A Teatime Recipe for Mosambi Upside Down Cake

Simran Narula reimagines her mother’s recipe for a ghee and condensed milk cake as a gluten-free upside-down cake, layered with seasonal mosambi (sweet lime) for a bright, citrusy finish.

Orange upside down cake has always been the favourite in my home.

But I decided to try something different this time, and used mosambi, or sweet lime. This cake is special because the basic cake recipe (with ghee and condensed milk) belongs to my mother. My sister and I would devour this cake growing up. The aroma of the vanilla essence in the cake baking with ghee and condensed milk is a nostalgic hit for us both.

My mother stopped baking when she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis many years ago. I have tried following her recipe but it is not nearly as good as when she makes it. Funnily, this has freed me up to explore and tweak with recipes to make them my own. This a combination of modern gluten-free baking and my mother's recipe.

RECIPE FOR UPSIDE DOWN MOSAMBI CAKE

Ingredients 

2 whole sweet limes
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp butter or ghee to grease the baking dish

For the cake
1.5 cup oats flour
1/4 cup rice flour
2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp mosambi zest
Handful of dried cranberries, chopped
5 tbsp ghee
Condensed milk, to taste
Water to make the batter (approximately around half a cup)

Method

Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Grease the cake tin with ghee or butter and sprinkle a generous amount of brown sugar at the bottom of the cake tin.
Cut the mosambi in rounds, remove the outer skin, seeds and the inner white pith from the sides  and arrange the mosambi wheels over the sugar in the greased cake tin. 
To make the cake batter, add all the dry ingredients in a bowl — oats flour, rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, a pinch of salt, chopped dried cranberries, mosambi zest followed by wet ingredients — ghee, condensed milk and water.
Mix well by cutting and folding to get a smooth, lump free batter. Pour this batter over the mosambi layer.
Tap the cake tin to remove any air bubble and to allow the cake batter to settle and then bake it in the pre-heated oven for 28-30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius or until the skewer comes out clean.
Let the cake cool down completely. Once cool, flip it on the serving dish and de-mould.
I love extra garnishing, so I have garnished it with a spring of Tulsi leaves and some dried cranberries. Slice carefully and servce it like that or with a sweet and spicy honey-plum chutney or any sweet and spicy marmalade of choice.

Simran Narula is a home-baker who loves to make gluten-free meals and desserts. She is building her website Glutenfreewhisk.com and hopes to run a successful food venture of her own someday soon.

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