Corn Meal Cake | Maize Flour Orange Cake | Yellow Corn Flour Cake | Corn Meal Pressure Cooker Cake

Long time ago I had posted a sponge cake using corn starch the cake turned out super hit, the cake had a very fluffy texture but was dry and had a very crumbly texture. But using corn meal the cake had a better texture and was even better taste wise! I wanted to share this recipe long ago but somehow could not! Finally after a few reminders from readers and friends :P here we go. Okay now! What is corn meal and what is corn starch? I'm not going to dig in deep into the science about how they are processed or obtained, but here are the differences by which you can identify these two ingredients! Corn meal is yellow in color while corn starch is white, corn meal is coarse whereas corn starch is the finest flour. Corn starch is used as thickening agents in soups (we also use it in preparing nice crispy fried food like 65 recipes too right ;) ) does not have any flavor while corn meal is used for making cakes, breads, rotis! Corn starch does not have any goodness in it while corn meal has vitamins and proteins abundantly. And did you know that maize is a millet? Its gluten free and too good for your health, has a beautiful natural yellow color, also this is a pressure cooker cake which can be prepared with ease and yet had an unbelievable fluffy texture, next time you spot this maize flour do give a try its worth it! I've also shared the oven method do check it below!

INGREDIENTS

Makes one small 250 gm

1. Corn meal / Maize flour / Makkacholam maavu / Yellow Corn Flour - 100 grams
2. Sugar - 100 grams 
3. Egg - 1
4. Milk - 100 ml or as needed 
5. Orange juice - 1/4 cup 
6. Baking powder - 1 teaspoon 
7. Baking soda - 1/8 teaspoon 
8. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon 
9. Orange essence - 1 teaspoon 
10. Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon 
11. Butter - 75 grams  
12. Oil - 1 tablespoon 

PREPARATION METHOD

PRESSURE COOKER METHOD

• Take a pressure cooker and place the separator plate into it and close the cooker with its as shown in the pic. Place this set up on flame and preheat the cooker for about 10 minutes on high flame. Do not place the whistle / regulator, you will not need it. 

• Take a cake pan of diameter 6 inches and grease it with butter or oil and dust some flour and tap off excess flour. Then place a butter paper or parchment paper inside the pan and keep aside. 

• Mix Corn meal (or yellow corn flour) along with baking powder, baking soda, salt and mix well. (Dry mix)

• Beat butter and sugar together using a beater until light for about three minutes. 

• Then add one egg at room temperature and beat well until creamy. (Wet mix)

• Add both essence and oil now and beat well for a minute.

• Now add the flour mix (dry mix) little by little into the wet mixture and fold in (just mix with a spatula do not use a beater)
• After adding flour mix add orange juice then mix well, now add milk little by little and adjust the consistency to a thick batter consistency if its too thick add some more milk and adjust consistency (it should be a little thicker than dosa batter)

• Now pour the prepared batter into the greased pan until the cake pan s 3/4th full. 

• Now open the cooker and place the cake pan with batter carefully on the separator plate and close the lid. (whistle or regulator is not needed throughout the procedure so keep it away)

• Switch the flame to low mode and cook for 25 to 30 minutes on low flame. Check after 20 minutes to see if your cake has got cooked. 
• Leave it aside until it cools down then run a knife around the sides of the cake and invert the pan. 

• Cut the cake and serve! 

OTG METHOD

• Preheat an oven to 175 degrees centigrade for 10 minutes. (refer oven settings below)
• Now grease a small pan with butter (diameter 6 inches) and dust with corn meal then place a small butter paper at the bottom and keep aside. 
• Prepare the batter as I have mentioned above and pour into the cake pan.
• Place into the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes (175 degrees) for 20 to 30 minutes or until the cake gets baked. (to know this insert a toothpick in the center and see, if there's no batter sticking to it, it means the cake is done, if not bake for 5 - 10 more minutes)

Oven / OTG Settings

• Heater / Rod select - Both
• Shelf placement - Center 
• Temperature - 175°C 
• Baking time - 25 to 30 minutes
• Preheat Oven - 10 minutes

TIP 1: You can make the same cake with different flavors just add different essence like pineapple or just make a plain cake by skipping orange essence and orange juice. 

TIP 2: Since Corn meal is coarse adding oil makes it moist. After the cake cools down store in an air tight box as it becomes dry easily. 

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