Thandai Sheet Cake With Saffron Frosting

Thandai mix is a fragrant mixture of nuts and spices used to make beverages and desserts. Here, this homemade thandai mix is used to make an eggless sheet cake. Decorated with saffron whipped cream cheese frosting and tons of colorful sprinkles, it makes for a stunning Holi dessert!

Do you like sprinkles? I love them or at least the way they look. Sprinkles don’t taste much like anything, but they sure do bring a lot of joy, don’t you think so? Just look at that cake. I bet those colorful sprinkles lying over the swirls of cloud-like frosting made you smile, right?

I played with sprinkles and jimmies today to add some cheer to an otherwise drab week. March is here and I see no signs of spring yet. But just as I decorated and photographed the cake, the sun was out and shining bright. My Texan sun, I love you! But back in India, I hear it is a different story altogether. The hubs who is on a work trip there tells me how hot it is already. And it’s still not full-fledged summer yet.

The time marking the cusp of winter and spring sees a plethora of Indian festivals, the most popular of which is the North Indian festival of Holi. Made uber cool by Bollywood movies and color runs around the world, Holi is a day of revelry where you play with color. Literally. Though I didn’t grow up celebrating Holi, I remember my first Holi experience at college. It took 3 days and half a bottle of shampoo to get the colored powders out of my hair. Ah…good times!

Word of advice here: Some people are extremely allergic to commercial Holi color powders, so consider doing a patch test before you indulge. Better yet, consider sourcing or DIYing natural colors. I couldn’t contain myself after seeing the enthusiasm of my fellow blogger buddies and decided that I had to play with color too. But I used my favorite kind of colors – the edible kind. SPRINKLES!! And when sprinkles are involved, can cake be far behind?

Before we get to the cake recipe, we need to talk about another Holi food tradition. Thandai or sardai is a cooling beverage made by blending milk, nuts, and spices. To make matters easier,  a thandai mix powder cab be made and stored. Simply dissolve the powder in a cup of milk and enjoy. For homemade thandai mix, you need almonds, pistachios, cashew nuts, watermelon seeds, poppy seeds (khus khus), fennel seeds, cardamom, black peppercorns (just a few), saffron and rose petals. I left out the watermelon and fennel seeds because I didn’t have them. And anyway, there was no way I could have sourced watermelon seeds in this weather.

Once you make the thandai powder, just add some to a basic sponge cake batter. I used an eggless recipe this time, because my readers are always asking for eggless cake recipes during festivals. I used yogurt in place of eggs and it made for a soft cake with the perfect golden crumb. Plus, all the nuts and spices make it smell amazing. Simply irresistible!

I knew I wanted to decorate the cake with sprinkles, but we need to frost it first. Enter the fluffiest whipped cream cheese frosting you have ever laid eyes on. And do you see that light yellow tinge in the pic below? That’s from saffron, baby!

Oh, I had so much fun making this cake. Each component was developed as I went along. I began with the thandai mix, then the cake, and then this saffron frosting. When using saffron, you do not need a lot. I added just a pinch of saffron strands, maybe 20 or so. I used my mortar-pestle to pound them with a few spoons of sugar so that they would incorporate better with the cream cheese. And this is no ordinary cream cheese frosting. This is a light and whipped version. I hate that regular cream cheese frosting turns out runny unless you add a ton of powdered sugar. But that just makes it downright nasty (remember sickly sweet carrot cakes?). So my trick is to combine fresh whipped cream and cream cheese to keep the frosting fluffy and light. It works, give it a try.

Spread the frosting on the cooled cake. Make a few random swirl patterns while pretending that you are an artist painting on his canvas. And then, it’s sprinkle time!! Sprinkle ’em on, then sprinkle some more. Are you keeping count of the number of times I say “sprinkle” in this post? It’ll make for a lovely shots game 😉

This sheet cake cuts beautifully, as you can see. I’d suggest briefly refrigerating it to firm up before slicing. I have half of the cake stashed in my freezer now. I’ll take it out next week when the hubs comes back and I’ll update this post to let you know how it holds up.

But, it’s Holi. So just slice the cake, pack them, and gift to your friends. Spread some cheer, color and love, my friends.

Here is the recipe for this unique Thandai Sheet Cake With Saffron Frosting & Sprinkles.

Thandai Sheet Cake With Saffron Frosting

 

Save Print

Prep time

40 mins

Cook time

28 mins

Total time

1 hour 8 mins

 

Thandai mix is a fragrant mixture of nuts and spices used to make beverages and desserts. Here, this homemade thandai mix is used to make an eggless sheet cake. Decorated with saffron whipped cream cheese frosting and tons of colorful sprinkles, it makes for a stunning Holi dessert!

Author: Anjana Devasahayam

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: 13"x9" cake

You will need:

For Thandai Mix,

• Almonds - 12
• Pistachios - 12
• Cashew nuts - 8
• Watermelon seeds - 1 tbsp (if you can find it)
• Poppy seeds - 1 tbsp
• Green cardamom - 8-10 pods
• Fennel seeds - 1 tbsp
• Black peppercorns - 5-6
• Dried rose petals - 1 tbsp
• Saffron - ½ tsp

For Thandai Sheet Cake,

• All-purpose flour - 2 and ¾ cups
• Thandai mix powder - ¼ cup
• Baking powder - 3 tsp
• Baking soda - ¾ tsp
• Salt - ½ tsp
• Yogurt - ½ cup (use full-fat for best results)
• Vegetable oil - ¾ cup
• Sugar - 1½ cups
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• Rose water - ¼ tsp
• Lemon zest - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1 cup
• Lemon juice - 1 tbsp

For Saffron Frosting,

• Saffron - a big pinch, around 20 strands
• Fine granulated sugar - ½ cup
• Heavy cream - ⅔ cup, cold
• Cream cheese - 8 oz, softened
• Salt - a small pinch

For Decoration,

• Sprinkles - around 2-3 tbsp, assorted colors and shapes

How to:

1. Thandai Mix Powder - Coarsely powder all the ingredients. You can use an electric coffee/spice grinder or a clean mortar-pestle. Store thandai mix in a clean jar and use as needed.
2. Thandai Sheet Cake: Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg.F. Lightly grease and flour the sides of a 13x9x2 baking pan. Line bottom with parchment paper and grease lightly with oil. Set aside.
3. Take the flour, thandai mix, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk thoroughly to combine. Set aside.
4. In a measuring cup, combine the milk and lemon juice. Set aside for a couple of minutes.
5. In a large mixing bowl, add the yogurt, oil and sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until combined, then increase the speed and beat well for 2 minutes.
6. Add vanilla extract, rose-water and lemon zest. Beat briefly to combine.
7. Tip in the dry ingredients slowly in two parts, alternating with the milk and lemon juice mixture.
8. Scrape the sides and beat on medium-speed until just combined. Do not over-mix. Batter will be thick.
9. Fill the prepared baking pan with batter and smooth the top with a spatula. Tap the pan a couple of times on the counter-top to get rid of any air bubbles.
10. Bake for 28-32 minutes or until the cake passes the toothpick test.
11. Remove cake pan from oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove and cool the cake completely on a wire rack before frosting. Cake can be wrapped tightly and refrigerated for a couple of days before frosting.
12. Saffron Frosting: Make the frosting while the cake is in the oven. Crush together the saffron strands and a tablespoon of sugar using a mortar-pestle or electric grinder.
13. Add crushed saffron sugar and remaining sugar to a cold mixing bowl. Add cold heavy cream and beat on low-speed for a minute or two until the sugar and saffron is throughly combined with the cream. You will see that the cream takes on a light yellow color from the saffron.
14. Now increase the speed and beat on high-speed until soft peaks form.
15. Divide the block of cream cheese into 4 or 5 parts. With the beater on medium-speed, add a portion of cream cheese at a time and beat thoroughly to combine with the whipped cream.
16. Sprinkle salt and beat until the frosting is smooth and fluffy. Use immediately or store in a jar in the refrigerator until needed. You can lightly whip the frosting again before using.
17. Decorating: Spread whipped saffron frosting all over the cooled thandai sheet cake. Make pretty swirl patterns with a spatula or spoon.
18. Decorate liberally with colorful sprinkles. Cut, serve and enjoy.
19. Keep leftover cake covered in the refrigerator.

Notes:

1. Store any leftover thandai mix powder in a clean, lidded jar. But feel free to scale the recipe up to make a larger batch. Mix 2 tbsp thandai powder in a glass of cold milk for a refreshing thandai beverage.
2. If you are not interested in an eggless cake, replace the yogurt with 3 large eggs at room temperature and reduce the baking soda to ¼ tsp.
3. I find that a neutral oil like vegetable oil gives the best results in egg-free recipes. But feel free to substitute will the same amount of softened butter.

3.5.3229

Don’t forget to PIN & SAVE this recipe for later.

Have you tried thandai? Do you love sprinkles? Do try this unique thandai sheet cake with sprinkles and surprise your loved ones. Don’t forget to tag me on social media (use @happyandharried) if you do give it a try.

Go here for more Holi/Indian Festival desserts and recipes.

If you like this post, please follow this blog via Email to get post updates (find subscription box on the right side of this page, or scroll down in mobile version).

Stay connected on social media, PIN and SHARE this post.

Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter | Google+

I am sharing this over at Fiesta Friday.