Rasmalai Cake, and Four Novels

Happy Diwali to all who celebrate! 🪔 I had plans to make some Diwali sweets and savories but time got away from me this year. 

October so far has featured our kids' fall break, their teacher conferences, and a bunch of volunteer activities- making taco soup for a potluck for the middle school teachers, working at a school fundraiser where we sell parking spots to raise funds for field trips, delivering surplus produce from a supermarket to a farm sanctuary for the animals, and teaching an Indian cooking class to a group of 15 lovely seniors. 

The one thing I did make for our small Diwali dinner was a dessert that I've been planning in my head for several years- a mash-up of two favorite desserts, rasmalai and tres leches cake. 

Rasmalai cake has an eggless pistachio-cardamom cake, is drizzled with a mixture of rose-flavored milk, and topped with a saffron cream. You can see that I loaded all the classic Indian dessert flavors into this one. It turned out absolutely irresistible- very rich but not overwhelmingly sweet. However, if you don't like soggy cake, you won't like it, because a soaked cake in a puddle of sweet milk is kind of the point of tres leches cake. The colors of the cake are subtle and natural. If you want to ramp up the color for visual appeal, you could add a bit of green food color into the cake, and a bit of orange food color into the whipped cream frosting.

I've seen versions of rasmalai cake online and used several as inspiration, with this recipe as the base. Use dairy or non-dairy versions of ingredients as you prefer- I won't specify as they are interchangeable in this recipe. The recipe looks elaborate, and certainly it has a lot of steps and ingredients, but it is dead simple to make. The results will be worth it. I was overjoyed to finally get a chance to use some edible rose petals given by my sister! 

Rasmalai Cake

• Bake the cake
• Preheat the oven to 350F and spray a 9x13 pan with oil.
• In a measuring cup, mix 1.5 cups milk and 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar and leave aside to curdle.
• Place 3/4 cup roasted unsalted pistachios in a food processor bowl and grind to a fine powder.
• In a large bowl, mix together
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• Ground pistachios
• 1 tsp. ground cardamom (or more to taste)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• To the flour mixture above, add
• Curdled milk
• 1/2 cup neutral flavored oil
• Whisk gently (do not over-mix), pour into greased pan and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.
• Soak the cake
• While the cake is baking, mix the following in a bowl:
• 3/4 of a can of condensed milk
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 cup almond milk 
• 1 tablespoon rose water
• Let the baked cake cool for 10 minutes.
• Take a chopstick (or similar) and poke holes all over the cake
• Ladle the milk mixture all over the cake.
• Let it sit for a few minutes, then cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours
• Frost the cake
• Chill a stand mixer bowl and whisk.
• In a small bowl, mix 2-3 tablespoons hot milk and a hefty pinch of saffron.
• Add 1.5 cups heavy cream and 3 tablespoons powdered sugar into the chilled stand mixer bowl. Whisk to soft peaks
• Stir in the bloomed saffron gently.
• Dollop the saffron cream over the soaked cake and spread evenly with a spatula
• Sprinkle with edible rose petals or crushed pistachios. Refrigerate until it is time to serve.

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TV watching: In the past few weeks, I watched season 1 of A Man on the Inside on Netflix. This is a fairly new web series, a sitcom with a light mystery theme. A retired, widowed engineer is bored, and answers a job ad by a private detective. His task is to infiltrate an upscale retirement community and investigate the theft of a valuable necklace from one of the residents. The characters are a little stereotypical and predictable, but if you are looking for a warm and pleasant comedy, this will fit the bill. Another season is to come soon, and I plan to watch it. 

My son and I continue to watch the odd episode of Project Runway here and there, usually on rainy weekends. It is hilarious to hear his commentary. Last night, one of the models was sent down the catwalk wearing a rather shapeless dress on, and he says, "she looks like a grandma who's about to go to bed". 

* * *

Speaking of bed, this has been my bedtime reading over the past several weeks. It is a lot more fiction than I usually read, but it was good fun.  

• The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (pub. 2019)
• Why I picked it up- It was recommended on a reddit thread that asked for suggestions for books that describe everyday life in Britain, and I was in the mood for a mundane, slice-of-life kind of read.
• Genre- romantic comedy, what might be called chick-lit
• Plot- Two people decide to share a flat, indeed, a bed, while working opposite shifts so that they never have to see one another. They end up communicating through post-it notes. Complications ensue.
• Read this book if you're looking for- A light, breezy, heartfelt book. A quick read.
• Crooked House by Agatha Christie (pub. 1949)
• Why I picked it up- It was recommended on a reddit thread about the best Agatha Christie books, and I had a sudden yearning to read one that I either haven't read or read too long ago. This is a standalone book, not featuring Marple or Poirot.
• Genre- cozy mystery ofc
• Plot- A young man returns to England from foreign service only to find that his girlfriend's wealthy family is in shambles- the patriarch is dead from poisoning. Everyone would love for the old man's younger wife to be the murderer, but a closer investigation is necessary.
• Read this book if you're looking for- A delicious classic murder mystery with tension and a well-crafted plot. A quick read. 
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (pub. 2016)
• Why I picked it up- It was recommended on some reddit thread as being in the same genre as The Midnight Library and A Short Stay in Hell. 
• Genre- sci-fi psychological thriller
• Plot- A college professor lives a pleasant but mundane life with his wife and teenage son. One night, he is abducted off the streets and ends up in a different world. This book dives into the concept of multiverses.
• Read this book if you're looking for- A super fast-paced and highly entertaining thriller, but just don't think too much about the science.
• Stoner by John Williams (pub. 1965)
• Why I picked it up- It was recommended on reddit thread as a book in which nothing happens- a quiet, meditative novel. Stoner is simply the last name of the protagonist; not used in the same way as the slang word "stoner" as in drug user.
• Genre- classic novel, literary fiction
• Plot- William Stoner is born into a dirt-poor farming family in Missouri. He shows academic brightness, so his parents send him to the state university to get a degree in agriculture. Instead, he ends up getting a degree in English and becoming a college professor. His life unfolds in an unremarkable manner, and he stoically bears a series of disappointments.
• Read this book if you're looking for- A quiet and beautifully written novel about the human experience and how our decisions (such as who we choose to marry) can have such a heavy bearing on how life unfolds. How we sometimes end up being a minor character in our own lives. This is quite a depressing book.

As October winds down, tell me what you're cooking, eating, reading, watching.