Being locked at home for virtually a year has given me a lot of time to experiment and play with ingredients! And thank God for Amazon! It has given me a chance to buy and experiment with lots of fun Indian and regional food favorites, both familiar and unfamiliar.

Just a little Covid retail therapy!

One very familiar ingredient I rediscovered was gulkand, or Indian rose petal jam offered served in paan or betel leaves. My father loved eating paan, and as we lived in Manila, far far away from the Indian paanwalas, my Mom grew her own leaves.  And to fill the paan, she made her own gulkand (being a non-resident Indian meant making everything from scratch! Not unlike my kitchen life in Cochin.) Mom would collect and wash the roses and petals from our rose garden in our house in Manila (pesticide-free of course!), then leave them in the heat of the tropical sun to dry. Then she would layer the dried petals with sugar in a glass jar, and leave the jam to cook in the sun for a week. Since I don’t know if the roses I buy are organic, I haven’t yet tried making my own!

Anyhow I got my food goodies from Amazon, but in my enthusiasm, ordered without checking bottle sizes. So, before the family could realize that there was an absolutely unnecsessary one kilo jar of gulkand in my kitchen, I had to find a quick way to demolish the evidence! And what better way to use it than in a dessert?

My inspiration for this cake lay in the Sicilian whole orange cake recipe by chiristinacucina

Her it is https://www.christinascucina.com/sicilian-orange-cake-using-entire-orange-peel-juice-pulp/ .  It works every time!

My cake, however, is made with gulkand, yoghurt, orange, orange peel and three eggs.  I found the pistachios a little late in my ingredient game, so they just made a for-show appearance at the end! And although it was a quick, desperate attempt to hide some of my shopping, it turned out pretty damn well! Anyone for a piece? Recipe below:

Gulkand (Rose Petal Jam) Yoghurt Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1⅛ cup (250 g) sugar Click here to buy organic sugar
• ⅓ cup (100g) butter, softened
• 100g gulkand (Indian rose petal jam) Click here to buy organic gulkand
• ⅓ cup (100g) plain thick yoghurt (Greek is fine, if homemade not watery)
• 1¾ cup (280g) all-purpose flour click here to buy our most used all-purpose flour
• 2½ teaspoons baking powder
• orange rind from ½ an orange, about 20g of grated rind

To make glaze:

• juice of one orange
• ¼ cup gulkand
• ⅓ cup (100g) sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)

For the cake batter:

1. Prepare an 8-inch cake pan by buttering it and lining it with parchment paper (I prefer a springform pan—it makes the cake easier to remove).
2. Place the sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs and continue to beat for 1 minute.
4. In a food processor, process the gulkand and yoghurt until smooth.
5. Sift the flour with the baking powder, then add it to the bowl a little at a time, alternating with the gulkand–yoghurt mixture. Add the orange rind.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
7. Bake for 50–60 minutes, but test with a cake tester or skewer at the 50-minute mark.
8. Allow the cake to cool for about 20–30 minutes, then glaze while still in the pan.

For the glaze:

1. Prepare the glaze by combining the sugar, gulkand, and orange juice in a small saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. The syrup should become sticky and form a thin thread when dropped into water or pulled between the thumb and forefinger (don’t burn that finger!).
3. Either spoon the glaze over the top of the cake or use a brush to spread it evenly.
4. Remove the cake from the pan once the glaze has set.

Serves: 7-8 people

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Critical Ingredients: Gulkand, or rose petal jam, is of course what gives this cake body and flavour.  If you want more flavour, you could add 3- 4 tablespoons of ground pistachio – I’m just too lazy!) The orange juice balances the sweetness of the rose petal jam. Hard to find replacement ingredients for this cake! If you’re lazy to grate the rind, just chop it into little bits!