This whole wheat jaggery cake is a healthier take on the classic pound cake. This delightful cake is moist, light, and airy and a perfect companion for your evening tea!
What if I tell you that you can bake an amazingly delicious cake that requires less than 10 minutes to make the batter? What if I say the ingredients you need makes it much healthier than a regular pound cake? You would find it difficult to believe, isn’t it? This whole wheat jaggery cake is all that!
This recipe from the uber-talented Shreya of Sugar Dust – Dessert Amore is a keeper. Many of the recipes on this blog are usually the ‘take-it-easy’ version of authentic home recipes. I tailor the recipes I get from my friends, their moms and grand moms just a little to make it easier for you to cook. But this whole wheat jaggery cake is all Shreya’s. You are going to fall in love with this cake.
About this whole wheat jaggery cake
We are not using regular flour or sugar. Instead, we have healthier calories from whole wheat flour and jaggery. Instead of butter, the main ingredient is oil. The only butter in this recipe is for greasing the cake pan. By the way, did I tell you that this is an eggless cake as well?
If you live in Bangalore and want a specialised cake or dessert to celebrate your special day, reach out to Shreya on Sugar Dust’s Instagram handle or Facebook page.
If you liked this whole wheat jaggery cake, don’t forget to check out the following dessert recipes as well.
- Millet Apple Crisp (Crumble) – an “ancient” twist to a classic dessert
- Ragi Manni – a traditional, healthy dessert
- Easy Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream
- Lavender Kulfi
Whole Wheat Jaggery Cake
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup wheat flour atta
- 3/4 cup jaggery grated and coarsely powdered
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- salt a pinch
Wet ingredients
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1/2 cup oil rice bran
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To grease the pan
- wheat flour as required
- butter as required
Instructions
- Sift together the dry ingredients, excluding jaggery, into a mixing bowl.
- Add the jaggery powder to the mixing bowl.
- I used a jaggery block, scrapped it with a knife, and coarsely ground to powder in a blender.
- Now add the wet ingredients.
- Combine just enough for all the ingredients to be evenly distributed.
- Do not over-mix.
- Line the bottom of the baking pan with a parchment paper.
- Grease and flour the sides.
- I used a 7-inch round cake pan.
- Spread the cake batter evenly into the baking pan.
- Preheat the oven.
- Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 35-40 minutes.
- You can take the cake out when a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Allow cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Extract onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- You can use any cooking oil. But nothing that has a strong aroma. That'll overpower the cake ingredients
- Use a knife to level out the cup while measuring the flour. This will help you measure the correct amount of ingredients
- If you prefer weighing your ingredients, use 171 grams of wheat flour, and 150 grams of jaggery (grated)
Hi there. I am in love with this recipe. Can I bake it over gas, the traditional way? I don’t have an oven nor do I know to use one.
Hi Asha,
Thank you very much. I am afraid I don’t have an answer for that. I have always baked this cake. But I suppose it’ll work well using a cooker over gas as well. Just that I haven’t tried it myself.
Hello,
I don’t have an oven – would you know if this would work in a cooker? I have baked cakes earlier in a cooker but not the whole wheat ones…. Eager to try this guilt-free desert 🙂
Hi Sneha,
Thank you. I haven’t tried making this cake using a cooker. I would think it’ll work fine. But I am not sure.
Hi
Can I substitute yogurt with anything else
Hi Raji,
If you are okay to use yogurt, I recommend sticking to the recipe. You’ll not be disappointed. 🙂
But if that’s not an option, you might want to explore any of the non-dairy substitutes. But I haven’t tried anything other than yogurt to share a recommendation.
Is it thick yoghurt as in hung curd or store-bought curd
Hi Niharika,
Hung curd, as in, drained off all the water might not work.
We have used both home-made yogurt as well as the store-bought one.
Hi, i hv a six inch round baking pan and 7.5 square pan. For the measurements mentioned in the recipe, which pan do u suggest? Excuse me if the question Sounds silly…
Hi Niharika,
It doesn’t sound silly! 🙂
The six inch one could a little small for these measurements.
Let’s not risk the batter overflowing during the bake. 7.5 inch one should work fine.
The depth will reduce a little, but that shouldn’t be a problem at all.
The baking time might reduce a minute or two.
Let me know how it goes. I am looking forward to seeing a beautiful, square-shaped cake 🙂
i will try this receipe…look yummy..bt ihv one question..can we add butter..instead of oil….???
Hi Sandhya,
Thank you.
I don’t think it’ll work with butter.
Feel free to bake with any oil (without a strong aroma). I am sure you’ll love it! 🙂
Pua Pound Cake.. I renamed it! It actually reminded me of pua recipe which we make for every puja as prasad. So I added a little of saunf to it n it tasted 💕😍amazing. Lovely recipe..
Thank you very much, Anukriti. 🙂
That’s interesting! I haven’t come across a version with saunf yet 🙂 But I am delighted to learn from your comments that it worked well 🙂
Thankyou for giving so easy tips for making jaggery cake.Im a housewife and actually wanted to learn making cakes by seeing online recipies.Very excited to go along with this recipe
Hi Urmila,
Thank you very much. I am sure you tried this recipe and the cake turned out well. 🙂
Just Awesome…I have been thinking to make with jaggery and wheat as it’s healthy snack for kids….My kids loved it.
Hi Silpa,
Thank you very much for trying out the wheat jaggery cake! 🙂
Chuffed to learn that you kids loved it!!
Perfect one what I was looking for long time ..I made it yesterday and it was just superb..I added cashews in the batter..can I add tutti frutti too?
Thank you! 🙂
We bake this cake often. It is favourite of ours.
Sometimes we add cashew nuts or almonds for crunch. We have baked with dates as well.
I haven’t tried tutti fruitti yet. But I think it’ll will work well.
Please let me know how it goes.
Hi, I tried this recipe on my son’s first birthday day… And it turned out so well that everyone asked me- how did I make it..
I was searching for some such recipe as I didn’t wanted to give sugar and maida to my son and he is fond of sweets. After tasting the cake he didn’t leave it. This combination rocked!!!😋 Thank you so much for the recipe
Hi Cheena,
Thank you very much!! 🙂
It is such a joy to learn that you baked this cake for your little one’s first birthday!
Your comment made my day!
The recipe is all Shreya’s.
This is one of my favourites from the blog. We bake this cake often.
Could you please post metric measurements as well?
Hi Divya,
Thank you for visiting the wheat jaggery cake recipe.
Here you go: milk – 175 ml, yogurt – 120 ml, oil – 120 ml
How much does 1 cup mean
About 250 ml
Hi I tried this recipe over the weekend. It was wonderful. Both my husband and my son loved it. Hence repeated it the 2nd time this week. There’s something about these healthy recipes that makes you feel happy each time you make them.
In my first trial however I had had a little issue. I scraped and blended the jaggery as you mentioned, however it tended to clump back again (must be the quality of the jaggery or just because it’s too humid out here due to rains). Despite mixing the batter well the clumps stayed and as a result the cake had some sweet spots and some not so sweet spots. So in my second trial I just mixed the jaggery into the milk mixture inorder to dissolve it better. Also I added a tablespoon of vinegar to the recipe at the end which helped the cake to become softer. Further my husband suggested that it would taste even better with some added spicy flavour for which I added some elaichi and cinnamon powder. It did turn out very good.
Of course the recipe in itself is excellent and doesn’t need any adjustments however since I tried these few changes and these worked good as well…hence shared it.
Thanks a lot once again for the great recipe. It is definitely for keeps.
🙂
Hi Vidya,
I have started this message with a smile as that’s what I am still doing many hours after reading your comment!
Totally agree with you about the healthy recipes. I am happy to learn that the cake was well received. Thanks to this amazingly simple recipe from Shreya.
Not sure if it was the jaggery. That’s something which I haven’t noticed before. Once I had some not so tasty edges because I didn’t get the baking soda evenly distributed. Blending jaggery with milk sounds like a neat trick! Never tried adding vinegar to a cake batter. That’s interesting. I might be trying out some of the enhancement you tried. I like the idea of adding a hint of cinnamon.
Thank you again for taking time to write this lovely message! 🙂
Thank you so much for the recipe Arun. I had tried to bake this whole wheat and jaggery cake twice but turned out to be a disaster. Tried your recipe yesterday and it was awesome. My father in law was feeling nostalgic after having this cake. He remembered his olden days bakery cake. He said my cake tasted very much like those olden days bakery cake. I never wanted to use sugar and Maida as I am health conscious. Now I can bake and eat this cake without any worries. Thanks a ton
Hi Adilakshmi,
I am elated going through your comment. This is a delightful note that you have shared! Especially the nostalgia bit!
🙂 🙂
Thank you.
This recipe is all Shreya’s. I am glad I was able to interpret it to the easiest possible steps.
This cake continues to be a family favourite of ours as well. It is healthy and doesn’t take any effort to bake this any day of the week.
Hi could you also share the metric measurement for milk, curd and oil
Thanks
Hi Pooja,
Sure.
Here you go -> milk – 175 ml, yogurt – 120 ml, oil – 120 ml
Hi, can I use butter instead of oil?
Hi Ramya,
To be honest, I don’t know if it’ll work with butter instead of oil.
I have never tried this recipe with butter.
Hi, I tried this recipe on my son’s first birthday day… And it turned out so well that everyone asked me- how did I make it..
I was searching for some such recipe as I didn’t wanted to give sugar and maida to my son and he is fond of sweets. After tasting the cake he didn’t leave it. This combination rocked!!!😋 Thank you so much for the recipe
Hi, I have melted jaggery at home. Would the same amount of jaggery work or should I change the amount?
Hi Susan,
Melted jaggery will work fine. Maybe reduce a teaspoon or so from the recipe measurement.
Hi
Can we use melted cow ghee instead of oil?
I haven’t tried with ghee. I guess it might behave similar to butter.
This recipe is tried and tested with oil. Definitely gives tasty results! 🙂
Can I add nuts of choice to this cake? Will the quantity of other ingredients change in this case?
Hi Anu,
Yes. You can add nuts to this cake. We recently baked this with dates and cashew nuts. It came out well.
No other changes to the recipe. All ingredients remains the same! 🙂
Hi can i use coconut oil?
Hi Anju,
You can use coconut oil, but the oil is going to add its own fragrance to the cake.
To retain the expected aroma of the cake, I recommend using oils that doesn’t have a strong flavour/fragrance.
Hi , I tried this recipe and everyone at home loved it . Thank you!
Hi Devika,
Thank you very much!! 🙂 🙂
I am delighted to learn that the cake was well received!
Is there any other substitute for rice bran oil?
Hi Divya, you can use any vegetable oil of your choice.
It could be any oil that doesn’t have a strong/noticeable aroma so that the cake doesn’t smell like oil.
Can we do it in a microwave oven with convection mode?
Hi!
Yes, it should be possible to bake the whole wheat jaggery cake in a microwave oven with convection mode.
I haven’t tried it myself. It should be possible.
Yes I always do in microwave convection and comes out so good. I substitute 1/3cup of whole wheat to oats.
Hi Preeti,
That’s a good suggestion. I am going to try adding oats next time we bake this whole wheat jaggery cake.
Love the recipe! I follow Shreya as well!
Thank you very much! 🙂
Shreya is a star, isn’t she!
Baked the cake for a friend and it was a total hit .Thank you for sharing the Recipie
🙂 🙂
That’s me smiling ear to ear reading your comment!
Thank you very much, Mini! 🙂
Just tried this recipe and couldn’t resist to comment
mind blowing.Love the taste. Thank u so much for the recipe
Thank you very much, Smita 🙂
So happy to read through your comment!!
Thank you for sharing this delightfully easy, mouthwateringly delicious recipe. Have baked this cake several times since I first tried it a few weeks back and it’s been a huge success each time!
Thank you very much, Uma 🙂 We too bake this cake often!
Like I have mentioned, this recipe is all Shreya’s. I have just listed the steps like how I do for all my recipes.
Can we use ghee or butter instead of oil???
Thank you for checking out the jaggery cake recipe, Abirami.
In recipes with butter and sugar, we have the creaming happening. But this is a different kind of cake altogether.
It might be okay to use butter, but I don’t know how it’ll turn out to be.
Baking it the second time. We all love it at home. Thank you for sharing a healthy and tasty recipe!!
Hello Amy,
Thank you very much for trying out the wholewheat jaggery cake. It is a popular one at our home as well! 🙂
We polished off the first two cakes we baked in one sitting!! Thanks to our good friend Shreya for this fantastic recipe.
Tried and Tasted the cake. Fantastic.
Thank you very much! 🙂 🙂
Hi.. I want to prepare this for my kid’s birthday. Can buttermilk be used instead of curd?what should be the quantity? Can we use dates powder to make it more sweeter? How much should I add?
Hi Arpita,
Dates powder will work fine. You can fine tune for sweetness preferences. I haven’t tried with buttermilk. Can’t comment about it. 🙂
Moist cake and loved the ingredients involved. The Jaggery has not only lent sweetness but that lovely caramel colour to the cake post baking.
Thank you very much Vidya! 🙂
That’s true. Jaggery is the soul of this cake.
And we are calling it a “guilt-free” treat! 😀