Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New year.
Have you ever been haunted with a picture of some food? It happened to me when I saw the picture of this beautiful yellow cake on one of the groups in Facebook. It had my favorite spice ~ "Saffron". The cake looked simple with intriguing flavors that made me want to try it at the first given opportunity.
Even though I have a sweet tooth I am not big fan of cakes. The only cakes that I like is simple homemade cake with no frosting! This fit the bill perfectly. The cake is not too sweet.. but soft, buttery and smells heavenly. I have followed the recipe on the "Framed Recipes" blog. Thank you Sreelatha for this wonderful recipe. I would increase the sugar level slightly next time if I am making this as dessert (but that's because I like my desserts a little sweet). If making it with tea or coffee its perfect. My pictures don't do justice to this beautiful cake so please head over to her wonderful blog which has drool-worthy pics.
Here is what's needed:
2 sticks Unsalted butter (I used lightly salted and skipped adding salt) at room temperature
1.5 cups All Purpose flour
1 cup Sugar (Add 1/3 - 1/4 cup sugar extra if you like it sweeter)
4 tbsp fresh milk
4 Eggs
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/2 tsp salt
2 generous pinches of Saffron
generous pinch of fine cardamom powder (Optional)
Procedure:
1) Warm the milk and add the Saffron. Let them soak in the milk for few minutes so that the flavors get infused. Keep it aside for at least 20 mins.
2) Pre-heat oven at 375 deg F. Grease and line a 9 inch round cake pan.
3) In a bowl mix the dry ingredients - All purpose flour, salt, baking powder. You could sieve it. I usually use a whisk.
4) Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add one egg at a time and beat until incorporated on low speed. When all the eggs are added the mixture looks curdled. I am glad that this was mentioned in the original recipe as I got tensed seeing the curdled mixture. The flour mixture will take care of this.
5) Add the vanilla essence and saffron infused milk. I also added a generous pinch of cardamom powder as I love its pairing with Saffron
6) Add the flour mixture in parts while beating it on low. Pour the batter in the prepared tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 -45 mins until tooth pick inserted comes clean. Do cover the cake with aluminum foil shiny side down if it browns too fast.
7) Once out of the oven let the cake rest in tin for 5 mins and then invert it on a wired rack to cool completely. Slice.