Atta Girl!!

Well, that’s what I wanted to say to myself when I made a pineapple pound cake with “Atta” as in wheat flour. I never thought that a cake made with wheat flour could actually be as tasty as a cake made with refined flour. May be it wasn’t exactly a baker's delight but it was really tasty. Now, as usual, I later learnt that there does exist a concept of wheat flour cakes. But when I had started or rather pushed…nah thrown into the journey of baking a wheat flour cake by the husband, I had no clue that baking wheat flour cake isn’t uncommon. I kept on arguing with him that have you ever heard of a Atta cake or have you ever seen at a baker’s place an option of  Wheat flour cake. But him being him until and unless you give him a logical reason, he wouldn’t stop pattering (I don’t know if that’s even a word, but that’s what it sounded like). I had nothing much to loose as it was Saturday night and we were through with our dinner (my first pizza in my new oven…a post on it later someday) and it was only 8 p.m., I didn’t mind baking a simple cake. And his argument was just too simple to refute…"if you can bake bread with wheat flour, why not a cake". I am not an expert cook (am not even a cook) so obviously I didn’t know the exact reason but I had an idea that it’s something to do with gluten. I muttered under my breath “gluten…leavening agent" but quit arguing after looking at my husband’s puckered eyebrows. So, I went ahead with a very simple recipe (didn’t want to waste time and energy over something which was to go into the bin directly). The only thing I changed from my usual Pineapple flavored pound cake recipe was adding an extra pinch of baking powder and baking soda…of course apart from substituting the refined flour with wheat flour (I use Ashirwad atta, just in case that matters although I don’t think so).

The Pineapple Pound Cake Recipe

Here you go:

I  am giving a lot of details hence the process looks lengthy. For any one who has baked before the steps are simple Pre-heat oven (if its not convection), Grease & dust the baking tin. Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Combine the wet and the dry ingredients; mix well. Put in the baking tin and bake away!

Pre-heat the oven only if it’s an ordinary baking oven and not a microwave convection oven. Pre-heat for 30 minutes at 375 degrees F.

Grease a baking tin with butter and dust it with refined flour (ha! It finally made its way into the picture). To dust it you need to put pinch of flour in a scattered manner. Shake the baking tin nicely so that the flour spreads out. If there is excess flour (lumps) on the tin, invert the baking tin over the kitchen and pat on its back gently.

In a bowl combine the following:

• 250 gms wheat flour
• 250 gms powdered sugar (you can powder sugar in a mixer or you can use granulated sugar but that will just increase your effort and time, in case using granulated sugar add baking soda in the end that is just before putting the batter in the baking tin and mix well)
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• 1 level tsp baking soda

In another bowl mix the following:

• 1 tsp pineapple essence
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp oil
• ½ cup milk

Now add the wet contents to the dry one and mix well. The batter’s consistency should be that of condensed milk. You can use a blender, I just mixed with a fork real fast.

Just taste the batter for sweetness. If you love it real sweet, you can add more sugar but generally this proportion is ideal.

Now put the batter in the baking tin and bake it for 80 minutes at 160 degree C if baking in a microwave convection oven (just using the convection mode) no microwaving is required.

In case of a conventional baking oven, pre-heat oven 375 degrees F for 30 min (mentioned earlier) and after placing the baking tin, bake for 60 minutes at 325 degrees F.

Notes:

If the cake is wet when you check by inserting a knife then bake it for further 10 minutes.

You will notice that the sides of the cake is slightly darker that is because the wheat flour cake takes long to cook specially at the center so by then the sides darken a lot but the dark crust tastes really good.

I later learnt that in case of wheat cakes one should add one egg extra. If you decide to try that out then reduce the baking time by 10 minutes. And check after 40 minutes to avoid a disaster. In case the center is wet and wobbly like pudding bake for another 40 minutes, if its just moist then bake for another 30 minutes.