How to make Nadiya Hussain’s ras malai cake

Nadiya Hussain was inspired by the Bengali dessert ras malai – meaning ‘juice creams’, small pieces of cake that float in gently spiced milk – for this bake.

She describes her version (without the floating) as “rich, creamy and lightly spiced and fragrant”.

Print Recipe

Nutrition Facts

Ras malai cake

Amount Per Serving

Calories 1196 Calories from Fat 612

% Daily Value*

Fat 68g105%

Saturated Fat 39g244%

Cholesterol 263mg88%

Sodium 99mg4%

Potassium 441mg13%

Carbohydrates 138g46%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 111g123%

Protein 14g28%

Vitamin A 2025IU41%

Vitamin C 2mg2%

Calcium 194mg19%

Iron 1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Ras malai cake

This showstopper cake is rich, creamy, lightly spiced and fragrant.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Bengali

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 1196kcal

Author: Nadiya Hussain

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 10 strands of saffron dropped into 4tbsp of warm milk
• 250 g unsalted butter
• 250 g caster sugar
• 5 medium eggs beaten
• 250 g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

For the milk drizzle:

• 100 g milk powder
• 150 ml boiling water
• Cardamom seeds, removed from the pods and ground

For the buttercream:

• 2 cardamom pods crushed
• 3 tbsp whole milk
• 300 g unsalted butter softened
• 600 g icing sugar sifted

To decorate:

• 100 g roughly chopped pistachios mixed with edible rose petals

Method

• Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan 150°C. Grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins.
• Make the saffron milk. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and whisk until light and fluffy and almost white. Add the eggs a little at a time, making sure to keep whisking. Then add the flour, baking powder and saffron milk, and fold the mixture until you have a smooth, shiny batter.
• Divide the mixture between the two tins and level the tops. Bake for 20–25 minutes.
• Meanwhile, make the milk drizzle by mixing the milk powder with the boiling water in a bowl. Add the ground cardamom seeds and mix. As soon as the cakes are out of the oven, drizzle some of the milk all over the top of both cakes and leave in the tin for at least 10 minutes before turning them out and removing them to cool on a rack.
• To make the buttercream, put the crushed cardamom pods in a small bowl of the milk and leave to infuse.
• Meanwhile, put the butter into a mixing bowl and whisk until very soft and light in colour. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, whisking after each addition, until all combined. Then pour the cardamom milk through a sieve into the buttercream and whisk until really light and fluffy.
• Once the cakes are totally cool, place one cake on your serving dish and spread an even layer of buttercream over it. Put the other cake on top. Flip the cake over so the milk drizzle top becomes the bottom and sandwiches the buttercream. Spread some buttercream evenly across the top and the sides and use a ruler to level off the edges
• If you have any cream left over you can pipe little kisses on top. Then gently take the rose petals and pistachios and press them into the bottom edge of the cake.

Nutrition

Calories: 1196kcal | Carbohydrates: 138g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 68g | Saturated Fat: 39g | Cholesterol: 263mg | Sodium: 99mg | Potassium: 441mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 111g | Vitamin A: 2025IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 194mg | Iron: 1mg

Time To Eat by Nadiya Hussain, photography by Chris Terry, is published by Michael Joseph, priced £20. Available from Amazon.

Best-selling Nadiya Hussain cook books

Stuck for inspiration? Check out our list of best-selling Amazon products!

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Last update on 2024-04-02 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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