Panchamrut Cake

I have a load of fruit from the Ganpati puja, some bananas ripened and freckled completely. Was talking to The cooker when she suggested freezing some fruit for smoothies and tempted me with this Sunshine cake, which I will try a little later there are still 2 birthdays coming up in the family and especially my bro Sumeet would love the light cake. 

Well this recipe had to be shared as it is one successful experiment from my kitchen. I have been making it often but this time its 100% whole wheat. It has to go out to you my reader immediately, isn't it. So this got baked in the afternoon and here I am posting it right away after my Dad swooning on a largish piece. I did taste it and loved it too but I am not going beyond the tasting even though I loved it, just have to stop myself from indulging.

I have been shaken up by a flash, a Biomedic professional, having 22 yrs of experience and witness to 3000 surgeries, we were talking about many things and he was telling me very inspiring and amazing stories of people he has seen fighting with disease and sorrow. When he said, "Death does not come easy, so you have no choice but to live happily!" He has inspired me to take control of my health. I have just let my health deteriorate over the years due to reasons that can range from depression to pure negligence and lack of focus on self. Not anymore. I promise this to myself, I will do everything to correct whatever has gone wrong. If anything I have been trying to better the quality of my life over last few years. This time, I am going on a month long health retreat starting next week. So this space will be quite till I return. But before I go here is the Panchamrut Cake for you my readers.

Well as you know Panchamrut is a offering we make for Pujas. It consists of 5 ingredients viz. sugar, milk, curd, ghee and honey. I added the banana too as it is not uncommon to include banana in panchamrut. This Panchamrut is used to bathe the Gods during rituals like a Abhishek and many times after a puja you end up with a good quantity of Panchamrut. I have been using this Panchamrut after every puja to bake a cake. This time however I used 100% whole wheat flour/atta as I did not have maida / all purpose flour on hand and I was blown away by how it turned out. So without further delay here you go...

Ingredients
1.5 cup atta / 100% whole wheat flour.
1 cup demerera sugar
1/4 cup ghee
1/2 cup curd
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe bananas
1/4 teaspoon lime juice
2 handfuls caster sugar for topping

(Incase you are making the cake with Panchamrut from the puja measure out 2 cups of already mixed Panchamrut for the cake. This is equivalent to all the wet ingredients I have used here. You may need to adjust the sugar to taste and ghee for the fat content.)

This is a very easy peasy bake all you got to do is measure out the ingredients and the peeled ripe bananas dump them in mixing bowl of the stand mixer and whip up the batter till everything comes together, about 1 minute. 

Meanwhile preheat the oven for 10 mins at 200 degrees celcius in convection mode. If using OTG reduce temp by 20 degrees.

Grease the baking tin with oil and dust with wheat flour. I inaugurated my new springform pan with this recipe. Panchamrut cake is auspicious start right? Recently I bought a set of 3 springform tins, 9, 10 and 11 inches. This recipe uses the 9 inch tin.

Pour the batter in the tin. It levels out on its own. Sprinkle the castor sugar on top for a nice crunch. I recommend this as it gives a lovely golden flakiness to the cake which is quite moist.

Bake for 40 mins or till the skewer pricked in comes out clean.

Let it cool completely before you slice.

My house was smelling divine as it baked and induced happy smiles in the inhabitants. Large slice for the Ketchup kid with a light drizzle of honey.

This cake is also for you Kiran, your post made me rush to make it yet again and in a healthy atta version.