Vanilla maida cake, ukkarai & kaja ~ diwali sweets

Ingredients

1)Vanilla Maida Cake:

• Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups
• Sugar - 4 cups
• Ghee - 1 1/2 cup
• Vanilla essence - 1 tspn
• Food color - a pinch
• Water - 1 cup

2)Ukkarai:

• 1/2 cup tuvar dal
• 1/2 cup chana dal or use 1 cup of chana dal alone
• 1 cup jaggery
• 3 tablespoons ghee
• Elaichi powder
• Roasted cashew - few
• Grated coconut - 3 tablespoons

3)Kaja ~ Andhra Special:

• Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups
• Salt - a pinch
• Baking soda - 1 big pinch
• Ghee - 2 tablespoons+ 2 tablespoons
• Rice flour - 3 tablespoons
• Water - 3/4 cup
• Oil to deep fry
• Syrup
• Sugar -1 cup heaped
• Water - 3/4 cup

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Preparation

• 1)Vanilla Maida Cake:
  Heat ghee in a kadai. When it is hot, stir in the maida and switch off the stove. The maida gets cooked in the warm ghee. In another kadai, prepare the sugar syrup with 4 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water. When the syrup starts bubbling, add a tablespoon of milk. Let it continue to simmer. The scum will float on top and gently remove with a spoon. The sugar syrup should be of two string consistency, which is very important for this recipe. To check the consistency, wet your fingers and then take a drop of the syrup on your index finger. If stretched between your index and thumb fingers, you should be able to see two threads. If the syrup cooks beyond two thread is al so fine but not less, since much cooking is not done post that stage. Add vanilla essence and food color to the syrup. Stir in the maida+ghee mixture. And cook for two minutes till it comes together as one whole lump. Once maida is added to the syrup, you should act quickly. Once the sugar syrup has reached consistency, swtich off the stove. Mix in the mixture and give vigourus stir so that it blends in. Then heat the stove again. Grease a plate with sufficient ghee and also a flat based cup to level the mix once it is transferred to the plate. Since the cake has a soft texture, it doesn't set quickly. So you have time to level it perfectly. But you need to transfer the mix to the plate immediately from the kadai else the last portion left in the kadai tend to set faster leaving some granule texture to that part of the cake.
• 2)Ukkarai:
  Roast both the dals till light brown. Pressure cook till it is soft and not mushy. Drain the excess water. Pulse the cooked dal along with coconut to a smooth paste. Heat jaggery in 1/4 cup of water. Make syrup till it reaches the soft ball consistency. A drop of the syrup dropped in a tablespoon of water,should be able to roll into a soft ball. Stir in the ground dal + coconut paste. Keep stirring till the jaggery syrup is full absorbed by the dal and it turns dry. Add ghee at intervals. Mix in roasted cashew and cardamom powder. The texture is soft but not sticky.
• 3)Kaja ~ Andhra Special:
  Mix maida, salt, baking soda and ghee. Add water to make a pliable dough. Leave the dough for an hour. Resting time for the dough is essential to get good results. In a bowl mix together rice flour and ghee.It should be of spreadable consistency. Pinch of a ping pong sized dough. Roll into a chappathi. Spread the rice flour + ghee paste on it. Place another chapathi on it. Fold it from one end. Lightly press the edges so that it sticks and doesn't open up. Cut intp 1 inch long pieces. Slightly press them down to flatten the pieces. Deep fry the pieces in moderate heat. Don't heat the oil to smoking point and fry in high flame. The inside layers will not get cooked.