It was my birthday during the first Covid lockdown. Even though I had laid out a feast for my family, there was one very important, missing element. Cake. Two months later, the same emotion got repeated for my husband’s birthday. I felt as if I was the only one who didn’t know how to bake. But I had one sorry excuse – no oven.
I received a small OTG as a present after a few months and then I didn’t even have my sorry excuse. My fear of baking was at its peak with home bakers using the lockdown to flaunt their beautiful creations on Facebook and Instagram.
The first known cake can be traced back to the Egyptians and then the Greeks and Roman. All I could remember was my failed attempt at baking a few years earlier. I had gone and purchased all the ingredients and baking equipment with enthusiasm when my husband requested a home-baked teacake. After zeroing in on an easy looking recipe, I readied the batter. What came out of the oven 40 minutes later was something that vaguely resembled a cake. It tasted eggy and was raw in places. That was the hint I needed. The oven mittens, cake tin and everything else was shoved into the cupboard. I am glad that there exists no photographic evidence of my baking fiasco.
The memories of that experience made me even more jittery. After contemplating for a few days, I decided that it was time to take the plunge. Or maybe just some baby steps. Another round of shopping and with the help of Google baba, I was as prepared as I could be, given my lack of confidence. I could imagine myself pulling a hard-as-rock cake out of the oven.
The day dawned and the cake was baked. What happened next was unfathomable. My whole house was fragrant with a yummy aroma. That soft, spongy and buttery vanilla cake lasted for just a few hours.
I have followed the same recipe ever since. Here is the foolproof recipe for a basic vanilla cake. It is a very forgiving recipe and you can convert it into a tutti frutti or walnut or marble cake very easily. You can easily replace the maida with whole wheat flour and reduce sugar if you like it less sweet. It will still turn out good.
Ingredients
1 & 1/2 cups All purpose flour (maida)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup / 113 grams unsalted butter
2 tsp oil
1/4 cup malai
2 large eggs
1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
1/4 tsp salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line an 8-inch cake tin.
In a mixing bowl, sieve flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Beat together sugar and malai till it is light and fluffy. At the same time, heat the milk with the butter till the butter melts.
To the sugar and malai mix, add the oil and mix. Then start adding the eggs, one at a time. Beat till the mix is light in colour.
Add the vanilla essence.
I stop using the beater at this stage. I use a silicon spatula to mix the wet and dry ingredients. You can use the beater but at the lowest speed possible.
Start adding the flour little by little. DO NOT OVER MIX.
Once the wet and dry ingredients are mixed well, add in the warm milk and butter. Mix for a few seconds till you have a smooth batter.
Transfer into the lined cake tin and put it on the middle rack of your oven.
Bake for about 40 minutes or till a tooth pick comes out clean.
Cool for a few minutes before you cut a slice for yourself and don’t forget to pat yourself on the back!
