This Mawa Cake is a rich and delicious cake made with mawa (khoya or evaporated dried milk solids), whole wheat flour, butter, milk, cream and sugar. Scented with cardamoms this is a rich buttery eggless mawa cake that has an exquisite taste and can be made for special occasions.
Table of Contents
About Mawa Cake
As the name suggests Mawa is the key ingredient in a mawa cake. Wondering what is Mawa? Mawa is basically dried milk solids and also called as ‘khoya’ in Hindi.
In our cooking school, we would call it evaporated milk, as all the liquids and moisture is evaporated, by continuously simmering the milk for a few hours, till you just get the milk solids remaining in the pan.
Mawa can be made at home or purchased from shops. To make this cake, I got the mawa from the shop. This was a soft crumbly kind and did not require any cooking. If you have the hard types, then please cook till the khoya softens and then add it to the cake batter.
Mawa or khoya can be made at home too from whole milk. It takes a lot of time, but worth it, if you can make mawa at home. I have shared the method to make mawa at home at this recipe post -> Khoya Recipe.
Usually mawa cake is made with eggs, but I have developed this recipe to be made without eggs. Eggless baking at home often with its share of hits and disasters, has made me pretty good at baking cakes.
This mawa cake is a lighter textured cake since no eggs are added. The original ones are a bit dense. The taste of this one, is more like a buttery cake with the caramelized nutty flavors of the mawa coming through.
I have kept the recipe basic, like the ones made in the Irani bakeries. There is no addition of nuts or saffron or any spice, besides cardamom. However, if you really want some exotic touch to the cake, then please go ahead and add your favorite nuts and saffron.
I made this eggless mawa cake many times – both with all-purpose flour and with whole wheat flour. Every time the cake is a success and a hit at home. So you can make the cake with any of these flours or in half-half ratio.
Mawa cakes and mawa cupcakes hold special memories for me. One of the schools which I studied in, was a hop skip jump away from Ahura bakery in Andheri West, Mumbai.
After the exams or just before the holidays would begin, we would as a custom, buy mawa cakes from this popular Parsi bakery. It was not only mawa cake but some other baked goodies as well.
Another bakery close by would be Merwans. Since Merwans was just a bit far away, we would usually opt for Ahura bakery.
This habit of buying from Irani and Parsi bakeries continues even today. While coming from my college and later office, I would sometimes, hop to either of the bakeries and do buy the parsi mawa cake and some other pastries. The cakes at times would be warm and not to forget the ladi pav which was sold like hot breads, literally.
Even sometimes a visit to South Mumbai, would see me buying cakes or other baked goods from the Irani and Parsi bakeries based in Grant road, Fort and Colaba. Bun maska and chai from these bakeries is still one of my quick, go to breakfast or brunch.
Some years ago, during my visits to Pune, I would always unfailingly buy mawa cake and shrewsbury biscuits from Kayani bakery. I would have eggs then in my diet.
Folks back at home would liked the shrewsbury biscuits. But I was not fond of them. I felt them too sweet for my taste. I would even pack shrewsbury biscuits for friends and office colleagues.
The parsi mawa cake I have had from these bakeries was just amazing. The cardamom scented cake with a caramelized milky flavor used to be a special treat for me and my sister.
This eggless mawa cake recipe is my tribute to the mawa cakes made and served by the various Irani and Parsi bakeries in Mumbai.
I also made cupcakes from the same recipe, though I did not take photos. The cupcakes got over quickly in no time. So, you can make even mawa cupcakes from the cake batter. If baking cupcakes, then just bake for 20 to 25 minutes or till the tops are browned.
Since the temperatures differ from oven to oven, the baking time may vary. follow these few simple guidelines –
- The cake should get browned from the top and the toothpick should come out clean when you insert it in the cake.
- When you taste the cake, it should not stick to your mouth or palate or teeth. This means that the cake need some more baking. If this happens, then place the cake back in the oven and continue to bake for some more minutes. About 5 to 8 mins.
- In case, the top of the cake starts getting browned quickly, then place a butter paper or aluminium foil on top of the cake. Apart from reducing the quick browning, this will also not make the top layer crusty.
Mawa cake is not your everyday cake. The cake is rich, so I would suggest you making it for special occasions or parties. There is no need to do any kind of frosting or icing on the cake. The cake tastes good as it is. Simplicity at its best.
Serve eggless mawa cake with tea or coffee or for high evening parties. The photos are a mix of both the mawa cakes made with whole wheat flour and all purpose flour.
How to make Mawa Cake
Cream Butter and Sugar
1. Take 140 to 150 grams butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar in a bowl or pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Due to habit, I still cream butter and sugar with a spatula (as thats how we were trained and the habit is still there). But to make things easy, you can cream them with an electric beater or in a stand mixer.
Make Mawa Mixture
3. Add ⅔ to ¾ cup crumbled mawa (about 120 to 140 grams of mawa). Make sure to crumble the mawa finely. Or else there will be large bits or chunks of mawa in the cake. You can choose to grate the mawa also.
4. Mix the crumbled mawa with the creamed butter-sugar mixture. Mix the mawa very well.
Make Mawa Cake Batter
5. Next sieve 2 cups whole wheat flour with ½ teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder directly into the bowl.
Instead of whole wheat flour you can also use all-purpose flour or you can use half-half of both the flours.
6. Add 1 teaspoon cardamom powder.
7. Add 1 cup milk and 4 tablespoons of light cream (low fat 25% to 30%). Instead of light cream, you can use 2 to 3 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream.
8. Fold everything till the flour, milk and cream are incorporated well in the cake batter.
9. Pour the batter in a greased or lined round pan of 7 to 8 inches or in cupcake liners or pans.
Bake Eggless Mawa Cake
10. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 to 1 hour till the cake is completely done. Check the baked cake with a bamboo skewer and it should come out clean.
If there are sticky batter bits on the bamboo skewer, then keep cake pan back in the oven and continue to bake for some more minutes.
Do remember to preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes.
The baked mawa cake photo is below. The cake cracked on the top, as the electricity conked off, right after 15 minutes of baking and then came back after 20 minutes. I had no choice but to keep the cake in the oven.
11. Cool the cake. Then slice and serve it. You can also refrigerate the mawa cake in an airtight container and just microwave for some seconds before serving. This cake is good enough to be made for birthday parties or any party.
Update: One of our reader’s Sushma has been kind enough to share that this mawa cake can be made in the pressure cooker. Sushma made the cake twice and the time taken to bake is from 30 to 40 minutes.
More Eggless Cakes To Try!
Cake Recipes
Cake Recipes
Cake Recipes
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Mawa Cake (Eggless Mawa Cake)
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour – 240 grams or all purpose flour or half-half of both
- ⅔ to ¾ cup Mawa crumbled and tightly packed, (khoya or evaporated milk solids) – about 120 to 140 grams
- 1 cup whole milk
- 4 tablespoons light cream – low fat 25% to 30%, swap with 2 to 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 140 to 150 grams White Butter or yellow butter, unsalted – at room temperature
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar or 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon cardamom powder or 8 to 10 green cardamoms crushed finely in a mortar-pestle
Instructions
Preparation
- Grease a 7 to 8 inches round pan with butter. Dust some flour on it. Shake and tap the pan so that the flour spreads evenly.
- You can also line the cake pan with butter paper or parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Grease some butter on the butter paper or parchment paper.
- Crumble the mawa and keep aside. Make sure you crumble it finely as you don't want large chunks of mawa in the cake. You can also grate the mawa.
Making mawa cake
- Take butter and sugar in a bowl or pan.
- Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. You can use a stand mixer, food processor or an electric beater to cream the butter and sugar.
- Add the crumbled mawa and mix very well.
- Then add the flour sieved with baking soda and baking powder directly into the cake mixture.
- Sprinkle the cardamom powder. Pour the milk and cream.
- Fold everything till the flour, milk and cream are incorporated well in the cake batter.
- Pour the cake batter in the prepared cake pan.
- Place the pan in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, till you see that the top is browned and a toothpick or bamboo skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.
- If baking cupcakes, then bake for 20 to 25 minutes or till the tops are browned.
- Allow the cake to cool by placing on a wired tray or rack.
- When cool, slice the mawa cake and serve plain with tea or coffee.
Notes
- You can even make mawa cupcakes from the same cake batter.
- You can make the cake with all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour or with a half-half mix of both flours.
- The leftover cake can be refrigerated in an airtight container for a few days.
- Make sure that the mawa is fresh and has not become stale or rancid. Mawa should have a mild sweet taste. If it tastes sour, then discard it.
- Also ensure that the butter is fresh and within its shelf life. If in case the butter has gone rancid, it will have a bitter taste.
- The recipe can be scaled to make a small batch of the cake.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Mawa Cake post from the archives (June 2014) has been republished and updated on 26 September 2021.
Thank you for the recipe. 🙂 Can I add vanilla essence in the mawa cake? And if yes, when should I add it?
yes you can add vanilla essence. add when you add the milk and cream.
Very good taste
thanks premajha for sharing positive feedback.
hi!!
can i replace butter with ghee, let me know if i hv to keep same measure..i hv to try this for my son’s birthday tomorrow..
archana, yes you can replace with same amount. but the cake will have fragrance and taste of ghee. it will taste like a ghee cake.
Amazing recipe!! Well depicted.
thanks gayathri
M planning to bake this today. Just one query. Can I flavour milk with saffron and throw in a bit of nuts in to the cake. Also how to ensure tht the kesar flavour comes through.
richa, yes you can. take more quantity of kesar. i suggest to take 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of kesar.
Very nice recipe dear. Have not tried yet.. but the way u wrote it n explain is nice.. surely gona try it tdy evening.
Btw u have any fb page so it will b easy to follow u.
Keep the good wrk going.
thanks. you can follow on our fb page here – https://www.facebook.com/vegrecipesofindia
Hi Dassana and Amit,
I tried this recipe day before yesterday with half atta and half maida with evaporated milk, sadly dont have access to khoya or mawa here. I never leave replies to blogs, but I dont want to keep the praises to myself. This is by far the best cake I have ever made and hubby claims its the best cake he has ever eaten!! 😀 Both of us are pretty happy about the cake. This will be my go-to recipe when I want to pamper him 😉
I have been looking at recipes for a long time and used to see the author of recipes as dassana amit and thought whoever this person is must be writing recipes all day (I did not know about your blog till then) and then when I had seen your name at too many places, I finally googled it and found this website.. and BOY!! am I happy.. I am elated and want to make everything that is here. I love the fact that they are mostly no onion no garlic and eggless and some of them are with atta! what more can I ask for.
Can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
Thank you so much for sharing them with everyone. You are an angel ! 🙂
hi aru
firstly thanks for commenting and giving the feedback. i smiled when i read that i write recipes all day. not possible 🙂 you can try the recipes which you like and even the baking ones. if you have liked this cake, then i would suggest you to try the whole wheat pound cake. its a very good cake and eggless. along with the banana cake/bread, vanilla cake, chocolate and orange cakes – mawa cake and pound cake is a favorite at home. so you can try it at your own pace.
Hi Dassana,
Very well illustrated recipes and flawless measurements…Made the Mawa Cake yesterday.. and the result was gorgeous little cuppies that took me straight to the Ahura Bakery in Mumbai…
I bake often but don’t do a lot of egg-less cakes, I must compliment you on the perfect crumb of the cake.. M sure will return to try some more of the egg-less cakes..
God Bless you for your generosity to share with others
thanks sharon for kind words and blessings. its nice to know that you liked this eggless recipe of mawa cake.
Dear Dasanna,
I stumbled upon your blog while searching for Iranian Mawa cake recipe. I must say you have done (and are doing) a wonderful job!! I loved the way you provide detailed step by step instructions along with amazing pictures! Your writing is simple and to the point. I appreciate your hard work and efforts! Keep up the good work!
I had one small question – can we use salted butter? I believe it will enhance the buttery taste..
I am going to try your recipe this weekend and I am sure it will turn out nice 🙂
thanks rutujaa for your positive and encouraging feedback. you can use salted butter. there will be a very faint salty taste which most people will not be able to make out. the cake will taste good.
hi dasanna,
I tried this mawa cake, once for trying another once for new year. Both the times it turned great. And as one of your reader asked, can we make it in a cooker, yes we can coz, I dont have an oven both the times I tried it in a cooker n just kept it for 30 to 40 min. Sorry for the delay in adding a comment.
thanks sushma for sharing your positive feedback and also for letting us know that this recipe can be made in a pressure cooker. i will update it in the post also.
Hii can u give step by step recipe of how u made in the pressure cooker…..i would really be thankful to u….i dont have oven…thanks
Hi dassana
Ur r my baking goddess….tried da mawa cake,though made certain modifications due sheer laziness on my part to buy certain ingredients….da cake was fabuluous….recently went for an eggless baking class in a renowned place….must say ur recipes r far far better…..hav already started reccomending my fb friends to checkout ur site for fool proof baking.thanks once again for all the praise i am receiving is due to ur recipes.
Can u pls post a recipe for eggless choco lava cupcake….tried it once but the choco nugget sank to the bottom and neither did it melt though cupcake came out soft.
Krutika
thanks krutika for the encouraging words. i am humbled. also its kind of you to share the blog with your friends.i have 3 more baking recipes lined up but i am not getting enough time to post them. your comment has inspired me to post them soon. i tried choco lava cake twice. but like in your case, the chocolate sank in the bottom and once the chocolate didn’t melt only. so i am still trying and perfecting the recipe.
Hi dassana
i hav a query,why is dere no acidic ingredient like lemon/vinegar/curd in dis recipe as u hav used baking soda….doesnt presence of baking soda call for addition of an acidic element as den only da co2 reaction will take place to make da cake rise..also can i use condensed milk in place of cream.
i tried ur vanilla sponge cake recipe yesterday…it was simply superb..it got over in no time…thanks for posting such wonderful recipes…
krutika
hi krutika, acidic ingredients need not be added in all cake recipes. it also depends on which other ingredients are being added. here butter, milk, cream and mawa play a major role. since they form the bulk of this recipe, there is no need to add any acidic ingredient. also this cake is all sweet in terms of flavor and taste. so addition of lemon juice or vinegar will change the taste a bit and will give a subtle tang or sourness which is not suited taste wise for a mawa cake. usually in recipes which are low fat or use oil instead of butter, acidic ingredients can be added. when butter is beaten till creamy with sugar, this beating helps the butter to become light and fluffy and this eventually helps the cake to be soft. in most condensed milk based cake recipes too, acidic ingredients are not added. wherever you have no butter no no cream or no milk etc or no fruit pulp, you can add an acidic ingredient. recently i made banana muffins following my banana bread recipe and i added some lemon juice for the muffins to become lighter. i hope i have managed to answer your doubts.
thanks for the feedback on the vanilla sponge cake recipe. in this mawa cake recipe, you can use condensed milk instead of cream. i would suggest to add 1 or 2 tbsp of condensed milk. cut down the sugar also to 2/3 or 3/4 cup as condensed milk is very sweet.
Hello, I liked ur recipe mawa cake. I am little confused about Cream. We don’t get Amul cream. What we get in our local grocery store is Double or Thick Cream, single cream, cooking cream or Nada Fresh Cream (Which is very very thick) If u can help me which cream should I use then it will be really helpful. If I have to use fresh cream or double cream then should I beat it first to make it soft or should I directly add in the batter?
hi diana, you can use double cream. just beat the cream lightly and then add it along with the milk.
Hi Dassana,
I have made mawa cake. As my khoya was not so sweet so I added half cup more. I whipped the double cream till soft and added.
The cake started becoming brown on top but it wasn’t cooked so I kept silver foil paper on top so that it doesn’t burn. It came out prefect and everyone loved at my place.
thanks diana for the feedback. thats a good thing you did to cover the cake with the foil. even i do at times with some baking recipes.
hi, would really like to make this cake but can’t find mawa. possible to use powdered milk? same measurements?
or should i use condensed milk? if yes, what will the measurements be? thanks and happy new year!
don’t use powdered milk. you can use condensed milk but then cut down heavily on the sugar. also you might need to add less milk. you try and just get the consistency like you see in the pics. wishing you happy new year.
You have mentioned about the usage of mawa in mawa cake recipe twice like half cup n 120-140 gms. which measurement should be used. pls suggest
i have given both cup as well as metric measurement. there is not much difference in the quantities. the texture and quality of mawa varies from shop to shop and place to place. thats why i kept the variation in the measurements. you can easily add 120 gms as well as 140 gms. if you do not have a measuring scale then 1/2 cup also works well and so is 2/3rd cup.