Pound Cake

vs Mawa Cake: How Khapli Wheat Makes Both Better, And How to Bake Them at Home

What’s a Pound Cake?

The pound cake is one of the oldest surviving cake recipes in Western baking. Its first documented appearance is in Hannah Glasse's ‘The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy’, published in England around the 1740s. The recipe was quite simple and did not need a cookbook; the hint was in the name: you need one pound each of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs.

Pound Cake Variations

The French have their own version, called quatre-quarts, meaning ‘four-fourths’, which originated in the Brittany region of northwestern France and follows the same principle as the British pound cake, using a quarter of each ingredient instead of a pound. It was included in the first American cookbook, American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, published in 1796, and spread through the southern United States. In Mexico, it became panqué; in Venezuela and Colombia, pound cake is soaked in wine.

What defines a pound cake

The pound cake follows a simple 1:1:1:1 ratio of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. The baked cake is rich and dense with a tight crumb that stays fresh for several days. The original pound cake recipe doesn't use baking powder. Instead, they rise from the air incorporated during mixing. Today’s recipes often add a little baking powder and reduce the fat slightly for an airy texture.

The secret to a good pound cake is how perfectly the butter and sugar are creamed. This process traps tiny air bubbles that help the cake rise in the oven. Eggs should be added one at a time to keep the batter smooth. Adding them too quickly or using cold eggs will impact the batter, and you might end up with a greasy, uneven cake. Flour is added last and folded into the fluffed egg-butter-sugar mixture for a soft pound cake.

What’s a Mawa Cake?

The mawa cake does not have a distinct identity as the pound cake, although the Parsi bankeires dotting Mumbai and beyond have elevated it to an almost celebrated status. What might seem like a Persian cake is a result of the intermingling of Zoroastrian baking habits, Irani café culture, and the resourceful use of local dairy surplus.

Mawa cake’s journey is tied to the second wave of Iranian Zoroastrian immigrants who arrived in Bombay in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Persia. Unlike the Parsis who had arrived centuries earlier, many of these immigrants were bakers, café owners, and sweetmeat-makers. They established Irani cafés across Bombay, hundreds of them, near railway stations and cinema halls, serving tea, biscuits, and baked goods to a city that never sleeps, and always on the go.

The mawa cake’s close relative is the Persian tea cake called kumas, a dense, moist saffron-and-almond cake. The recipe had to be modified to suit Indian tastes and use the best local ingredients, with the addition of mawa and cardamom, hence the name mawa cake. 

Refrigeration was not available in the early 1900s, nor was pasteurisation, so milk had to be boiled repeatedly to prevent spoiling in Bombay's heat and humidity. This constant boiling produced quantities of mawa (khoya) as a byproduct. Irani café owners began adding it to cake batter, and discovered a product that was moister, more aromatic, and more flavourful than any plain sponge cake.

The most famous address in the mawa cake's history is B. Merwan & Co. on Grant Road, Mumbai, a café that became legendary for its mawa cakes, sold between 8 and 10 am, and gone by mid-morning. Kayani Bakery on MG Road in Pune is another Parsi cafe best known for its cake, and it is also present in Mumbai.

What defines a mawa cake

Khoya is reduced milk solids, made by boiling whole milk over low heat until nearly all the water has evaporated, leaving a dense, granular, pale-yellow solid with a caramelised flavour. It contains partially caramelised milk fat, milk protein, and lactose. When added to cake batter, it makes cakes:

• Extra moisture without adding liquid because of the fat in khoya

• Caramelised, milky taste which is incomparable

• Extra dense and a tighter crumb than pound cake

• Natural sweetness from the reduced lactose, which also contributes to the Maillard reaction in the cake’s crust

Cardamom is what makes the cake taste complete, like milk, and this spice has been a favourite pairing for centuries in Indian dessert-making. So, mawa cake has a: 

• Dense, moist crumb with more cohesion than a standard sponge

• Aromatic due to the cardamom, which is the dominant flavour

• Subtle caramelised dairy flavour from the khoya

• Topped with pistachios or almond flakes

• Baked in cup or muffin form in individual portions at Irani cafés, though loaves are also baked

Khapli Wheat in Pound Cake and Mawa Cake

Pound cake already relies on a weak leavening system (air whipped into the batter, sometimes with a small amount of baking powder). Khapli wheat's lower gluten means the crumb will be denser and more compact than a refined-flour version. This is perfect as a pound cake is supposed to be dense. The weaker gluten reduces the risk of over-mixing and toughening the crumb, and the flour's nutty flavour complements the butter rather than competing with it.

Mawa cakes are denser than pound cake, and given khapli wheat’s low gluten, it’s actually a win-win. The flour has a nuttier, earthier taste that pairs with cardamom even better than refined flour. The higher fibre content in khapli flour also helps retain the moisture introduced by khoya, increasing the cake's softness. The adjustment here is the same as the pound cake: add a little extra milk to compensate for khapli atta's higher water absorption.

What to expect across both recipes

• A denser crumb than refined-flour equivalents

• A slightly shorter rise after the dough has rested

• Richer, more complex flavour base

• Better moisture retention

Recipe 1: Khapli Wheat Pound Cake

Makes: 1 loaf (9×5 inch pan) Total time: Approximately 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

• Aashirvaad Chakki Khapli Atta (sifted): 1⅔ cups 

• Baking powder: 1 tsp 

• Salt: ¼ tsp 

• Unsalted butter (room temperature): ¾ cup

• Castor sugar: 1 cup

• Large eggs (room temperature): 4

• Vanilla extract: 2 tsp

• Whole milk: 3 tbsp

• Lemon or orange zest (optional): 1 tsp

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or line with parchment.

• Sift khapli atta, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Mix and set aside. Measure all the other ingredients and keep them aside.

• In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer or stand mixer on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until smooth and pale. Add sugar and beat for a further 4-5 minutes on medium-high until the mixture is very fluffy and noticeably paler.

• Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30-45 seconds after each addition. Scrape the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla extract with the last egg. If the mixture looks slightly curdled at any point, add a tablespoon of the sifted flour from your measured quantity to re-emulsify the batter.

• With the mixer on low speed, add the sifted khapli atta mixture in three additions, alternating with the 3 tablespoons of milk in two additions. Mix for around 5-8 seconds per addition on low speed. Do not overmix.

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Score a shallow line lengthways down the centre with a knife dipped in melted butter. Bake at 160°C for 55-65 minutes. Check at 50 minutes mark, with a skewer inserted into the centre. If it comes out clean, your cake is ready. If the top is browning too quickly at the 40-minute mark, cover loosely with foil.

• Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Let it cool completely before serving.

Recipe 2: Khapli Wheat Mawa Cake

Makes: 10-12 individual cupcake-sized cakes or 1 small loaf (7-inch round or 8×4 inch loaf) Total time: Approximately 1 hour

Ingredients

• Aashirvaad Chakki Khapli Atta (sifted): 1½ cups

• Baking powder: 1 tsp

• Baking soda: ¼ tsp

• Fine salt: ½ tsp

• Green cardamom powder: 1½ tsp

• Saffron (optional): a pinch (soaked in 1 tbsp warm milk)

• Unsalted butter (room temperature): ⅔ cup

• Khoya (mawa), crumbled and at room temperature: 1 cup

• Castor sugar: ¾ cup

• Large eggs (room temperature): 3

• Whole milk: 4 tbsp

• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp

Topping:

• Pistachios, roughly chopped: 2 tbsp

• Almonds, sliced: 1 tbsp

• Ground cardamom (optional): a pinch

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners, or grease and line a 7-inch round or 8×4-inch loaf pan. If using saffron, mix it with 1 tablespoon of warm milk and set aside for 10 minutes.

• Sift khapli atta, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom powder into a bowl. Set aside. Crumble khoya into a bowl and check its consistency; good mawa should be smooth, granular, and smell of caramelised milk.

• In a large bowl, beat butter and crumbled khoya on medium speed for 3-4 minutes until the mixture is smooth and pale. The khoya will initially appear lumpy; continue beating it to emulsify it into a creamy mass. Add caster sugar and beat for another 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

• Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add vanilla extract. The batter with khoya will look slightly more granular than a plain butter batter. Add the saffron-steeped milk at this stage if using.

• Add the sifted dry ingredients in two additions, alternating with the 3 tablespoons of milk. Fold until just combined. The batter should be thick, not pourable or stiff.

• Divide the batter between the prepared cups (fill ¾ full for cupcakes) or pour it into the loaf or round pan. Scatter chopped pistachios and sliced almonds.

• For individual cups: bake at 180°C for 22-26 minutes, until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. For a loaf or round cake, bake at 170°C for 35-40 minutes. Tent with foil at the 25-minute mark if the top is browning faster than the centre is setting.

• Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out or lift onto a wire rack. Mawa cake is best served warm or at room temperature on the day it is baked. The khoya's moistness means the crumb is at its best within 12-18 hours of baking.

Khapli Wheat Cake for Chai-Time

Munch guilt-free at tea time with these khapli wheat cakes, featuring dense pound cake and mawa cake. Use butter to bake a pound cake with khapli wheat for more fibre and protein in your evening snacking spree, or add more dairy by adding khoya to your cake batter and making the dense Parsi favourite mawa cake.