Rasmalai : Combine milk, cardamom powder, saffron and chopped nuts. Cook on low flame for about 5-7 min. Add sugar and cook till it melts. keep aside to cool. Gently Squeeze out syrup from rasgullas and add in rasmalai. Keep aside for minimum of 3 hours. See this attachment for the detailed recipe.
(see recipe)
Cardamom cake: start the oven at 180c to pre-heat. Apply butter in the baking tin and dust it with flour. Sift flour, cardamom powder, soda and baking powder together. In a mixing bowl take butter and sugar and whip till the mixture is light and shiny & the sugar has melted well.
Add curd and beat again till it is combined. Add almond extract and combine again. Now add a portion of flour followed by some milk. Fold the batter to combine well. Repeat till all flour and milk are added.
Ensure that you fold well using a spatula to get a lump-free smooth batter. There should be no dry flour left in the batter. Transfer the batter to the cake tin and slide it in the oven to bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake is cooked well in the middle (try pricking a toothpick in the middle. It should come out clean) and it has left the sides of the tin. Keep aside for 30 mins and then tip over to remove the cake. Let the cake cool down completely on a rake.
Preparing icing: Take all the ingredients for frosting in a mixing bowl. Whip with an electric blender till the icing gets soft pick and is stiff enough not to slide sideways when you tip the bowl. Keep it refrigerated till you are ready to use it. See this attachment for the tips on whipping cream.
(see recipe)
For cake decoration: soak the nuts in water for 1/2 an hour. Slice them and spread them over roti pan. Place them in the oven. Place rose petals in the oven too (I did that right after taking out the cake from the oven and after switching it off.). The nuts and the petals will get perfectly crunchy by the time the oven cools down.
Take a cake stand or make your own by placing a cake board/big pot lid on a steaming cooker stand. This way you'll be able to work on all the sides of the cake by turning the lid around. Slice the cake from the middle using a long knife.
Put the bottom part of the cake on our cake stand. Pour/brush the ras evenly all over the slice. Squeeze out Ra's from a rasgulla and crumble over the cake slice. Cover the slice with cream frosting.
Place the other slice upside down over our frosted cake slice. Repeat the procedure of pouring ras, then the rasgulla crumbs and the frosting.
Smoothen the frosting using a butter knife. Cover the sides of the cake with frosting and smoothen that too. Stick the nuts and rose petals on the sides by gently placing them on it all around with your hands.
Fix the attachment to your piping bag and fill it with the cream frosting. Make circles/flowers on the top edge of the cake and at the bottom edge of the cake. Wipe and clean the sides of the cake board/lid.
Put some nuts, rose petals and sliced rasgullas from rasmalai in the middle of the cake. Place rasgullas. And the cake is ready to serve ! Keep refrigerated till the time to serve.
