Another milk based gem – Milk Cake

As you would now be aware of this well-known fact about my darling husband  – that he has real appetite for sweets, especially the milk based ones. I can safely and confidently say that he seems to have sweet teeth only, and none of the spicy ones 🙂

And so I am always making some or the other milk based sweets – to take care of his indulgences. I generally follow couple of ground rules for all my food – no shortcuts, and use of simple and readily available ingredients. The idea is that anyone can pick up the recipe and make it at home without any hassle !

My today’s post is on Milk Cake – a rich, granular milk based Indian sweet. As the family legend goes, this was introduced to my husband by his grandfather when my husband used to be a kid. And even after all those years of growing up, he still fancies Milk Cakes a lot. For the benefit of everyone, this is a unique “cake” made primarily with milk and sugar and has a touch of sourness to it.

Milk cake is made by boiling milk for a long time till it becomes mava, which is then cooked with sugar and later allowed to set. I know what you guys might be thinking – that from the sound of it, Milk Cake and Kalakand seems to be the same sweet. Believe me – both are extremely different in their method of preparation, colour, shape and taste.

The ingredients for Milk Cake are:

1. Milk (full-fat ) : 2.250 Litres
2. Sugar : 1 cup ( i have used brown sugar)
3. Clarified butter (ghee) : 3 Tbsp
4. Cardamom (powdered) : 1/4 tsp
5. Almonds : 1 tsp (sliced)
6. Pistachios: 1 tsp (sliced)

Method 

Take a large, wide and heavy saucepan. Put the milk in it and bring it to boil. Let it continue to be on the boil for 2-3 minutes.

Now add 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice to this milk; it will start to curdle. Remember to use a minimum amount of lemon juice to just start the curdling process and prevent the whey (milky water) from completely separating immediately.

Boil it for further 5 minutes; add more lemon juice gradually, so that the milk will curdle completely.  Now you will see that the whey will separate completely. Now remove 3 cups of the whey from it. This will help reduce the tartness from the milk cake.

Stir and cook continuously for 30-40 minutes. Then the milk will be of a grainy consistency and the whey would have evaporated.

Now add sugar and keep stirring until the mixture gets thick. This should take approximately 7-10 minutes.

Add clarified butter and cardamom powder, and cook and stir continuously on medium heat for another 5-7 minutes until the mixture comes together and becomes a slightly golden brown in colour.

Grease a tray with clarified butter. Transfer mixture to the greased plate, sprinkle sliced almonds and pistachios and press firmly on the mixture and make a square shape, approximately 1 inch high. Keep it aside for at least an hour before slicing into individual pieces.

Insider Tips / Finer Points :

• You can store Milk Cake for a few days at room temperature.

• You may use brown sugar instead of white sugar, to get more brown coloured milkcake.

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