Cake in a Kadahi

Pushpesh Pant

WE have been fascinated by cakes ever since our childhood. Cakes were for special occasions and the nearest Swiss bakery, the Sackley’s, was 50 km away in Nainital. The allure of cakes increased when in adolescence we came across Somerset Maugham’s novel ‘Cakes and Ale’. What a combination, we thought! Like ‘cheese and wine’. But wine was for adults and the only ale accessible to us was ginger ale. That was many moons ago and since then, we have encountered many memorable cakes, some soaked with more intoxicating stuff than ales. But what has inspired this column are the cakes baked in a kadahi.

Sangeeta Gupta, whom we met by pure chance at the Delhi airport recently, is a homemaker living on the campus of a residential school on the outskirts of Pune. Whenever her children yearned for cakes, she used to bake these at home. Once, when a neighbour asked her to bake a birthday cake for his son’s birthday, she agreed, albeit a bit diffidently. The cake was loved and her reputation spread. Thus started her small home bakery. One day, during the Covid lockdown, her microwave oven burnt out due to a short circuit and repairing or finding a replacement was impossible. She had no option but to resort to a kadahi. She was amazed to see the result. The cake came out soft and spongy, just like in an oven.

She decorated the cake and delivered it on time as promised. Since then, she has been baking all her cakes in a kadahi/pateela and has not touched an oven. The enterprising lady has since won the ‘Best Cake Designer Award’ and started online classes on baking cakes and decorating these. She is proud of her jugaadu mindset and is inspired by the dictum, ‘Koshish karne walon ki kabhi haar nahi hoti’.

Talking to her at the boarding gate, our mind went back half a century when the khansama at the Dak Bungalow used to turn out cakes for ‘brown sahib log’ in a makeshift pateela without an oven. He had learned the craft of baking when employed with a ‘gora mem sahib’ before Independence. Memories were rekindled of mother baking simple but delicious sponge cakes in a sand-lined pressure cooker because there was no oven at home. Then came dome-shaped gas ovens that over-promised and underdelivered. But we digress.

Can anyone live without cakes today? Children want it for birthdays and couples for their wedding. Cakes are cut to celebrate anniversaries, promotions, housewarmings. There is an increasing demand for eggless cakes and vegan cakes have also appeared on the scene. The world has moved much beyond the simple pineapple, strawberry or chocolate cakes. Upside down, red velvet, ultra-light fruit gateaux to cheese cakes topped with exotic berry preserves, we are spoilt for choice. Even the much-maligned Marie Antoinette would have lost her head without walking up to the guillotine.

Technology has progressed fast. Multi-tasking computerised cooking machines can bake perfect sponge cakes. But these expensive marvels are for professionals and commercial outlets. What the discerning customers value most are artisanal, handcrafted cakes. There is no satisfaction greater than baking at home for unwinding as well as satisfying the craving for something richer than bread.

Success in bakery depends on correct measurements, following all the steps in the process meticulously, and not compromising on the quality of ingredients. It is possible to bake breathtaking eggless cakes and mastering recipes that appeal to the health-conscious. Banana, orange and carrot cakes are there to wean you away from seductions like dark chocolate and cloudy layers of dairy cream.

This brings us to the artistic outlet to your creativity that cakes provide. Equipped with assorted cutters, moulds and icing bags, spatula and edible colours, you can recreate the magical world of comics and fairytales. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck have endured generational changes in taste. Motors, train engines and aeroplanes are ever popular. Multi-tiered huge wedding cakes present challenges that would deter a structural engineer.

Mastering the basics of preparing the batter can be easily picked up with a little practice to gain perfection. Who needs the oven after that?

Sangeeta Gupta has been good enough to share a few tips on baking with a kadahi/pateela that should boost your confidence.

BAKING THE DESI WAY

• Take a kadahi/pan, or pateela (deep and heavy bottom) and place a small steel stand inside it.
• Cover it entirely with a lid. Now pre-heat for 10 minutes on a gas stove at medium flame.
• Place the cake tin with batter in the preheated kadahi, cover with lid and cook for 15-20 minutes on low-medium flame.
• Check the cake with a toothpick and if it comes out clean, remove the tin and switch off the gas.

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