mix well, and leave it be for 20 minutes at least. This allows the rava to soak the liquids and plump up.
• Preheat the oven to 180 celsius. If the batter looks too thick, add a tiny splash of milk.
• Pour into a well greased loaf pan, sprinkle with nuts if you want, and bake for about 25 min. it should be done, but if not, bake only at 5 min gaps.
• Ba warned, the cake will not rise much due to rava being heavier than flour. Do not add anymore baking powder since it will become bitter.

Cool completely and slice and enjoy!