Kulfi Cake

Kulfi is an eggless Indian ice cream usually flavored with nuts and cardamom. My problem is that I do not like ice cream. Just don't like the texture. Give me some cake with my ice cream and I am a happy girl. Recently, I was at Costco and they were giving out samples of kulfi. I had the cardamom flavored sample and thought, "I wish I had some cake to go with my kulfi". I decided to come up with a way to enjoy kulfi and cake together.  I came up with Kulfi Cake! It's an almond cardamom sponge cake soaked in kulfi mixture. Sort of like Tres Leches Cake having a baby with Kulfi. Yummy! It was a big hit with my lactose intolerant husband and kids. My poor husband paid the price (or rather I paid the price) that night! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
FOR THE SPONGE CAKE

1 cup All-purpose Flour

1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Ground Cardamom (You can usually find it in the spice aisle. If not, try your local Indian Grocery Store. It will be cheaper if you purchase it from an Indian Grocery Store.)

1/4 cup Blanched Almonds, chopped

5 whole Eggs, separated

1 cup Sugar, divided

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/3 cup Milk

FOR THE KULFI

1 can Evaporated Milk

1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk

1/4 cup Heavy Cream

Cardamom is usually added to the Kulfi mixture but I found it easier to add ground cardamom to the cake instead.

FOR THE TOPPING:

1 pint Heavy Cream, For Whipping

3 Tablespoons Sugar

1/4 cup Pistachios, chopped or any fruit of your choice

Directions:
 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 x 2 pan with Pam or any vegetable spray until coated.

Add the flour, salt, cardamom and baking powder to a bowl and using a whisk, mix. Now add the almonds and mix with a spoon.

Separate the eggs. To the yolks, add 3/4 cup sugar and beat until it is light in color. Add milk, vanilla and mix. Now add that to the flour and mix it all together. The cardamom smell should be hitting your senses about now.

Take the egg whites and beat until soft peaks form. Add the remainder of sugar and beat until peaks are stiff but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the flour mixture until there are no streaks of white. Do not over mix.

Pour cake mixture into your prepared pan. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until a toothpick or fork inserted in the middle comes out clean.

While your cake is baking combine all milks from the Kulfi ingredients.

After the cake has cooled, pierce the top of the cake with a fork or a knife. Do this across the cake. This will help the cake absorb the yummy kulfi mixture we made. Now pour the kulfi milk mixture across the cake. Make sure you get every part of the cake. The cake will soak up the milk as you are pouring. Let it sit for 30 minutes.

Now take 1 pint of heavy cream and add 3 tbs sugar. Whip it until it is nice and thick. Be carefull not to overwhip otherwise you will have butter and not whipped cream. That has happened to me. Spread across cake. Decorate with crushed pistachios or any fruit of your choice. I added pistachios.

Variation:
For a twist, you can use mango pulp instead of the condensed milk. Make sure to strain.