Nagercoil Sponge Cake - Panji Cake

 One of the unique snacks from Nagercoil and my younger days was the "panji cake".  Panji means cotton and we used to call them Panji Cake when we were little. I have since figured out it is a Sponge Cake - and it is spongy, airy, light, with just a touch of sweetness, yellow and shaped like a star with 6 rounded ends. As kids we were excited to get these treats whenever we visited my patti in Nagercoil.  For some reason no other bakery in the South sold them.  So it was and still is, very uniquely Nagercoilian. 

Of course I taught my children to fall in love with this too and after my last trip, I met the guy who runs Queen's Bakery in Nagercoil and requested him for the recipe.  He obliged - and wrote down the ingredients on a piece of receipt. After coming back to Melbourne, I was on the hunt for this unique mould - and finally between me and my daughter we discovered these fluted moulds that have done the job perfectly.  This was an experiment - and I am thrilled that the first attempt came out just perfect.

Ingredients:

Caster Sugar – 250 grams

Eggs, 9 nos, separated to yolks and whites

Plain flour – 250 grams

Colour – yellow, a few drops

vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Baking powder – 1 teaspoon

150 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C and grease the pans generously. 

Sift the flour and baking powder three times and set aside. Place the egg yolks and sugar in an electric mixer and whisk on high speed for 12–15 minutes or until pale, thick and tripled in volume. Add in the vanilla essence and yellow food colouring and give it another whisk.

Sift half the flour mixture over the egg mixture and using a large metal spoon, gently fold to combine. Repeat with the remaining flour. 

Place the egg whites in an electric mixer and beat till light and fluffy and soft peaks form. Incorporate the egg whites and butter and gently fold to combine. 

Bake in a 170 deg C oven till skewer comes out clean.

This is what the original cake looks like: