Last weekend, I attended a Golu celebration at a friend’s house. Golu is a unique tradition observed during Navratri, a major Hindu festival that spans nine days and nights in honor of the divine feminine energy. While Navratri is celebrated in different ways across India, in Tamil Nadu, it is marked by the Golu display—an artistic arrangement of dolls and figurines on tiered steps, symbolizing different aspects of life, mythology, and spirituality.

I had planned to make Ottolenghi’s Pistachio and Rosewater Semolina cake, a favorite I often turn to from this NYT Cooking recipe. I loved the idea of making this cake for this occasion because ingredients like cardamom and rosewater are also often used in Indian desserts, and I thought those would bring back fond memories for those attending the event. But I remembered that my friend and her family might be observing Navratri and avoiding eggs during the festival. Sure enough, they were, so I decided to get creative, reimagining the cake’s familiar, fragrant flavors into an eggless version, capturing the essence of the dish while honoring their dietary preferences.

I live in California and I thought that there can be no better way to add fruity freshness to the cake than incorporating some strawberries into the recipe

Recipe

Yields: 10-12 servings Prep time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients

Cake

• 340 ml Milk
• 10 ml apple cider
• 350 gm granulated sugar
• 112 gm yogurt
• 240 gm butter (melted)
• 15 ml vanilla essence
• 15 ml rosewater
• 125 gm raw pistachios
• 330 gm all purpose flour
• 45 gm cornstarch
• 12-14 gm baking power
• 3gm salt
• 1tsp ground cardamom

Strawberry Compote

• 450 gm strawberry
• 50gm granulated sugar
• 30 ml lemon juice
• 8 gms cornstarch
• 15 ml rosewater
• 1tsp ground cardamom

Icing and Cake Decoration

• 230gm mascarpone cheese chilled
• 115 gm confectioners sugar
• 240gm heavy whipping cream chilled
• 15 ml rosewater
• 4-5 strawberries
• 60gm raw pistachios thinly sliced

Method

Bake the Cake

1. Lets start by making the cake. This cake can be made by dividing the batter into 3 8-inch cake pans to bake 3 thin cakes, or by baking 1 think cake in a 9 inch pan and dividing it into layers. For the 3 cake option, preheat the oven at 350F and for the single 9 inch option, pre-heat the open to 325F.
2. Grease the pan(s) and place a round parchment paper at the bottom. If you are not using a springform cake pans, you might consider lining the sides with parchement paper as well. It will help with each removal of the cake.
3. Combine milk and apple cider vinegar and let it set for 2-3 minutes to curdle a little
4. Grind the 125gm raw pistachios in a food processor or blender, ensure that is finely ground but doen’t become pistachio butter. Set aside.
5. Combine all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Sift the mixture twice and set aside.
6. Add sugar, yogurt, butter, vanilla essence and rose water to the milk vinegar mixture and whisk well to combine.
7. Next fold in the dry ingredients. It is okay to use the paddle attachment on a stand-mixer to do this step but ensure not to over mix the batter. The result should be smooth batter.
8. Divide the mixture into 3 pans or just pour it into a single pan. If you bake in 3 pans, bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees F. If you bake in a single pan, bake at 325 degrees F for 60-75 minutes.
9. Let the cake(s) cool before you start icing

Make the Strawberry Compote

1. Make the strawberry compote while the cake is baking. It needs to cool before you start icing.
2. Cut the strawberries roughly into 1/4-inch chunks.
3. Mix lemon juice, rosewater, cornstarch, and cardamom powder.
4. Combine strawberries, sugar, and liquid mix in a pot and cook on medium heat
5. Cook for around 10-15 min until the strawberries cook and soften. The final consistency will be a little runny and will thicken a little as it cools down.

Make the icing

Please refer to mascarpone frosting blog post here. I found all the tips about freezing the mixing bowl and chilling the mascarpone cream and heavy whipping cream very useful. I got the mascarpone cheese from Whole Foods and it worked out fine.

1. Set up the stand-mixer with the whisk attachment.
2. Start by mixing mascarpone, confectioners sugar, and rosewater at medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Add the heavy whipping cream and turn up the stand-mixer speed to high. Whip for few minutes until you see medium peaks.

Final assembly

1. If the cake was baked a single cake, cut the cake horizontally in the center to create two equal parts.
2. Spread a layer of strawberry compote followed by thin layer of mascarpone frosting between each layer.
3. Ice the top and sides with mascarpone frosting
4. Cut 4-5 fresh strawberries into half and finely chop the pistachios.
5. Finish the decoration with fresh strawberries and pistachios

Notes

• Baking the cake at a lower temperature when baking one thick cake is to ensure an even cook and not have a dry brown outer layer and a soft or undercooked inner layer.
• I do not own a food processer, so I just pulsed the pistachios in my Nutribullet blender and it turned out fine. The key is not run the blender continuously or you will end up with either pistachio butter or unevenly ground pistachios.
• Make sure your baking powder is not old. I have made the mistake of using expired baking powder and ended up with sub-optimal results.
• Following are some of the recipes that I referred to in order to come up with this recipe:
  • Vegan pistachio cake recipe by Nora cooks – I really did not have a need to make a vegan cake, so instead of buying things like vegan butter and soy milk, I just used dairy products
  • Mascarpone frosting by Self Proclaimed Foodie – I did make this cake on very hot day, so all the tips in this blog post were super useful
• If you have leftover frosting and strawberry compote, you can use that to make quick strawberry tiramisu (Detailed recipe to follow in a few days)