Paneer cake or chena cake (low fat cottage cheese cake)

Today morning when I checked my refrigerator, there were 4 half litre milk packets lying around and I was immediately confused not knowing what to do with them 🙁 I wanted to make something quick and easy without butter 😀 It suddenly occurred to me that there is something called Paneer cake (cottage cheese cake) or chena cake (Orissa special recipe). I immediately prepared fresh paneer (cottage cheese) – you can check my homemade paneer recipe here. And in no time, the paneer cake (cottage cheese cake) was ready !!

Paneer cake as the name suggests uses lots of paneer. So, be cautious when you eat this. Do take this in small servings as it can go high on calories and fat. I call this low fat because I used Amul toned milk for this recipe that is low on fat.

Fresh homemade paneer would work best for this recipe, but you can by all means use the store bought as well. Just crumble the paneer very well before making this cake.

 

 

The traditional chena cake (cottage cheese cake) uses some sugar for a caramelised look on the cake. Also, cardamom powder is used in the cake dough. I avoided both – I made this for the first time and did not want to complicate it with caramel, and I personally do not like cardamom in cakes. But, if you like you can add 1/2 tsp of cardamom powder to the paneer.

This cake is very simple to make provided you have paneer available. I recommend some fruit sauce or syrup over this cake while serving as the cake might be a bit dry without it.

 

 

I like paneer a lot and there are several paneer recipes in the blog – dry tawa paneer, paneer tarts, mutter paneer, paneer dum biryani, kadai paneer.

For more cake recipes, check these – marble cake, banana cake, orange cake, strawberry pie, apple slice cake, chocolate cake, microwave cake.

 

Makes: 9” diameter cake

Baking time: 30-40 mins Preparation time: 10 mins

 

 

Ingredients:

Paneer or cottage cheese – 2 cups (preferably fresh paneer, check my homemade paneer recipe)

Sugar – 1 cup (blended to a smooth powder)

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Beaten curd – 1 tbsp

Salt – ¼ tsp

Semolina or suji or upma rava – ¼ – ½ cup

Whole wheat flour or maida (all purpose flour) – 1 tbsp

Butter or oil – for greasing the baking tin

Fruit syrup or fruit sauce – strawberry or any fruit of your choice (for topping the cake)

 

Procedure:

1. In a large bowl, crumble the paneer well.
2. Add the baking powder, salt, sugar, whole wheat flour and suji to the paneer.
3. Mix everything well and knead the mixture into smooth dough. It should not be like chapati dough, texture should be similar to gulab jamun or rasmalai dough.
4. Add or reduce the suji depending on how dense or crumbly you would like the cake. Less suji makes it crumbly, more will make it dense. I used ½ cup suji as I needed a dense one.
5. Grease a cake tin or baking tray with butter or oil.
6. Sprinkle some flour all inside the greased tin, also on the edges.
7. Place the dough in the cake tin and with a gentle hand press it so that it is even and well spread in the tin.
8. Beat the tin once to remove any gaps or air.
9. Bake this in a pre heated oven at 150°C for 30-40 minutes or until the edges of cake turn brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
10. Remove from oven and place onto a wire rack to cool to room temperature. 

 

 

11. Top it with any fruit syrup and serve warm.

 

 

Note:

1. The cake can be stored in the refrigerator for upto a week.
2. I used strawberry fruit sauce, you can use orange, any berries, mango, pineapple.
3. Freshly prepared paneer will work perfect for this recipe, but store bought ones will work good too.
4. The fruit syrup can be made by simmering strawberry along with a tsp of sugar till it reaches a syrup like consistency.

 

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