Well here is my take on the New York Times famous Ras Malai cake.  Whilst this cake does not actually contain the chenna dough balls of the Ras Malai, I have drawn inspiration from the perfumed syrup the Rabdi into which these chenna balls are steeped.

Whilst the original cake was made with plenty of eggs, this one does not contain any.  What it does have in fact is plenty of aromatics such as cardamom, nutmeg, saffron, rose, mace and pistachios.  I have gone a step further and used Ricotta cheese, heavy cream and rose petals as filling.

The recipe is a bit long winded but certainly worth a try.

Cake:

pint canola oil

1/2 tsp powdered cardamom

1 tsp rose water or orange flower water

2 x 7 in

Ingredients:

10 oz self raising flour

6 ounce castor sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp bi-carbonate of soda

3 tbsp golden syrup

1/2 pint milk

1/4

2 x 7 inch tins, oiled and lined.  Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

In a spacious bowl mix the castor sugar and flour. Sir and add the cardamom powder mix again. In a small cup add one tablespoon of milk, add to it the bi-carbonate of soda and mix well.  Make a well in the flour/sugar mix and pour in the bi-carb mixture.  Now add all the other wet ingredients and whisk till there a no lumps left. Pour this mix equally into the two lined tins and bake till golden (30 mins approxx).  Test with a skewer or touch the top of the cake, if it springs back n the skewer is out clean, the cake is done. Turn out onto wire racks and cool for at least 6 hours

Syrup:1/2 cup water, pinch of saffron, 2 tsp sugar, pinch of cardamom

put all these ingredients in a pan and heat for a few minutes till reduced to about 2 tsp  Leave to cool slightly.

Filling:

2tbsp Ricotta Cheese

1 tbsp thick cream

1 tsp sugar

pinch each of cardamom, nutmeg, mace, saffron

1 tsp crushed pistachios,

10 rose petals

Mix all of these and keep aside,

Frosting

250 gms of butter, softened (room temp)

500 gms of icing sugar

pinch of saffron

dash of rose water

crushed pistachios

rose petals

 

Assembly.

Place one of the cakes on the cake board and brush liberally with the syrup.  let it soak into the cake.

Now spread the filling onto the cake and sprinkle pistachios and rose petals.  I have added some pomegranate too.

Now layer this with the second cake and brush with the aromatic syrup.

Make up the frosting with the butter and icing sugar, adding the rose water and saffron.  Add a small pinch of nutmeg.  Put into a piping bag and pipe roses or whatever design you desire.  Sprinkle more crushed pistachios and rose petals.  Leave to stand for at least an hour before