Mom’s Special Vanilla Cake
Growing up in an Indian household, my family has zero knowledge whatsoever, when it comes to western desserts. Ironically, the first ever dessert I learned to make was an eggless vanilla cake- that too by my mother. My mom’s repertoire of western desserts pretty much ends there, lol. Everybody in my family loves a good vanilla cake, including me. I mean, it has been the showstopper at every important occasion for years now, so it’s only natural. I have tried a lot of Vanilla Cake recipes over the years, and trust me when I say a lot. Safe to say- none come close to this one. Maybe I’m being a bit partial but it definitely is one soul satisfying cake. I had held back from sharing this recipe for the longest time. Maybe because it’s so personal to me and I didn’t wanna share that publicly. But sharing is love right? And I love you guys so finally, here it is!
For everybody who’s new here: this is THE cake that got me into baking. My friend’s mum would make this cake for her birthday parties every year and that’s when I fell in love with it. As a greedy 8 year old, I coaxed my mum to get the recipe and bake it for us. Before you know it, I’m getting on a little tiny kitchen stool and helping my mum with the batter. After a year or two, my mum resigned from the job and I took over. And here we are, 15 years later :)
Now I have made this cake a lot of times before and every time it puts a smile on my face, as if to say- I’ll never let you down, haha. Just a few simple ingredients, but my mom uses two special ingredients. Actually three special ingredients. First one is custard powder. It just makes the cake more vanilla-ey, if you know what I mean. Secondly, she uses Coca cola. Yup. Now most Indian moms have used coca cola in cakes sometime or the other. It basically adds an acid for the baking soda to react with- a great way to make the cake lighter. Lastly, and the most important- love. Make this cake with a lot of love and you’ve got a recipe to cherish for years. It’s a simple, yet beautiful cake and still one of my favourites. And your kitchen is going to smell so amazing. I made this into a marble cake but you can skip that you want to. It tastes great as it is. My mom preferred the simple version haha.
I hope this cake puts a smile on your face like it has been on mine for years. Happy baking !
Recipe
Makes: 7” cake
Ingredients
For the vanilla cake:
100 g butter. Salted or unsalted
3 tbsp castor sugar
½ tin / 180 g condensed milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
190 g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
4 tsp custard powder
120 ml / ½ cup milk
80 ml coke
For the chocolate batter:
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp castor sugar
Method
Grease a 7” round baking tin and line with parchment paper. Keep aside.
Preheat oven to 180 C.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk in the custard powder. Keep aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add the castor sugar and beat until light and fluffy. About 3 minutes.
Add the condensed milk and beat again until light and fluffy. About 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla extract and mix again.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, alternating with milk. Do not over mix the batter. Just until all the flour is incorporated.
Lastly, add in the coke and mix again.
Take out 3-4 tbsp of batter in a separate bowl. Add the cocoa powder and sugar and mix.
Pour the 3/4 of the vanilla batter into the prepared baking tin. Pour dollops of the chocolate batter and swirl using a toothpick. Pour rest of the vanilla batter and swirl once again. Bake for 35-40 mins, or until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean. Let it cool completely and serve!
If you enjoyed that and tried it at home, please tag me at @myyummyspatula on instagram so that I can see all your bakes! For more BTS stories, updates and fun, you can follow long here
