One of the few cakes that you can bake in a microwave oven – using semolina (rava), banana and coconut milk. Use coconut oil instead of ghee to make this vegan.
Whenever I see a dessert recipe whose ingredient list does not feature sugar and a gazillion calories worth of butter, I am tempted to try it out on the same day. When I chanced upon a steamed semolina- banana cake, it seemed too good to be true. When my newly married cousin in Bangalore tried it out and gave me a bright green signal, I had to try this out. Shilpa of Aayi’s Recipes has something similar on her blog, an authentic Goan recipe sent to her by a reader, but her recipe uses sugar instead of jaggery.
I’ve made slight modifications to the original recipe, in terms of microwaving the batter instead of steaming, and I did it on a trial and error basis, because my kitchen doesn’t have a big enough steamer to take the whole batter in one go.
Using the microwave for this recipe did seem to have its advantages:
1. Lesser cooking time (7 minutes as against 25 minutes of steaming)
2. Lesser cleaning up – just one microwave safe dish other than the wok used to mix ingredients
3. Even your kids can handle the recipe from the assembled-ingredients stage
Semolina-Banana-Coconut Cake (No bake)
Time taken – Under 15 minutes
Serves 6-8 people or more
Category – Healthy dessert, Festival food, Neivedyam
Semolina Banana Coconut Cake in the Microwave
Ingredients
- 1 - 2 tbsps ghee
- 1 1/4 cups semolina / rava (small grain)
- 3/4 cup jaggery
- 3 bananas - medium sized
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cardamom ground
Instructions
- Grease a 9" or so microwave safe tray with some ghee on your fingertips. Keep aside.
- In a blender / mixer, place the 3 peeled bananas with the jaggery, make a smooth paste and keep aside.
- Heat the remaining ghee in a heavy bottomed wok, put in the semolina. On medium to low flame, constantly stir it around until it turns lightly golden. This part requires your full attention for 5-7 minutes and the slightest burnt semolina will spoil the taste of the cake.
- Once the semolina turns golden, turn flame to lowest possible, pour in the banana-jaggery paste, stir till it is nearly absorbed by the semolina. This will take 30 seconds to a minute. Take the wok off the flame.
- In a jug, whisk well the coconut milk, water, salt, baking powder, cardamom powder and pour it into the semolina mix in the wok. Stir well till ingredients are blended through.
- Pour this mix into the greased microwave safe dish. Garnish with any nuts /dried fruits or candied fruit to make it more appealing to kids.
- Microwave at 100% for 5 minutes. Check the degree to which the cake is cooked and then depending on that microwave at 80% for 2 minutes or so. Remove, cool and cut into squares /diamonds.
- Serve warm.
Hello !Very interesting blog.It has been a plesure to read you.I wish you the best.Reno
Wow.. this sounds like fun… will definitely try.
very easy,quick and healthy cake,good work.
wow looks like its gonna taste like banan rava kesari with coconut flavour. sure gonna try this would be great even for my kids lunch box 🙂 thanks for sharing!
Healthy and Quick = Must try! :)Thanks for the recipe.
wow – sounds great – will try.some doubts – about the bananas – should i use the long green ones (cavendish / robusta) or the small yellow (yelakki) ones? both come in medium sizes thats why i am asking!also my husband on a shopping errand went and bought a HUGE packet of coconut milk powder since dabur coco milk seems to be out of stock – can i use this powder, do you think?by the way – i know your husband! from b’lore. happened to chat with him on yahoo recently and told him to tell you i love your blog!d
hi n ..you rock as always.a few questions.can i use an OTG ? and if so for how long should i bake the cake ?i am not a fan of coconut milk. any substitute suggestions ??:))
Hi D,S showed me the chat you guys had and i remember that :)OK, you use the robusta (bigger regular green banana) – but a medium sized one, not the really huge ones, that could alter cooking time.You could by all means use coconut powder, reconstitute it as per pack instructions to make one and a half cups of coconut milk and omit the 1/2 cup water. DO let me know how this turns out, if you happen to try it D!Juno- nice to see you back girl! please use regular milk with tsp of vanilla extract or vanilla flavoured soy milk. Both should work fine. And I really do not know about the OTG way to make this, probably place the baking tin in a larger tin half filled with boiling hot water and then bake for 20 minutes or so…just a guess. You have the option of stove top steaming too, use your pressure pan and place the vessel with the mix in it and steam (remember NOT to use the cooker weight for steaming) – steam for 15-20 minutes this way until top is dry. Hope this helps.
Doc N,You remind to countless TamBrahm youngsters the traditional mother-made food delicacies !!Kudos.. keep up the good work !Happy I-day 2007 !shankar aiyarrshankar (sigfood)
Hey Nandita, Your recipe reminded me of a similar such cake with semolina and yogurt that my Aaji makes. I always asked her to make it when I was a teenager and she used to be thrilled to bits by my request. I am going to call her up tomorrow and refresh my memory.In the meanwhile I’ll try out yours. Banana flavoured cake has to be sure shot winner.
uber cool babes:))
hey N! i just tried this. turned out very nice. not so much like a cake though, more like a rava kesari, but very nice all the same. i did use the coco milk powder (what else would i do with 500 gms of it!!!) – that seemed to work well enough. i reconstituted to make 1 cup only and forgot to use the extra 1/2 cup water – but that didnt do any harm. easy to make. good to taste.thanks!d
Good to hear that – yes it does not tastle like a ‘cake’ because we use rava as against maida / AP flour. But a healthy option nevertheless 🙂
Hi Nandita,that s a very unique idea. Microwaved cake. I like. I am reading the comments, you can even steam this one ? Now that s even weirder…. (That means I have to try it :)Thanx, looking forward to hearing more of the strange ones from you …
Hi nandita,great variation…i m a bit skeptical with semolina, but i think i’ll give it a try…it just looks great, and its healthy…what else could i ask for??:)-Mansihttp://funnfud.blogspot.com
Made this for dessert tonight and DH loved it. I topped with chopped dried cherries which went well with the bananas. This was like a banana kesari. So very good!
I tried this too, with a mix of whole wheat and rava.http://ambrotos.blogspot.in/2012/05/microwave-banana-cake.html?showComment=1346561889268#c4964898634256321004
wow I too make this cake , it’s yummy