CURRY AND SPICE: ATTA MOROBBA CAKE

Kids of the 70's or 80's from Kolkata, do you remember 'Bapuji' cake? .... It was a long standing wish to replicate it! I mean, it is not possible to prepare the exact replica of it, but I tried with this ATTA MOROBBA CAKE. My version is soft, moist and near to it in taste! A couple of my fellow bloggers would have done full justice to the photo feature too! Like they would have chosen a squared cake tin, cut them into squares and wrap them at least with butter paper if not with the signature printed wrapper of the 'Bapuji' cake makers. The 'New Howrah Bakery's' Bapuji cake has a red, yellow, blue, green wrapper... the famous tiffin cake for middle class homes in the 70's-80's Kolkata! At our home, it was not so much in practice, neither was Flurys! It was Shyambazaar Dutta Bakery's glass shaped plain cakes that the mother got for us until she got me a round, aluminium electrical cake oven from Modern Variety Stores! Much later, when Monginis [now Mio Amore], Kathleen opened their outlets in every locality.... we had it from there! Flurys and the entire Park Street area was far from our suburbs.... by all means.... literal or real, ability wise!

Tomorrow, on the 15th of August, you will see many a Kolkatan dining with family & friends in the "British... Ingrej para" of Kolkata! I do not find anything wrong in it, neither will I blog on a "chutney aloo & tomato poori" today..... the blog is another year older, me too.... we do pick up some lessons from the surrounding! India and its neighbours are still in the shackles of poverty, superstitions, extreme religious prejudices.... which stinks... unkind towards women with high degree of illiteracy.... freedom is yet to achieve! Developed cities are never a benchmark of a country's progress.... people in villages still do not have the basic facility of a toilet! I have a habit of giving big talks, sitting far off I should not when I have little contribution towards the development of the nation! The husband definitely is getting foreign currency for his nation! If Nawab Wajid Ali Shah got Biryani and Mughlai dishes on the plates of the Bengalis, cake definitely was brought by the colonial rulers... Till date when I visit the Esplanade area, I purposefully walk towards Park Street along Free School Street instead of taking an auto or a small distance cab ride.... I take the feel of the 19th-early 20th Century buildings still standing tall.... how long they will we do not know! The Anglo Indian Community born out of the colonisation also has contributed immensely with their own set of culture.... food culture! To comment or talk beyond this needs a lot of research which I do not do!.... but a bite on a Nahoum's cake or just getting down at Jaan bazaar and walking past Rani Rashmoni's home and YMCA building give you an old world charm.... These were possible for the father.... he was a regular at YMCA... I do not exactly remember why?... He took us to all the remotest alleys of the New Market area , later the mother took ..... till date I have to visit at least once on each visit!

The places we stay now are only new developments.... they cannot give that feeling of an old world charm... The Anglo Indian Community could not mingle with the main stream Bengalis.... neither the Bengalis allowed them to! Much later I knew that the tall, old buildings in the Esplanade to Park Street areas that housed restaurants and clothing stores in the ground floor also had Bengali families living in them. A friend from college told me once that they stay in that locality and get bread from the New Market everyday.... I was like in an unbelieving situation.... "how do you mingle with 'them?'..... So, those "them" have migrated to different countries gradually... Australia, New Zealand... It is obvious that this primitive will not be able to prepare a rich fruit cake... she went to a "Benglish" school where we spoke Bengali most of the time except for those who were accustomed to a club culture by then and aspired desperately to move to a greener pasture... so they forced themselves to speak a heavily foreign accented English... an indulgent friend would call it "kaidabaji"....

How was I? Well, an Indirra Sengupta steps in when we were at class 9.... my "chokhs got gol gol" and I exclaimed "kya style hai"..... Do not get surprised at it.... among my near and distant relatives had been people who used to ask me "ingraji te katha koite parosh ni? shuna ektu".... Pretty sure about not being caught, I spoke in broken English. Let me tell you all his six daughters [he aspired for a boy and got one... the 7th one] are well established now... school teachers to lawyers to police officers may be as our mother says.... Look at me I still struggle with English and a decent cake..... sitting idle at home.... I curse one Indirra for getting my hair cut at 15 under her indirect influence. That one thing I could boast of then... my long, dense hair! Now I so regret... its all gone due to the dysfunctional thyroid gland, diabetes. Anyway, I do not cheat my readers, neither they are gullible as my ignorant relative... so I give you a clear picture of what I am.... do a less amount of filter! I try to be honest in what I give you... this is the second time I am doing this ATTA MOROBBA CAKE. Last time the oil used was less, use of white, refined sugar did not give me the desired colour. I am poor at baking, so experiments are less in my kitchen on baking.... I cannot manage an oil free cake or one in a pressure cooker! I have to check my friends' streams for those!

So, I am trying to relive a nostalgia with this ATTA MOROBBA CAKE.... a nostalgia synonymous with Kolkata... early morning tea stalls beaming with customers sitting with over boiled, milk laden CTC tea and Bapuji tiffin cake, a banana & boiled egg may be there... in fact the banana was more with "cha, tos, mamlet" yet to be precise "cha, tos, dimsheddo, kola".... I so wish to take that feel but Kolkata / Bengal does not welcome the idea of a single woman sitting at a tea stall... I am not desperate either! Here in this island, you will see me sitting at the food courts on almost all week days... My first attempt to a replica of Bapuji cake failed, so I tried again... I was desperate to share it today... I do not know why? May be the more I retreat from the crowd around, the more I cherish people and varied relationships deep inside?

What we have inside within the protected walls of our ribs is complicated! I am not a Subhash Ghai movie fan but I believe in how he protected himself from an array of criticism once... saying "choli ke pichey dil hai... bas"..... I defend my weird soul the same way.... "I do not know myself what goes in there"..... I very much wished to share this egg free, humble, few ingredients cake with wholewheat & ash gourd candies today... may be to say "we are... the world is one... at present"..... The ATTA MOROBBA CAKE is as desi as my "ankhon ka kajal".... My instagram followers are already in a shock looking at my no make up selfie avatar... they deserve some tea and cake treat... as rustic as this one. Do not expect sincere kind of plating from me with "kather pataton, tyap khaoa ketli, matir bhar".... had I not being a laid back character, I would have completed my MPhil in time, had been working in that college in the Nadia district instead of basking in the glory of the husband who made a big leap from an "asbestos roofed home to a 10th floor rented air-conditioned 1150sq.ft. flat in the world's most expensive nation" without any support, who feeds six stomachs without any complain..... wish he talked less amidst a crowd.... wish he understood his wife hates too much of talking when not required and unnecessary arguments! Wish his wife accepted that no one is perfect in this world, she herself is far from being one!

It feels bad to have the cake without the man of the house who is so genuine at heart, but you can see big pieces of the cake went into the son's lunch box and mumma had one big piece with her morning coffee. Cristine didi has a habit of eating everything stale... she does not wish to be fat like ma'am.... either! The use of brown sugar gave me the desired brown colour which tasted almost like jaggery to me.... My readers or friends in India will not get a Spencer or Big Bazaar or Reliance Fresh in every locality..... so you can use jaggery instead! White sugar is ok if you have a proper OTG and you are not a pathetic baker like me! The measurements I took gave me two standard sized cakes!

INGREDIENTS :

Wholewheat : 2 coffee mug
Chal Kumror Morobba / Ash Gourd or Winter Melon Candy : 1small tea cup cut into cubes
Brown Sugar : 1/2coffee mug or little less [use jaggery if you wish]
Milk : 11/2 coffee mug
Vinegar : 2tbsp
Baking Powder : 2 tsp

Baking Soda : 1 tsp
Vanila Essence : 11/2 tsp
Oil : 1/2 coffee mug or little more

PROCEDURE :

Baking a cake is never a cake walk for me, I click the ingredients to be used at first!

The measuring cup is below. I find coffee mugs or our big tea cups perfect!

I first took the atta / whole wheat flour in a bowl.

Then I added the baking powder & soda to the atta flour. I mixed them together well.

Then in a blender, I had taken together the milk, brown sugar, vinegar & oil. I blended the mixture for a minute or little more until it became a smooth paste.

I had added the paste to the flour mixture and mixed well.

I had added the vanilla essence now and stirred well.

I have chopped the ash gourd candies and added to the batter; mixed well.

I had half filled two aluminium foiled cake tins with the batter and preheated my convection mode microwave for 10 minutes @ 180*C, placing the low height wired stool inside.

I had placed one cake tin on top of the wired stool at a time and baked each cake for 32 minutes @ 180*C. Remember temperature level varies in different machines.