My mother used to make cake at home. Her mother also used to make cake. It was a time when ovens were not easily found in home. Mother was baking her cake in a cake pot. The cake used to come out as a ring or rather like a huge doughnut. Grandmother had a special container or dabba. Its lid was such that it used to slip on and off very easily on the container. To bake a cake in grandmother’s kitchen few things had to be assembled. A deep tawa was filled with sand and set on the chool (wood fired stove of olden times).The container with cake batter was put on sand and live embers were put on top of the lid .Slowly the cake baked and we used to be impatient to open the container to see how the cake is shaping. After a long wait and enduring the delicious aroma of the baking. Grandmother used to open the ‘dabba’ to reveal the golden brown cake.
Both mother and grandmother used eggs to prepare cake. Our minds were set in such a way we never imagined an eggless cake, for us cake was totally incomplete without eggs. My vegetarian school friends introduced eggless rawa cake. Somehow finally the cake made from rawa and curds (dahi) was accepted as a cake but not as the cake as the taste of curd(Dahi) stayed on for long time and ruined the experience.
These days eggless cake has become a staple in any cake shop. Recently I went to buy a cake and the shop had rows of eggless cakes and very few cakes with eggs. Of course it is practical to buy an eggless cake when we are sharing our happiness and cake with friends.
Today’s eggless cake is not ‘the typical dahi rawa cake’. The cake making has moved ahead and we have many methods to make our cake rise more, keep it moist etc. Cake gel and cake improvers are used very often.
Along with this making of cake, healthy cake is also in the run. Using whole wheat flour, reducing sugar and adding dates or other substitute, replacing butter with oil are some of the things tried for healthy versions. I have come across a recipe for cake with sorghum flour. I myself have tried making banana cake with nachani (ragi) flour and jaggery which was embraced by my family.
Please post recipe of eggless cake