Akshayapatram

Nothing beats the waft of freshly baked cake from your kitchen as you come back from play in the evening. That’s my old childhood memory. This one used to be quite popular in my family and my mom ended up making it for us every now and then. It tastes lovely. Do try it out…I will be waiting to hear from you !

All purpose flour (Refined flour) – 1 and ½ cups
Baking powder – 1 tsp (heaped)
Salt – 1 pinch
Eggs – 6 nos
Sugar – 1 and ½ cup (powdered)
Refined Oil – ½ cup
Vanilla essence – 7-8 drops
Lemon juice – 4-5 drops
Cocoa powder – 1tsp (heaped)
Drinking chocolate powder – 1 tsp
Green food color – 6 drops
Pista or banana essence – 8 drops
Yellow food color – 8 drops
Pineapple essence – 8 drops

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt and sieve atleast 2 times
2. Separate eggs. Beat the white part till creamy. Beat the yellow part nicely. Now combine both the white and yellow part gently with a spatula in cut and fold method*
3. Add half portion of sugar and oil in the egg mixture and using an electric blender mix in cut and fold method. Add remaining sugar and oil and repeat the process.
4. Add flour little by little and now mix with hand (cut and fold).
5. Add to above vanilla essence and lemon juice and mix with hand
6. Divide this mixture into 3 equal parts
7. In the first half add cocoa powder, drinking chocolate powder and mix (cut and fold)
8. In the second part add green color, pista essence and mix
9. In the third part add yellow color, pineapple essence and mix
10. Grease the mould and add all three parts ( in the same order). Pour in the center of the mould one by one (see picture below). Don’t worry about spreading it. It will automatically happen during then baking process
11. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degree C for 35 min.
12. WIth a toothpick check if the cake is baked or else bake it for few more minutes. The time and temperature may vary from oven to oven. The tooth pick should come out clean which indicates that the cake is fully baked.
13. Take out and leave it to cool before taking it off the mould

*cut and fold method – most of the cakes need gentle mixing. In cut and fold method all you need to do is move your hand / spatula / beater from top to bottom in the center as if you are cutting it vertically then from top where your cut move your hand as the clock moves to complete a circle around the vessel. That’s called folding the cake.

Till next time…happy cooking!

that’s my super mom Jayalakshmi…a great cook and a lovely home maker