Basundi Cake
Super moist basundi cake is an Indian flavored Tres Leches Cake. It is loaded with very popular Indian dessert basundi (homemade evaporated milk), condensed milk and whipping cream with nuts cardamom and saffron!!
Basundi, an Indian flavored evaporated milk, is one of the very popular and delicate Indian desserts!! It does not require lot of ingredients to fix. I am also a very big fan of Tres Leches, super moist butter or sponge cake that is soaked in three types of milk. Now let’s combine this two ideas and make an ultimate fusion dessert!! This fusion dessert is one of the most delicious desserts I have made so far with minimal efforts!!
This recipe uses a box cake mix to make your life easier! You can certainly make your butter cake from scratch if you prefer. I like to make my life a bit easier by finding such shortcuts! I like to make homemade basundi (Indian flavored evaporated milk) for this dessert. However you can certainly just get pre-made evaporated milk to decrease the work even more!!
This is a perfect dessert for any Indian festival like Diwali, or Holiday season as well!! It is a good one to make ahead in big batch if you are throwing a party!! Make it a day before and serve it with drizzle of basundi mix and sprinkle of nut mix to jazz it up a little! This has been a definite crown pleaser in my household. I guarantee you, it will be one for your household as well!!
Make this deliciousness for your upcoming Holiday gathering or Diwali and make your guest extremely happy. It will certainly look like a gourmet dessert that took lot of time and effort but you know that is not accurate ;). Tag me on Instagram @myvegetarianroots if you end up making it.
Happy and Healthy eating!!
Basundi Cake
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 1 box Pillsbury Moist Supreme Premium Cake Mix Golden Butter 15.25 oz
- ⅓ cup Room Temp Unsalted Butter this is to change if NOT using Pillsbury Moist Supreme Premium Cake Mix Golden Butter
- 1 cup Water this is to change if NOT using Pillsbury Moist Supreme Premium Cake Mix Golden Butter
- 3 Eggs sub 3 eggs with ¾ cup of plain yogurt
this is to change if NOT using Pillsbury Moist Supreme Premium Cake Mix Golden Butter
- ¼ tsp Cardamom Powder
- 10 String Saffron
Milk/Basundi Mixture
- 8 cup Whole Milk 12 oz unsweetened evaporated milk can be used instead of making basundi at home
- 10 Strings Saffron
- ½ tsp Cardamom Powder
- 2 tbsp Coarse Nut Powder grind pistachio, cashew and almond into coarse mix
- 14 oz Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 1 cup Whipping Cream
Whipping Cream
- 1 cup Whipping Cream
- 2 tbsp Powdered Sugar
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tbsp Coarse Nut Powder grind pistachio, cashew and almond into coarse mix
- ½ tsp Cardamom Powder
Instructions
Make Basundi Mixture (SKIP FIRST TWO STEP IF URING EVAPORATED MILK)
- Coat a heavy bottom deep pot with just a little ghee. Pour 8 cups of whole milk in the pot.
- Bring the milk to boil. Add saffron and keep boiling/simmering until the milk amount is decreased to half of the original amount. Turn the heat off.
- Add nut powder and cardamom powder to the prepared unsweetened basundi (or unsweetened EVAPORATED MILK if using that). Mix and let it cool down completely.
- Once cooled down add condensed milk and whipping cream to basundi. Mix well. Separate 1 cup of mixture and keep it refrigerated for garnishing at the end. Keep the rest of it refrigerated until needed.
Make the cake
- Make the cake as per box instructions. If you are using Pillsbury Moist Supreme Premium Cake Mix Golden Butter, mix cake mix with water, butter, cardamom powder, saffron and eggs (or plain yogurt as an egg substitute). Bake it in the 13×9 rectangular deep baking pan so that there is room for basundi mixture on top of the baking pan after cake is baked. I used small circle pan and had hard time with adding enough basundi mix to the cake. I highly recommend 13×9 rectangular deep baking pan.
- Let the cake cool down for 20 minutes. Poke it with chopsticks.
- Pour the basundi mixture (save 1 cup for garnishing as mentioned above) on top of the cake. There should be enough basundi mixture for the cake to be completely soaked and still floating on top of the cake.
- Cover and refrigerate the cake over night or upto 6-8 hours.
Frost the cake
- Start whipping the whipping cream in a standing mixer or handy mixer until it starts to peak just a little.
- Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar. Keep whipping until the frosting holds stiff peaks.
- Stop the whipping. fold in cardamom powder and nut powder gently using rubber spatula.
- Frost the cake with the whipping cream.
Serving/Garnishing
- Serve a piece of cake with a spoonful drizzle of the basundi mix that you kept aside earlier and sprinkle it with some nut powder and cardamom powder as part of garnishing!
