Thursday 30 June 2011

Kums (Cardamom Flavoured Sponge Cake)




Kums/Kumsi in nothing but simple sponge cake flavoured with cardamoms. Kums/Kumsi is a famous snack/cake in Malabar areas and is served at tea time. It is not iced or frosted, but is eaten by dunking in Milk tea. Traditionally, in the olden times, the batter is churned for a prolonged time with a wooden hand held whisk called ‘manthu’. It is then baked on ancient hob made of stones, arranged in a specific style to hold the dish on top. Dry wood and coconut husk is lit underneath the vessel, between the stones as source of heat. Some husk is also lit on top of the vessel to give brown colour on top of teh cake. Lot of work goes into making sponge cakes in the olden times when electric mixers were not so popular and I guess it tasted better too. That’s the little I know about how we make Kums back home when I was a little kid.


The cake is soft, spongy and light and uses no fat or raising agents. It has subtle cardamom flavour that takes away any odd eggy smell off and makes it different from regular sponge cakes. The volume is obtained by beating the eggs and sugar until it is tripled in volume, on high speed. If you want to make regular sponge, just substitute vanilla essence for cardamoms.



Kums (Cardamom Flavoured Sponge Cake)
Preparation time:15 minutes
Baking time: 30-35 minutes
serves 6-8 people
 
Ingredients:
5 large eggs (335g)
¾  cup caster sugar
7-8 green cardamoms, ground to fine powder
1 cup plain flour

Preparations:
1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius. Grease and line 9 inch pan.

2. In a bowl whisk the eggs sugar and on high speed for about 10 minutes until thick and pale and leaves a thick trail when the beaters are lifted.

3.  Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, being careful not to knock out much air. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for about 30 minutes or when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Turn the cake on the wire rack, peel the parchment paper and leave to cool completely. Serve along with tea or coffee.

N.B: As the cake doesn’t use any fat, it doesn’t keep very well. You can store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. If you want to make regular sponge cake, you can substitute cardamoms with a teaspoon of vanilla essence, orange rind or lemon rind.

This post goes off to Kerala Kitchen Event hosted By Magpies Recipes

38 comments:

Unknown said...

Cake looks very moist and spongy! Cardamom is always a fav. spice for me - reminds me of India :)

My Kitchen Antics said...

you know what my problem with sponge cakes are? THe moment i take it out of the oven they just sin..i mean it just dips in the centre :(
That description of how it was traditionally made was very interesting

Binys Recipes said...

Dats perfect shab...love the cardamom flavour in cakes

Unknown said...

I can get the flavour here...looks super yumm and nice clicks too

Sravs said...

wow cake looks so wonderful !! perfectly baked !! loved it !! well presented too !!

Miriam Korula said...

wow...wat a perfect looking cake shabs...n' ur cake stand looks so cute...lovely snaps...:)

Hamaree Rasoi said...

Sponge cake looks wonderful. Excellent preparation. Yum Yum!!

Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi

Lena Jayadev said...

wowww... this looks awesome Shabs.. snap is too gud..
then, i had tasted one kubbus tupe thing from my friends place,,.. it was so soft bt with wheat.. c told its a speciality of mmuslims.. c s a pakisthani.. bt nt telling the recipe as c doubt that i wl shareit :)...
just told its the same procedure of our vellayappam bt with wheat flour..
if you knw hw to make it, plz let me knw..:)

Divya Kudua said...

Just today I read an article about Kannur and Thalassery being the taste capitals of Kerala coz so many new dishes are born there day after day.I am in awe seeing the variety here too.Seeing this cake for the first time Shabs.Explained so well and the pics speak volumes too!!

Nithya said...

Wow.. this is a beautiful and flavorful cake :) Love the smell of cardamom and should have been a pleasure while it was in the oven!! Got to give it a try soon for all the temptation :)

Unknown said...

wow, that presentation looks so pretty, love the cake recipe :)

Priya Suresh said...

Wat a beautiful and super moist flavourful cake, lovely presentation and wonderful slice..

Sushma Mallya said...

Cake has come out so beautifully shabs ...lovely clicks!

Anonymous said...

hi. I am new to baking. i tried your above recipie. but i guess i made some mistake. My cake dint rise. It was compact and little hard. still it was tasty to eat but no cake like. could you please tell me where did i go wrong.

Deepthi KR said...

wow that's really lovely cake!!!!adorable pics!!!
Happy Blogging!!!!
Food Blog News Daily
Good Food Recipes

Shabs.. said...

Thanks all for the comments:)

Hi anon,I am not sure why that happened,cos I have always got it well. Did u beat the sugar and egg mixture for long time with electric beater? Was the oven temperature set right?...these are the only two reasons I could find for this recipe to go wrong. Sorry about that.

Julie said...

wow..yummy sponge cake,looks soft n moist..
First time here,lovely recipes here..
Hope u'll visit my blog too
http://juls-tryntaste.blogspot.com/
Thanx
julie

divya said...

Omg, mouthwatering here, such a delicious and tempting...

chef and her kitchen said...

Such a delicious looking flavorful cake...looks yumm n beautiful cliks..:)

Sarah said...

this is so interesting... i;ve never tasted kums .. but i would love to now after reading ur post :)

Gayathri Ramdas Sreekanth said...

Didn't know in our very own Kerala and Malabar, such authentic cake recipes existed..And what better than a cardamom flavour..Your cake looks so perfectly porous and moist !

Indu said...

Hi chechi ,

Would you help me out here pls ..No matter what I do , my cake ends up not getting cooked in the middle . I sometimes bake it to the point the crust gets almost burnt , but no luck with the middle . I use a MW and bake in the Grill n Convection , pre-heating for about 15 minutes. What am I doing wrong here ? :(

Indu

Hasna said...

wow shabee... chaayayil mukki mukki kazhikkan thonnunnu... :) we call it muttappola .. ur pix..muuah.. u made it luk gorgeous!!

Hannah said...

Hello I'm a new blogger from Philippines. Here's my blog. :)
http://eaternalfeast.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

can the mixing part done manually wtihout an electric beater?

Shabs.. said...

@Anon, I always did it with electric mixer. It would take really long time if you are doing it with hand, as even with electric it takes good 10 minutes. But you can do it.

Shabs.. said...

@Indu,sorry for the late response. If you are baking in the microwave, never use grill for baking cakes at all. Just use convection for baking. Also try baking by reducing the temperature by 10-15 degrees celcius than mentioned in the recipe. I think the temperature is too high, that is why it gets burnt outside and uncooked in the middle. Hope this helps.

Manju said...

i love cardamom flavored anything! ive gotta make this now..

Namitha said...

Didn't know this name before :-) It looks absolutely wonderful and cardamom is my fav in baked goods these days ;-)

Deepa George said...

slurp!

Sana F said...

This looks so yummy....i can imagine the aroma of cardamoms emanating from the cake !!
I am relativly new to blogging and i have been impressed by this blog ! You have got some really good dishes !
Chk out my blog too
http://sanascooking.blogspot.com/

fathima said...

hi my cakes doesnt brown on top whats wrong?

fathima said...

hi my cakes doesnt brown on top whats wrong?

Shabs.. said...

HI fathima, how did u bake your cake?....I think it only browns in oven and microwave with convection heating.

Taste Melanger said...

No fat and still so soft & nice..great recipe for everyday cake!! Enjoy your vacation.

Anonymous said...

Hi Shabs, I found you blog thru my good friend Neelu (http://creatingmemorieswithtna.blogspot.com) and tried it yesterday with a few tweaks of my own. I am SO glad I found it bcos this is a taste I have been craving since years and had no idea what it was called and how to make it. I just remember eating it sometime and loving the taste :) Thanks again. Love your blog!

priya said...

When to add cardamom...pls b specific

Shabs said...

Add cardamom at the end while folding the flour.

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