Mawa Cakes – Soft and Buttery Cardamom infused khoya cup cakes inspired from Mumbai Iranian Cafe Grant Road’s B. Merwan Cafe – B. Merwan & Co.
Mawa cakes are a very popular item sold in Iranian cafes / bakeries in Mumbai. There is one place thats iconic to Mawa cakes. Its Mumbai Grant Road’s B. Merwan Cafe – B. Merwan & Co. There is a lot of nostalgia surrounding mawa cakes for the mumbaikars.
These mawa cakes are soft and buttery cakes infused with cardamom that are rolled in a wax paper. Mawa/Mava or Khoya is nothing but thickened milk solids that’s obtained by heating milk in an open pan for a long time. It has a special place in a lot of Indian Desserts / Sweets.
Parsi chef Cyrus Todiwala says “In the early 1900s our milk was not pasteurized, neither was refrigeration available. Milk had to be boiled over and over again to stop it from going off in our heat and humidity. This boiling created an automatic mawa and by the end of the day they would have a lot of it. The Irani owner experimented with it by adding it to a cake and created one of the most significant tea time cakes Bombay has ever known.” – reproduced from “Table for One – How the Bombay cupcake survived”
Here is my version of Mawa cakes.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit / 200 degrees Celsius.
Take a bowl and add in half a cup each of melted warm ghee (clarified butter) and milk. Add in quarter cup of oil.
Add in 3 eggs and 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix well with a whisk to combine. Set aside.
Measure all the ingredients listed under dry ingredients except sugar in a separate bowl. Sift all the dry ingredients together on a sieve. Sieving helps in mixing the ingredients uniformly.
I used store bought mawa / khoya for this recipe. Sieve or crumble the store bought khoya and set aside. I have mentioned in the notes section as to how to make mawa / khoya from scratch. Please refer to it if you cannot source khoya. Home made khoya will be like a thick paste. Sieving would not be possible with home made khoya.
Mix the dry ingredients including sugar, mawa and the wet ingredients to combine.
Scoop the batter in muffin tins and bake for 22-26 minutes. Wait for the cakes to brown on the edges. Check with a tooth pick to see if the cakes are done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come clean. For baking pans, use this link.
Serve warm with tea or coffee.
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Indian Cardamom Mawa Cakes
Mawa Cakes – Soft and Buttery Cardamom infused khoya cup cakes inspired from Mumbai Iranian Cafe Grant Road’s B. Merwan Cafe – B. Merwan & Co.
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 12-14 1x
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 220 grams All purpose flour (maida)
- 30 grams store bought custard powder
- 250 grams sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) Clarified butter or Ghee
- 1/4 cup Vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Other Ingredients
- 200 grams mava / khoya (refer notes)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit / 200 degrees Celsius.
- Take a bowl and add in half a cup each of melted warm ghee or clarified butter and milk. Add in the oil.
- Add in 3 eggs and 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix well with a whisk to combine. set aside.
- Measure all the ingredients listed under dry ingredients except sugar in a separate bowl. Sift all the dry ingredients together on a sieve. set aside.
- Sieve the store bought khoya and set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients, sugar, mawa and the wet ingredients to combine.
- Scoop the batter in muffin tins and bake for 22-26 minutes. Wait for the cakes to brown on the edges. Check with a tooth pick to see if the cakes are done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come clean.
- Serve warm with tea or coffee.
Notes
For the mava:
2 cans evaporated milk
1 cup ( 250ml ) heavy cream
Heat the evaporated milk and cream in a heavy pan preferably non stick pan on medium flame for 30-40 minutes stirring constantly until the mixture is grainy and the color of the mixture is slightly brown. Please stir continuously else the mixture will scorch to the bottom. The final consistency should be like a thick pudding. Let it cool to room temperature.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Baking
- Cuisine: Cakes, Desserts
Served this cupcake for a small Christmas gathering & was well appreciated & enjoyed by my friends. The unique flavours of cardamoms & khova together were a delightful combination. I remember long ago buying these very same cupcakes from Merwans when I used to live in Bombay. Followed your recipe to the tee & it turned out beautifully. Thanks Suguna. Keep doing your magic. Bless you.
Anita
Thank you!
Chef may I ask how you developed this recipe, you said inspired by an irani cafe in Bombay?
Trial and error only. But loosely based on butter cake.
Your recipe is really awesome. I tried it 3 times and it tastes really good everytime and also perfect texture. Perfect measurements. Thanks a lot. For one time I tried eggless version. I replaced each egg with 1/4 cup milkmaid. And also added 1Tablesppon vinegar and 1/4teaspoon baking soda. And as adding milkmaid added only 1/2 cup sugar. Same texture same taste.
Thank you Vibha. I am so happy the eggless version also turned out good. Thanks for writing in. It may be helpful for someone. Happy cooking.
Hi
U r amazing super lady explaining all the details properly. SINCERE REQUEST to give mawa cake and bread receipes without eggs. Or with curd option. Needs to to know how to replace egg wiyh curd
Hi akka,
Thank you so much for your step by step display. I tried your rathna cafe sambar, annapoorna sambar.My son loves it. I also tried Usha aunty’s briyani. It came out delicious. My husband loved it.
Now I going to try this mava cake this week.I am in chennai. Can you suggest any pure vanilla extract. I tried some online vanilla, but I don’t get vanilla flavour. I also tried vanilla extract at home, but that also doesn’t work.
Akka, please post some more cake recipes. My son loves cake.
Try Goodness vanilla. Its available online.
Hey Suguna,
I have been trying your receipes since long but I am putting a comment for the first time. I tried this mawa cake today and it turned out amazing. I love the way explain each step in detail and caution the readers about the repercussions of doing or not doing something. The texture is perfect and the addition of custurd powder gives a tinge of yellow as well as a structure to the cake. Thanks for posting a wonderful receipe!
Thank you Ketaki. Glad you liked the recipe.
Hi Suguna…
I baked your recipe and have to tell you.. it’s absolutely delicious.. even much better then the market ones…never tried mawa cake before and the recipes online were very sad… but your recipe had a click to it… Thank you for such an awesome recipe…
Regards,
Smita
Thanks Smita. Glad you liked it!
Thanks a lot for the recipe. Have tried it couple of times, and it always came out well. The mawa and cardamom flavor is awesome and for the first time my cake didn’t smell of eggs!
Thanks Divya!
the sugar level was kinda low and cake was dry . . . had to soak with sugar syrup. . . mawa flavour needs to be enhanced . . . cud we use more mawa. . . how will the proportions vary
Awesome recipe! Thanks !!
Thank you very much!
Hi…
I tried it last month it was amazing…
But my muffins turned out in dark brown colour and it only took 13 mins to bake….and also it had cracks n were raisen like a mountain…. Any specific reason for it…. At 200℃
I have Panasonic Microwave -Convection-Grill mode
Convection ovens cooks faster. May be reduce the temperature next time to 180C
Hi, can I omit the custard powder since I don’t have it at hand?
You can substitute corn flour. But I have not personally tried it with corn flour.
Hey hi..your recipe is simply awesome..I have tried this recipe n came out so well..n delicious too.?thanks for sharing with us..
Thank you so much!
hi can you please give the recipe with measurements in cups (i mean how much quantity to take cups wise rather than in gms) since i dont have a weighing scale at home.
1 cup flour is about 130 grams (+ or – 10 grams) and 1 cup sugar is about 200 grams. I dont have measurement for custard powder and mawa.
1 tablespoon custard powder is 10 grams.
Can we try this replacing egg with curd??if so wats the measurement??
I have never tried it with curd Sowmya. As curd is acidic, it might turn the leavening proportions off. I would not substitute curd.
Can i try replacing egg with egg replacer?
I have never used egg replacer Amala. I do not know how it works.
Can i try replacing egg with egg replacer?
I have never used egg replacer Sowmya. I do not know how it works.
Hi I tried it right now n it was awesome … N yes it was not less than merwans thank u so many much … Wish I could post d pic also ?
so nice. Happy cooking!
instead of egg what else can add in mawa cake? or we can make it without adding egg in cake but rest ingredient will be same. please do reply to me.
Thanks
I have never tried this recipe without the eggs. The cake might be dense if the eggs are ignored.
Hi kanamma, I am a great fan of your blog, love that you are posting all tried & tested authentic family recipes. I also like the precision in recipes. I have a small request, though I bake a lot I only use gram measures, can you please continue giving precise gram measures for baking and dessert recipes alone? I will be happy if you do so…
Hi Ramya, I will do that going forward. Thanks for the suggestion dear.