Lemon cake with sabja seeds

I read about this cake today in Hindustan Times Cafe in the Lifestyle section. I thought to myself that since I had sabja seeds, why not try this cake.Basil seeds are called sabja in Hindi or Urdu. I love faloodas & for a hot tempered person like me, sabja seeds are a good source to keep me cool.

So, I started making up my mind to replace the ingredients stated in the recipe. The recipe used yoghurt as an egg replacer & it  used maida.I used flaxseed powder soaked in lukewarm water & applesauce made by pressure baking the apples  in cooker as the egg replacers instead of yoghurt or dahi.I replaced maida with whole wheat flour or atta.I would have loved to add 1/4 cup maida in combination with whole wheat flour as such combination gives good texture  .I had run out of maida ..so used whole wheat flour.I used the little bit of Amul butter leftover in the refrigerator . I was sure, the omega 3 fatty acids in flaxseeds would more than make up for any  deficiency of  oil or butter

I converted the ingredients given in recipe  from gms to cups.

Ingredients : 1.5 cups whole wheat flour, 0.5 cups sugar, 1tbsp Amul butter, 1 cup Applesauce(  2 apples which were pressure baked to make applesauce by removing seeds & peeling off skin.), 1 tbsp flax seed powder mixed in 3 tbsp warm water & left for more than 15 minutes to get a gelatinous liquid, 1 tsp baking soda, 2tsp baking powder, lemon juice of 1.5 lemons , 1tsp lemon zest,1 tbsp sabja seeds or basil seeds.

Method : Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade for 10 minutes.

Mix all dry ingredients together. Mix whole wheat flour, baking powder & baking soda many times with fork or spoon. Keep aside.

Mix all liquid ingredients with sugar.Mix flaxseed water gelatinous mix with applesauce, lemon juice, butter,lemon zest & sugar. I have observed that mixing sugar with liquid ingredients helps increase moisture content during baking.Keep aside.

Line a baking dish with butter paper & keep aside.

Mix the liquid mix into the dry whole wheat baking powder-soda mixture.Mix such that no lumps remain. This will be the cake batter. Pour the cake batter on to the butter paper lined in the baking dish. I sprinkled the sabja seeds on the top of the cake . And this led to uneven distribution. I should have mixed the sabja seeds in the batter.

Bake the cake in oven at 180 degrees centigrade or till a toothpik inserted into  the cake comes out clean.

To ensure that cake batter has been baked fully, I microwave ( in microwave mode ) the baked cake for 5-10 minutes in my convection cum microwave oven.

Let the cake cool in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Remove the cake from oven. Let it cool outside the oven  for 25-30 minutes.Take a plate & put the baking dish upside down on to the plate.  Turn the cake upwards now so that the sabja topping is on top. Cut the cake into desirable shapes & serve.

The cake was fluffy though lemon flavour was mild .It had a nice crunch of the sabja seeds topping.