Rasmalai cake

Every now and then in the cake world just as with food and fashion a craze of some sort begins and before you know it that one particular thing seems to be trending all over.

For my latest recipe post this is excatly one of those things - rasmalai cake. For those that don't know, rasmalai is a classic Asian/ Indian dessert of little milk dough balls served in rose water scented & lightly spiced cardamom milk. Then garnished with pistachios and occasionally saffron

Now this in cake form in it's various versions combines all those elements in a light fluffy sponge with the addition of delicate edible rose petals and. 

Being a British  Muslim of Pakistani heritage and a lover of cake and rasmalai cake I knew I had to make my own version. 

To make my rasmalai cake you will need: 

For the sponge:

2 x 7" loose bottom sandwich tins - lightly greased 

& lined with greaseproof paper 

225 g self raising flour

20g milk powder

4medium eggs

Pinch of saffron 

3 tbsp warm milk 

250g caster sugar 

250g margarine - at room temp

2tsp ground cardamom

For the filling & decorating :

250g salted butter - at room temp

250g pistachio flavour icing sugar

250g icing sugar

4tbsp rose water

2tbsp rose syrup

50g chopped pistachios 

10-12g edible rose petals

Milk powder paste - made up of 3 tbsp milk powder & 1/4 tsp ground cardamom with 3 tbsp hot water mixed to make a speadable paste

• Start by preheat your oven to 160c fan. Mix the saffron with the warm milk and set aside.
• Cream the margarine and sugar in a freestanding mixer until light, fluffy and paler in colour.
• Add in the eggs, flour, milk powder and ground cardamom. Whisk together until fully combined, but take care not to overmix
• Whisk in the saffron milk, then pour the batter evenly into the 2 tins, bake for 25-30 mins.
• Remove the cake from the oven, whilst the sponges are slightly warm, poke holes all over the top of the both of them. Remove from the tin once completely cool
• Take one of the sponges and set onto your desired serving plate/dish
• Spread enough of the milk paste to cover the top of the sponge that you've set onto your serving plate - leave a half inch plain border all round the cake as you dont want the milk paste to drip down the sides.
• Make the buttercream by placing the butter, both icing sugars and the rose syrup and whisking together on a slow speed to incorporate it all together. 
• Once it's all mixed together,  turn up the speed slightly, pour in the rose water and beat the buttercream till light and fluffy - it should be a thick but spreadable consistency. If it is too thick, add a couple of tablespoons of milk or room temp water and beat together for a couple of minutes.
• Transfer some of the prepared buttercream to a piping bag, then pipe enough buttercream over the milk paste topped sponge. Use a spatula or breakfast knife to spread the buttercream out evenly- remembering to leave a plain edge border all the way round the cake.
• Carefully stack the second sponge on top ensuring both sponges are level.
• Use the piping bag again to pipe the buttercream all around the sides and top of the cake.
• Take your spatula/breakfast knife and smooth the buttercream all over and gently scrape off any excess. Place the covered cake in the fridge for about 20 minutes to set
• Apply a second coat of buttercream once the first layer has set. As before use a spatula to smooth and remove any excess.
• Press the edible rose petals into the bottom edge of cake using your fingers
• Sprinkle the top of the cake with the chopped pistachios, and with any left over buttercream, pipe a pattern all the way round the edge and finish off with a few petals all over the top,

ginger & salted carmel cake

This is a cake that is guaranteed to make an appearance towards the end of the year since it has such Christmassy flavours.. The warming spike of ground ginger, with crystallized and stem ginger balamced with the sweetness of ginger syrup & delicious Salted caramel is the perfect flavour combination especially at Christmas time


To make a 9 inch square cake you will need

12 oz butter
12 oz soft light brown sugar
12 oz self rasing flour
6 eggs
1 heaped tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp crystallized ginger
1 small jar of stem ginger chopped up

For the syrup 

Syrup from the jar of stem ginger
2 tbsps golden syrup
2 tbsps of Salted caramel
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp hot boiled water

Salted caramel to finish


• Preheat your oven to 160c fan

• Grease and line a square 9 inch tin, set aside

• In a freestanding mixer,  beat the sugar and butter till light and fluffy

• Add in the flour eggs and ground ginger, mix together until combined well - but dont over mix it

• Fold in the stem and crystallized ginger. Pour into the tin and bake for 45 -50 mins or until the edges of the cake slightly come away from the tin and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake and set aside

• Make up the syrup by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl - I just used my cereal bowl

• Use a tooth pick to make tiny holes all over the top of the cake and slowly pour or brush the syrup all over the top whilst the cake is still warm and in the tin.

• Leave the cake to completely cool otherwise it will fall apart - just before serving drizzle a load of salted caramel all over the top of the cake

Basic buttercream

I often get asked by friends & family for a simple buttercream recipe so i thought I'd share my go to recipe

The amount below will easily  cover 10-12 cupcakes, but can also be used to fill & crumb coat a sugar paste/fondant covered cake. Depending on the size of your cake you may need to double or even triple the amount below

To cover 10-12 cupcakes you will need

8oz salted butter ( soft at room temp)
16oz icing sugar

° Sift the icing sugar into a bowl & add the butter

° Using an electric hand held whisk or using a freestanding mixer ( I use my free standing mixer) mix the butter and icing sugar on a  slow speed  ( to stop the icing sugar flying everywhere)

° Once the majority of the icing sugar has incorporated, turn your mixer/hand held whisk up to a faster speed till you have a smooth & fluffy mixture. For it to be pipeable i always add 3-4 tbsp of milk & mix again. At this point I add flavorings

For vanilla flavour .. add 2-3 tbsp vanilla extract or seeds from a whole vanilla pod

For choc buttercream replace 3 oz of the icing sugar for cocoa powder or alternatively add in melted choc

For strawberry buttercream I add about 4-5 tablespoons strawberry nesquik powder or strawberry Angel delight

For oreo buttercream i in a good handful of oreo biscuits but blitz them in my food processor till really fine and mix into the buttercream - this would be perfect for filling but maybe no so much for crumb coating as there may still be chunks of biscuit that would you a lumpy surface if covering a cake with sugarpaste/fondant

For coffee buttercream replace 2 oz of the icing sugar for fine powdered coffee or 2-3 tsp of coffee granules mixed with 1-2 tsp of cooled boiled water- I add it straight in with the icing sugar

For other flavours just experiment as you go 😍