Every festival that we celebrate is accompanied by several traditions that are unique to it. Most of the times, they are the very reason that the festivals are as much fun as they are. Some unique ritual or a special dish – this is what makes the time memorable. There are a lot of traditions, a lot of celebrations that we leave behind, sometimes due to the rush they are not convenient to accommodate and sometimes simply because we have gotten used to much easier ways to replace those traditions.
Christians in Jharkhand celebrate Christmas is unique ways, with an entirely different cuisine. The food, the desserts, the bonfire and the celebratory songs – all of these are unique to this region. And mostly, these age-old traditions still have their roots strongly in place. But there is one thing that has disappeared from the plates is the madua cake. With easily available, and often very reasonably priced, fruit cakes in the market, the humble madua cake has taken a backseat. People from the current generation hardly even remember what the cake is, let alone reminiscing the taste of this Christmas delicacy. Rural and urban, both the areas have actually replaced the homemade madua cake with market bought fruit cakes.
But if you want to try something new for your Christmas party, here is a recipe for madua cake.
Ingredients
- 2 cup Ragi Flour or Madua Aata
- ½ cup Plain Multipurpose Flour
- 3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 3 Eggs
- ¼ Cup butter
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ Salt
- Chopped Dry fruits of your choice
Method
- In a bowl, add butter and brown sugar and whisk them well.
- Next, add the eggs and whisk till they become fluffy and airy consistency.
- Add the vanilla essence and mix everything gently.
- To this mixture, add madua aata, maida and cocoa powder. Gently fold in the dry ingredients.
- Further, add the salt, baking powder and soda and mix well.
- Then, add milk little by little, while simultaneously whisking the batter.
- Keep adding milk till you get the cake batter consistency.
- Now grease the cake pan with butter and line the base of the cake utensil with parchment paper.
- Pour the cake batter into the pan and garnish the top of the cake with chopped dry fruits of your choice.
- Bake the cake in a pre-heated oven for 45 minutes at 180°C.
- The cake is ready. Top with gems if you like and serve! You can also serve with ice cream.
This Christmas, try this madua cake and you will find that indeed, lost recipes and old traditions bring a different kind of joy into our lives.