Cake flavoured with cardamom and rose water, and topped with sweet cottage cheese

Ras malai is a popular Indian dessert consisting of white cream, sugar, milk, and cardamom flavoured paneer cheese known as chenna. Almonds, cashews, and saffron are often added to this dessert.

This dessert is a perfect blend of an East/West fusion achieved by layering a cake with cream cheese frosting and rasmalai to give it a classic twist on a regular cake.

Trust us, it is an absolutely tasty and decadent dessert.

To make the Rasmalai, follow the step-by-step instructions HERE

Ingredients (for the cake)

• 120g butter, at room temperature, extra for greasing the pan
• 120g sugar, fine
• 120g eggs (about 2 eggs)
• 120g plain flour, extra to dust the pan
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 40 ml milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp rose water

Ingredients (for the frosting)

• ½ cup butter, softened
• 224g cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ tsp cardamom powder
• 1 tsp rose water

Ingredients (to assemble the cake)

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• a handful of dry rose petals
• 1/4 cup pistachios, ground
• A few pieces of dried rose petals, to garnish
• A handful of pistachios and almonds, to garnish

Instructions (for baking the cake)

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and butter and flour a 6 inch pan.
• Cream the butter and sugar till light pale. This should take around 3-5 minutes.
• Add egg one at a time, while beating in between.
• Sift the plain flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl.
• Slowly, add the dry ingredients into the batter, mixing in between.
• Add the milk, vanilla and rose water and gently mix into the batter.
• Pour the batter in the greased tin, tap it a few times on the counter, and bake for 40 min at 180 degrees celcius, or till the skewer inserted into the batter comes out clean.
• Let the cake cool down completely before icing.

Instructions (for the frosting)

• Beat the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes.
• Gradually, add the icing sugar in 3 batches, mixing well after each addition.
• Add the cardamom powder, rose water and vanilla extract., mix well, and the frosting is ready.

Instructions (for assembling the cake)

• To make the sugar syrup, add the sugar and water into a pan and bring to a boil. Take it off the heat.
• To that, add the cardamom powder and rose petals.
• This is a simple sugar syrup to put on the cake.
• Once the cake has cooled down, cut it equally into 2 pieces.
• For a 6 inch cake, take a 8 inch cake board. Add a dollop of frosting on the board and put the first cake on the board. With a pastry brush, brush the sugar syrup on top of the cake and add the first layer of frosting.
• Repeat with the next cake, sugar syrup and frosting.
• Finally, go around the cake with the frosting, and once done, let it chill in the fridge for an hour or more.
• To decorate the cake, cover the bottom tier of the cake in ground pistachios.
• On top top, add the rasmalai, and sprinkle with almonds, pistachios and rose petals.

To make the cake more decadent, add the rasmalai in between the cake layers!

Check out more cakes on our website HERE