Rava Cake ... Semolina Cake.... Sooji cake

Rava cake is something that was in my wishlist for quite a while. I always had an eye for its recipe whenever I gotta a chance to. Every recipe was different when it came to this particular cake. Some used only rava, some rava and maida, some used rava and maida and atta. Oops which one did I want to follow... I really could not pick one with complete satisfaction. Looked up a lot of recipes and finally came up with something that I felt would be right

I cannot  say which recipe I followed as I had to put my thinking cap on and judge everything on my own. I feel this recipe turned out perfect for us, the way we wanted it to be and the best part is that my younger kiddo who is not a big fan of the regular vanilla cakes is a big fan of this semolina or sooji cake. Finally I got one more interesting recipe for him that he really likes so that I can put it in his snackbox for him to share with his friends. This one is especially for my younger kiddo as I did not fall too much for this cake but sure felt it was good enough  for a change from regular cakes :)

The recipe calls for very simple ingredients and nothing fancy. I am sure you will have everything in your kitchen pantry almost all the time. Just pull everything together and bake and you are done ..... except if you planning to take pictures of each step :)

Serves... 8" by 4" cake loaf

Serve option... Room Temp

This is what u'll need....

Rava - 1 cup
All purpose flour - 2 tbspn
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Curd - 1/3 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tspn 
Baking soda - 1/4 tspn
Vanilla essence - 1 tspn
Milk - 3/4 cup
Tutti-frutti - as needed(optional)
Oil - 3 tbspn 

Here is the stir.... 

• Measure one cup of semolina or rava or sooji into a flat pan. Dry roast it for a few minutes till you can smell the rawness fading away. Roast on medium to ensure even roasting and also to avoid burning. Stir continuously

• I used chiroti rava the first time and it was perfect. But the next time I had the regular upma rava so gave it a quick pulse in the mixer(after the rava cooled down) to get a finer texture sooji

• Add oil to the rava

• Pour in a cup of milk into the rava. Give it a good mix so that there are no lumps

• Let this rest for about 15-20 minutes. The rava will soak up all the milk and the mixture will turn very thick

• Add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour to the soaked rava

• Add 1/2 tspn of baking powder and 1/4 tspn of baking soda

• Add a teaspoon of Vanilla essence to it

• Add powdered sugar to the mixture

• Add 1/3 rd cup of fresh curd into the bowl

• Measure in about 3 tablespoon of oil into the bowl. Mix everything well until they are thoroughly combined without any lumps

• Dust tutti-frutti with some flour and add it to the batter

• Pour this into a greased baking dish. Top it with a few more tutti frutti pieces if you want

• Bake this in a 180 degrees preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean

• Let this cool down completely. Once cooled, cut them into slices

• Serve as an evening snack or pack it for your kids school snack box and enjoy

  

Note:

• Dont overmix the batter after adding the dry ingredients. Just take enough time to blend everything well
• If you dont have fine chiroti rava then you can grind the regular rava after dry roasting it
• Soaking the rava makes it softer in the cake else I feel you can bite through the semolina particles all through each bite