Milk Cake

A cake only in name, this is a traditional Indian sweet, made by cooking milk and sugar and other good things on a slow heat for a very long time, until you are left with a delicious granular crumbly mass which is white on the outside and has a dark, golden brown, almost chocolate-y heart. Before the eggless cake was invented, milk cake was often used as a substitute for birthday cakes in non-egg eating households.

Yesterday, my sister, that incorrigible sweetoholic and cook extraordinaire, gave me this incredibly easy recipe for milk cake in the microwave. While not as granular as the real thing, its rich and creamy and excellent served warm with some icecream.

Ingredients-
-- 1 cup 2% fat milk
-- 1 cup sugar
-- 4 oz cream cheese
-- I stick unsalted butter
-- 3 and 1/2 cup nonfat dried milk
-- seeds from 4-5 green cardamoms, powdered

Okay, so this is not a list of diet foods. But the serving size is quite small and Very satisfying!

-- Heat milk, sugar and butter in a large, deep microwave container until the butter melts.
-- Whisk in the cream cheese and dried milk. Mix in the powdered cardamom.
-- Now, start microwaving the mixture. Every two minutes (or less), it will rise and threaten to bubble over. You have to watch it, hit stop when its threatening to spill, stir it around with a spatula until it settles back down, and repeat. Do this for about 6-8 minutes total, until the mixture stops rising and turns a golden brown in color.
-- Let it stand in the container. The heat will turn the center a darker, richer color.
-- Serve with an icecream scoop or cut into squares.