“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett.
My mum isn’t a big cake person, but last Christmas she mentioned seeing an ad for Cochin Bakery and how everyone raved about their ghee cake. On my next trip out I picked up a slab. The moment we opened the packaging the ghee aroma was intoxicating. The cake was tender and richly ghee-flavoured.
I immediately started trying to recreate it at home. I’m not the best at copycat recipes (KFC comes to mind), but I found several online versions and tested many. Each went into my oven hopeful, yet the promised ghee fragrance never arrived. The cakes were fine, but none tasted like THE ghee cake.
Eventually I found a version shared by an online friend whose baking I trust. The recipe traces back to an older blog, Claypot Maladies, and is essentially a pound cake made with ghee instead of butter. I halved the original (I’d already wasted enough ghee by then), used whole eggs instead of separating and whipping the whites (lazy choice), and left out the zest but added lemon juice. Despite those tweaks, the result was excellent.
From all my trials I learned two essential things: use high-quality ghee and make sure it is solid or semi-solid. Liquid ghee won’t give the structure and texture this cake needs.
Ghee cake
Ingredients
- 125 grams or 1 cup all-purpose flour (maida)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch baking soda
- 125 grams or 1/2 cup pure ghee in solid form
- 100 grams or 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup milk at room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C / 350°F.
- Grease and dust a 9 x 4 inch loaf pan with flour.
- Sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer or wooden spoon, beat the solid ghee and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add the lemon juice and beat for a minute.
- Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture: 1/3 flour mixture – beat – half the milk – beat – 1/3 flour mixture – beat – remaining milk – beat – remaining flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Bake for 38–45 minutes, or until the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, unmould, then cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
Not long after the batter went into the oven, the aroma told me I had hit the jackpot. The cake is light, just sweet enough, and full of pure ghee flavour.
It’s very close to the iconic Cochin Bakery ghee cake—close enough that I’m happy to stop my search here. Their cake still has something uniquely special, but this homemade version is a delicious and faithful tribute.
My quest for the perfect ghee cake rests here.
