Kayani Bakery and the Mawa Cake.

Whenever we had guests visiting us from out of town they had things they needed to do, places they had to visit and certain things they absolutely had to take back. One of these that came under all three categories was a visit to the Kayani Bakery on East Street in Camp. If you are a visitor to Pune and you return home without a bag containing a Kayani cake, a box of Shrewsbury biscuits and a bag of wine biscuits, it is safe to say you’d be in the doghouse for at least a week. The Kayani bakery has been a Pune landmark since it was established by brothers Hormuz and Khodayar Irani in 1955. The Shrewsbury biscuit, which is Kayani’s flagship product, is quite possibly the most delicious biscuit you will ever eat. Just opening the pink box to reveal the line of biscuits embossed with the KB logo is a near orgasmic experience. But dipping it in tea and eating is like an orgy in your mouth that will definitely take you there. A Kayani product will never fail to put you in a great mood. After all, most of their products are essentially tons of butter and sugar with barely enough flour to hold it all together. But no one does it better than Kayani. The other notable Kayani product is the Mawa cake. A ten inch button of goodness wrapped in a line of butter paper, it melts in your mouth and requires extreme amounts of will power to not polish it off in one sitting. There’s not a household in Pune that doesn’t have a Kayani product in their pantry at any given time. And with the outside chance one does come across such a household, the goodies are probably in their bellies, which mean that it’s time to go to East Street and stand in line for some more.

Ingredients
1 cup Unsalted Butter (softened)
1 1/4 cups granulated Sugar
4 Eggs
1 tbsp Vanilla
2 cups all purpose Flour (maida)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Milk

Method
Pre-heat oven to 350º F
Beat butter in a large bowl till soft and fluffy
Add sugar and beat till fluffy (about 4 min)
Add eggs 1 at a time and keep beating making the batter as fluffy as you can
Stir in vanilla and milk
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into the batter and continue to beat until blended completely
Grease a baking pan with butter and spread the batter evenly
Bake for exactly 1 hr and 5 min (Or until it passes the toothpick test)
Remove from oven and allow it to cool for 10 min
Invert pan to release cake on to serving dish