Indian Mava Minicakes With Pistachios & Saffron

Note: this recipe yields 1 cup mava. The Mava Cake recipe, as written, calls for 1/2 cup mava and yields 3 mini cakes.

Making mava at home:

In a heavy bottomed, wide-mouthed and preferably nonstick pan, pour in both evaporated milk and heavy cream. A nonstick pan helps to prevent the milk and cream from getting burned and sticking to the bottom while cooking.

Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, about 10 minutes. Once boiled, reduce the heat to medium on your burner. Cook with continuous stirring for about 15 minutes. The milk mix will start changing color slightly and start to thicken.

At ths point, turn the heat to low on your stove and let cook with occasional stirring. The milk will keep on thickening and start turning into a sauce-like consistency, another 20 minutes. You have to stir the mix continuously now and scrape from the sides.

At the end of 20 minutes, the mixture starts looking like a smooth caramel-colored sauce. In some cases, it can turn grainy, too. Continue cooking on low heat for another 10–15 minutes with continuous stirring. Cook down till there is very little moisture left in the mixture and it is pasty, smooth and a little shiny due to the fats in the cream. At this point, remove from heat.

What I do is to immediately measure out 1/2 cup paste and pour it into a separate bowl. Such pre-measured bowls are easy to use anytime. Just run a sharp knife all around the bowl.and unmould. Let the paste in the bowls cool down, cover with cling film and refrigerate. The whole process took me about 1.5 hours with the quantities I have mentioned.

Making the Mava Cake:

The night before, let the butter, eggs and mava sit on the kitchen countertop to come to room temperature.

Before making the cake, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease thoroughly the sides of whatever baking pan, cupcake pan, springform pan you are using to make these cakes.

Heat up the milk for 20 seconds in the microwave to let it come to lukewarm temperature. Add saffron strands to the milk and let dissolve.

Mix flour, salt, baking powder, and cardamom powder thoroughly; set aside.

To make the cake, in a large mixing bowl, on medium speed, beat the butter with softened mava and sugar until creamy and light brown in color, about 3 minutes.

Once creamy, add the eggs, one at a time, and beat to combine well, about 2 minutes.

Next add the milk and saffron mixture and blend well on low-speed until a smooth mixture is formed, about 1 minute.

Add the flour mixture all at once to the wet ingredients and beat well on medium speed to make a smooth, creamy batter, about 2 minutes.

Fold in the fine chopped pistachios in the batter.

Divide the cake batter evenly into the pans, leaving some room for rising, and top with more chopped pistachios.

Bake in the oven for 22–25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took 24 minutes exact.

Once baked, remove from oven, let sit for 10 minutes to cool and then unmould.

Let cool completely before slicing.