East Indian Thali Sweet is one of the treasured recipes from East Indian cuisine. It is a cake that we bake in a thali, hence the name Thali Sweet. Thali is a flat round dish with a rim of about 2 inches.
- About East Indian Thali Sweet
- Ingredients for East Indian Thali Sweet
- East Indian Thali Sweet – How to make it
About East Indian Thali Sweet
This is a traditional sweet or cake that is taken as Palghan to the groom’s house on the next day of the wedding ceremony. According to the East Indian tradition, a few of the bride’s relatives go to the groom’s house to bring the bride and the groom home. This cake is taken as a sweet and is decorated with icing and silver beads and given as Palghan to the groom’s family.
This East Indian Thali Sweet or cake is a traditional family recipe from my mum’s side. This has been in the family for decades. This cake is made with freshly grated coconut, sooji (Rawa), sugar, and egg whites. The cake browns well when baking, it’s brown on the outside and white inside. This thali sweet has a subtle flavour of rose that comes from the rose essence.
The recipe over the years has been modified to include whole eggs or reduce the number of eggs in the cake. I am not sure if mum tweaked this recipe to suit the family taste. But this is the family recipe that has been jotted down by her in the family recipe book and lying there for decades. I made this cake many times and it’s just amazing.
What better way to share and preserve such traditional family recipes for generations to cherish. Hope you will enjoy this!!!!
Ingredients for East Indian Thali Sweet
Sooji – We use fine sooji or Rava and this cake has no maida or all-purpose flour in it. So you could term this as a healthy cake. We use the thinner or finer variety of sooji for this recipe but feel free to use any sooji that you can lay your hands on.
Sugar – Use caster sugar for this recipe or just powder your granulated sugar in a processor. Also, you could adjust the quantity of sugar to suit your taste.
Coconut – The recipe calls for freshly grated coconut and you need to grind this to a coarse paste without any liquid. Scrape the coconut and discard the black part of it and use only the white flesh. Try and blend it to a coarse paste in your food processor without adding any liquid.
You could also substitute freshly grated coconut with desiccated coconut. But I still prefer to use fresh coconut for this recipe as I don’t want to alter the traditional recipe.
Eggs – As I mentioned earlier, we use only egg whites in this cake. Egg whites retain the white colour of the cake and also helps to hold the cake in shape.
I am using only egg whites for this cake recipe as per the traditional recipe. However, you could feel free to use whole eggs if you like. Also, from my experience in baking cakes, I learned that the fat in the egg yolks helps to keep the cake moist. I recommend that you include a few egg yolks to keep the cake moist.
Butter – Use salted or unsalted butter as per your choice. But if you are using unsalted butter then don’t forget to add a little salt to the cake batter. Keep this in mind for any recipe with flour and unsalted butter. Adding a pinch of salt to your cake batter will enhance the taste of the cake.
Essence – Use rose essence instead of the regular vanilla essence for this cake. A whiteish cake with a subtle flavour of rose is the essence of this East Indian Thali Sweet or Cake.
Baking Powder – This cake does not have much of a rise, it has a flat top. We use only a tad bit of baking powder for this recipe.
East Indian Thali Sweet – How to make it
Ingredients
(Measurements in cups)
- Sooji/Rawa/Semolina 2 heaped cups (approx 350 grams)
- Caster Sugar – 2 level cups (approx 400 grams)
- 1 Whole coconut – large (grated and coarsely ground)
- Butter – 100 grams
- Egg whites only – 05 eggs
- Baking powder – 1 tsp
- Rose essence – 1 tsp
The procedure of making the East Indian Thali Sweet is just like making any cake. The process involves mixing the batter, beating up the eggs, adding it to the batter, and then baking the cake in a pre-heated oven.
Method
- Beat the egg whites till fluffy.
- Now cream the butter and sugar with an electric beater or a spatula till it changes colour
- Then add the beaten egg whites little by little to the butter and sugar mixture and combine gently with your spatula.
- Gradually add the sooji or Rava in batches along with the egg whites, and keep mixing to get a smooth batter. Use your whisk or spatula for this and do not mix vigorously nor over-mix. Continue to mix until the eggs and sooji is used up. Add the coconut and mix well.
- Finally, add the rose essence and also the baking powder. Mix the batter well but gently and then cover and let the batter rest overnight and bake it the next morning.
- If you do not want to keep it overnight then pour the batter into two round thalis or one large thali or tray. If you do not have thalis then bake or two 8 inches cake tin lined with parchment paper. Do not pour all the batter into one cake tin. Also, dusting the cake tin with butter and flour, instead of using parchment paper, works fine.
- Finally, pre-heat your oven to 180 deg C and bake the cake for 35 to 40 minutes or till the cake is brown all over. But avoid overbaking or you will end up with a dry cake.
- You can decorate this cake with icing, some icing flowers, and silver beads if making for an occasion or for phalgan.
For the icing – Mix 100 grams icing sugar and 50 grams butter. Beat well till it changes its colour to white.
East Indian Thali Cake Video
Serving Suggestions
Allow the cake to cool and then cut it into squares or diagonals and serve or enjoy it with your cup of coffee or tea. My mum would cut this cake into diagonal, and so I am replicating the same.
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Printable Recipe Card
East Indian Thali Sweet Recipe
Equipment
- 2 round thalis (plates with 2 inch rim) or one big tray
Ingredients
- 2 cups Sooji/Rawa/Semolina (heaped) Approx, 350 grams
- 2 cups Caster Sugar (levelled) Approx 400 grams
- 1 large Coconut
- 100 grams Butter
- 5 Egg whites only
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Rose Essence
Instructions
- Beat the egg whites till fluffy.
- Now cream the butter and sugar with an electric beater or a spatula till it changes colour
- Then add the beaten egg whites little by little to the butter and sugar mixture and combine gently with your spatula.
- Gradually add the sooji or Rava in batches along with the egg whites, and keep mixing to get a smooth batter. Continue to mix until the eggs and sooji is used up. Add the coconut and mix well.
- Finally, add the rose essence and also the baking powder. Mix the batter well but gently and then cover and let the batter rest overnight and bake it the next morning.
- If you do not want to keep it overnight then pour the batter into two round thalis or two 8 inches cake tin lined with parchment paper
- Finally, preheat your oven to 180 deg C and bake the cake for 35 to 40 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- You can decorate this cake with icing, some icing flowers, and silver beads if making for an occasion.
- For the icing – Mix 100 grams icing sugar and 50 grams butter. Beat well till it changes its colour to white.
Notes
- Preferably measure weight in grams for perfect results.
- You can use powdered granulated sugar instead of caster sugar.
- Baking time will depend on your oven. Do not overbake the cake.
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