Blogging Marathon #122 Week 1, Day 1
Theme : A to Z, something sweet

G for Gulab Jamun Cake. This is a very popular fusion cake. This has been in my todo list for a long time and finally here it is! I usually use whipped cream alone for this, but now I like adding some mascarpone cheese to stabilize the cream. Instead of the regular sugar syrup here, you can use the syrup from the gulab jamun tin itself.

I have tried rasmalai cake at a bakery before and didn’t like it all that much. But maybe with a homemade rabdi or a sweet cream syrup, I would like to give it a try at home.

The cake here is a Hot Milk Cake. That’s my go to recipe for vanilla cakes. I usually double the recipe to get 4 layers, but here adjusted to get 3 layers.

Read on for the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Three 8” vanilla cake of your choice
• 1 tin readymade gulab jamun with syrup
• 3 cups fresh cream
• 1/3 cup icing sugar or per taste
• 8 oz mascarpone cheese at room temperature
• Dried rose petals, optional

Method:

1. Bake the cakes a day before. Take it out of the pan once it’s a little cool and cover with two rounds of cling wrap. Return the covered cake back to the cake pan and keep it aside until it’s time to decorate. I like to wash and wipe dry the cake pans completely before I return the cakes to it.
2. If you are baking on the same day as decorating, make sure that the cake is completely cool before you start frosting it.
3. Using a hand mixer, beat the heavy cream and icing sugar until its almost at stiff peak stage. Add in the room temperature mascarpone cheese and beat until everything is combined. Do not over mix. It’s important that the mascarpone cheese is at room temperature, else it won’t be easy to mix it in.
4. Trim and level the cakes with a cake leveler. Anchor one layer to a cake board with a little of the stabilized cream. With a silicon brush, apply the syrup from the gulab jamun generously on the cake. Now layer add a layer of the whipped cream as your filling. Top this with some chopped gulab jamuns.
5. Top this layer with the next leveled cake layer and repeat applying the syrup and whipped cream and chopped gulab jamun.
6. Now, Add the third and last layer on top and generously sprinkle the syrup. Cover the top and sides with whipped cream and decorate as you wish. I used dried rose petals and some gulab jamun on top and sides and piped the fresh cream using a combination of small and big piping nozzles.