Gulab jamun is possibly the most loved Indian dessert. They are deep fried dumplings, made of milk powder, and soaked in rose water and cardamom flavored sugar syrup. My mom makes the best gulab jamuns in the world! They are so soft and sweet and just melt in your mouth. I have tried but failed a few times to make them like hers. So I started making fusion desserts with the store bought gulab jamuns. I have made gulab jamun cupcakes and cakes with butter cream and whipped cream frosting and even a wonderful trifle with saffron pudding and whipped cream. Here I am sharing my recipe for eggless gulab jamun cake with whipped cream frosting.
The main steps to make Eggless Gulab Jamun Cake are:
Baking the cake sponge: It is an eggless sponge flavored with saffron and cardamom. I wanted a 3 layer tall cake and baked it in 3-6 inch pans. You can also bake 2-8 inch cakes with the same recipe. The baking time for 2-8 inch cakes will be 22-25 minutes.
I usually make the cake base a day before I frost and assemble the cake. Once the cake rounds are completely cooled, I store them between parchment papers in an airtight container. You can store the cake in the refrigerator for 3-4 days before you decorate.
Frosting and Filling: I have chosen a whipped cream frosting for this cake. It is lighter and tastes wonderful. The whipped cream is stabilized with mascarpone cheese (you can substitute cream cheese) and holds its shape much better. I have used a can of store bought gulab jamuns to fill and decorate the cake but you can use home made ones. Cans of gulab jamuns are readily available at any Indian grocery store. In the pictures I have used Wilton 1M decorating tip to make the rosettes. You can decorate the cake with pistachios, almonds, and rose petals. I have also used chaandi vark (pounded thin silver film) to decorate, but it is totally optional.
Once decorated, the cake should be stored in the refrigerator till you are ready to serve it.
If you liked this Eggless Gulab Jamun Cake and would like to try other fusion desserts, try:
This cake is so much fun to decorate and eat!
Gulab Jamun Cake (Eggless)
Eggless Indian fusion cake made with gulab jamuns
12-14
servings25
minutes17
minutes30 minutes
Ingredients
- Cake
1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
3/4 cup White sugar
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking powder
3/4 cup Whole milk
1/3 cup Any unflavored oil (I use avocado oil)
1/2 cup Plain yogurt (whisked)
Cardamom powder from 3-4 pods
Hefty pinch of saffron
1/2 teaspoon Salt
- Filling and Decorations
12-15 pieces Gulab jamuns (syrup reserved)
2 cups Heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons Mascarpone cheese or cream cheese
Unsalted crushed pistachios for decorating
Method
- Cake
- Pre- heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 3, 6 inch round cake pans by greasing and putting parchment paper rounds at the bottom.
- Slightly warm the milk, add the saffron strands and let it rest until you prepare the other ingredients.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cardamom powder and salt.
- Add milk, oil and yogurt to the dry ingredients. Mix until no dry patches remain, being careful not to over-mix.
- Divide the batter equally in the 3 prepared cake pans. Bake for 17-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Wait for 10 minutes to cool before taking it out of the pan and cooling completely on a wire rack before decorating. The cake base can be made a day ahead, stored in an air tight container and then decorated the day of serving.
- Assembling and Decorating
- Using a stand or hand held mixer, whip the cream cheese until it is creamy. Add the confectioner’s sugar and whip some more. Now add streams of whipping cream down the sides of the bowl. This will avoid any splatters. Scrape the bowl down as needed. Whip until stiff peaks form.
- Cut the tops of the 3 cake layers to make them even. Drizzle the syrup that came along with the gulab jamuns and moisten the cake layers, about 3 tablespoons per cake layer.
- Place the first layer on a cake board and spread about 3/4 cup of the whipped cream frosting evenly. Top with cut pieces of gulab jamuns. Repeat with the second layer and top the last layer of cake. Frost the entire cake with the whipped cream frosting and decorate the cake as desired, with gulab jamuns and pistachios.
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