It’s my sister’s birthday today and I wanted to bake a cake for her. And it had to be gluten free, lactose free and without chocolate.
I was browsing for such recipe in the net but didn’t find anything very appealing. Then I got this sudden idea of making a cake with the Nei appam batter. The Nei appam that I make has a very soft and melt in mouth texture. ( she is very fond of Nei appam).

I worked out few additions to the recipe and after praying God to make my crazy idea a success, started making this cake.

Soon my house was filled with sweet aroma of coconut, cardamom and jaggery. I was so excited that I couldn’t stop smiling.

The cake was moist, soft, perfect in texture and flavour and absolutely divine. I was indeed very very happy with myself and icing on the cake was really my sister’s expression when she had her first bite:)

Ingredients

Basmati Rice – 1 cup

Grated jaggery – 1 cup

Ripe banana – 1

Grated coconut – 1 cup, tightly packed

Cardamoms – 4-5 ( use only the seeds)

Ghee – 3 tbsps + 1 tsp ( 1 tsp ghee for greasing the cake pan)

Coconut oil – 4 tbsps

Baking powder – 1/2 tsp

Baking soda – 1/4th tsp

Rice flour – 1 tbsp ( for dusting)

For garnish

————

Ghee – 2 tsps

Almond flakes – 2 tbsps

Grated coconut – 1 tbsp

Icing sugar – 1 tbsp

Method

Wash and soak basmati rice for 2 hrs.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius,

Grease a cake pan with ghee ( have used a bundt cake pan) and dust it with rice flour.

Drain the rice. Add coconut, jaggery, bananna ( chopped) and cardamom seeds to the rice and grind it to a smooth batter without adding any water.

Transfer it to a bowl. Add ghee, coconut oil, baking powder and soda and beat well until the batter becomes light and fluffy.

Pour it into the greased and dusted cake pan and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 mins.

The cake is done when a toothpick or knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely.

Heat 2 tsps of ghee in a pan. Add the almond flakes and sauté till it turns golden.

Sprinkle icing sugar on the cake and garnish it with crisp, golden almond flakes and grated coconut.

Serve the cake warm:)