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)
Tried it yesterday, I baked it in 5 inch square microwave safe tin. Baked it on microwave mode (900w) (as I usually do) for 7 1/2 mins and I was super tall, moist, spongy and amaZing taste. I added nuts and 1 tsp of vinegar to it at end. Kids enjoyed it. From mixing ingredients to baking from done in 25 mins flat. Super Fast n easy to find home ingredients recipe. Loved it. This must be my 17th or 18th lockdown bake. N urs is best receipe in whole wheat category. Thank u
Thank you very much, Kunal! 🙂
That recipe is all Shreya’s.
Thank you for the generous feedback 🙂
Chuffed to hear that this cake is a category winner in the cakes you baked during the lock down period.
Hi…this cake has come out so well…
I am happy…thank you so much for this healthy recipe…my microwave got some issue so I baked in cooker…it came out so well…… those who wants to try in cooker pls u can…
Hi Roshni,
Thank you very much for the happy feedback 🙂
Hi !
I have tried so many whole wheat jaggery cakes during this lockdown for my kids….
However this is the only one which they liked and asked me to bake again!
I myself couldn’t resist it…awesome texture and perfect taste!
I added 1tbsl cocoa powder and 1 tbsp chocolate chips! Turned out super!
Do you have any whole wheat jaggery cookies recipe as well?
Looking forward to hear from you!
Hi Rita, Thank you very much for this generous feedback 🙂
This recipe is all Shreya’s! I am chuffed to hear about the response this cake received at your 🙂 🙂
I don’t have any cookie recipes on the blog… yet 🙂
Hi !
I have tried so many whole wheat jaggery cakes during this lockdown for my kids….
However this is the only one which they liked and asked me to bake again!
I myself couldn’t resist it…awesome texture and perfect taste!
I added 1tbsl cocoa powder and 1 tbsp chocolate chips! Turned out super!
Do you have any whole wheat jaggery cookies recipe as well?
Looking forward to hear from you!
Thanks so much!
🙂 🙂
Can I use regular vegetable oil instead of rice bran oil?? Thanks
Hi Charu,
Vegetable oil works fine. In fact any cooking oil that doesn’t have a strong aroma will work.
There’s this beautiful Nutti-ness to the cake because of the jaggery LOVE IT !!!!
Thank you very much, Sheryl 🙂
Too much delicious cake
Thank you very much, Gurpreet 🙂
Turned out really tasty & could eat it without guilt!! 🙂
Thank you very much, Akshata! 🙂 🙂
Hi Arun. I’ve made this cake many many times now. And it has turned out perfect every time. Thank you for the recipe. I keep this as my basic cake and make variants like chocolate cake, carrot cake.
🥰
Hi Mallika,
Thank you very much! 🙂 🙂 I am super-chuffed to read through your feedback. 🙂
i baked this in a loaf pan, reduced jaggery to a half cup, and added walnuts and a couple of chopped dates. it turned out delicious – definitely worth repeating. i did wonder about adding vinegar (because the recipe reminded me of red velvet cake, which uses vinegar) but decided not to the first time round. i was pleased to see in the comments that somebody else used vinegar too, so that’s what i’ll try the next time – but maybe a teaspoon, not a tablespoon. this is an amazing recipe – thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Stacey!
That’s a generous feedback and some beautiful variations that I am going to try soon.
Thank you, again 🙂
Tried it !
Delicious cake 😋
Thank you very much, Saurabh.
I tried with 1/4 cup jaggery and 1/4 cup honey It’s the best recipe I make it for my little one he loves it and I add milk chocolate chucks in the batter..
Hi Maneet,
That’s some delicious adding you have done to the jaggary cake recipe.
I am going to try baking with honey soon. 🙂
I couldn’t wait to thank you for this recipe! We’re still eating the cake while I’m typing this. Amazing, definitely making this so many more times!
Hi Sonali,
Thank you!!! That’s such a lovely feedback and a generous compliment. Thank you.
This recipe is all Shreya’s!
Just made it. Doubled the recipe as someone mentioned in the comment section. Turned out very well.
Hi Suja,
Thank you very much.
Good to know that doubling the quantity works the same way as the original. 🙂
I’ll keep that in mind if we have to bake with a bigger cake pan.
Just finished baking, the cake looks fabulous..
I doubled the ingredients, it’s tall .
Please share a recipe to make healthy bread at home without yeast.
Thank you very much, Harveen.
Wow! That’s great. Did you use a bigger pan as well?
We do bake bread often at home, but never tried without using yeast.
I’ll update you if I come across something from any of our friends who are into baking.
Can we use ghee instead of oil
Hi Rita,
I have never tried baking this cake with ghee.
That’s an interesting question. Unfortunately, I don’t know.
Tried just now, awesome, very tasty, but i modified the recipe, 1/4 cup jaggery powder & 1/4 cup honey, came out well, you too can try this combi, good for elderly people, thank you for the recipe.
Thank you very much, Srilakshmi 🙂
As per Ayurveda, Honey if cooked (above 40°C) can do more harm than good. Better avoid it.
Tried just now, awesome, very tasty, i modified the recipe, 1/4 cup jaggery powder & 1/4 cup honey, you too try this combi, it comes out very well. Thank you for this recipe.
Honey sounds like an interesting variation. I am going to try it next time. 🙂
Bad experience 🙁 cake turned out to be too moist even after 50m of baking, and overall taste was not very good, felt like something was a miss, nobody could eat after trying it 🙁
Hi Richa,
Sorry to hear that! 🙁
Not sure what went wrong.
We make this cake often. Haven’t come across this any of this before, other than the occasional cracking of the surface.
Hi. How long should I heat the convection oven before putting in the cake?
Hi Pranavi, 10 minutes of preheating should be sufficient. The idea is to bring the oven temperature to 250 degrees before we start baking in the required temperature setting (180 degrees).
Loved the very simple recipe cake… my cake got finished in just 5min… Glad that I made it…
Thanks for the recipe
😀 Haha! It happens all the time! Every time we bake it!
Thank you very much for sharing the feedback 🙂
I baked this cake but added carrots and walnuts coz I like carrot cake very much. Turned out dense n moist but tasted so good. I’m now turning to baking with whole wheat flour and eggless as much as possible. Thank you again.
Thank you very much, Cecilia.
Not sure why the cake became dense.
Carrots and walnuts sounds like an interesting flavour addition.
Happy to lean that you liked the cake.
Calories please. Cake is awesome and soft
Thank you very much. I haven’t done a calorie measurement…yet 🙂
Hi,
I tried a chocolate version of this recipe. It turned out great.. The fragrance of jaggery was pleasant and was a treat to eat.. Thank you for sharing the recipe
🙂 Thank you very much, Assifa.
Could you please share the modifications you included to make the chocolate version?
Use 1/2 tea cup curd
Thank you
Thanks for sharing such an excellent recipe. I did some variations. Instead of whole wheat, I added multigrain flour and used palm jaggery in place of jaggery. Also, to make it more healthy, I added nutmeg powder in place of vanilla essence. The cake was so perfect and tasty. I ate the whole cake in two days and just shared 4 pieces with my neighbour who too relished.
Wow! Palm jaggery! Sounds yummy 🙂
Thank you very much for trying out the recipe and the lovely feedback 🙂
Hi, I don’t have vanilla essence and baking soda, and can’t get as well during the lockdown. Can I use double the quantity of baking powder .. and any other substitute for the essence ?
Dont use double baking powder.. Its ok if you don’t have baking soda and vanilla essence. Keep all the quantity same
Thank you. 🙂
Hi, can I use readymade jaggery powder for this cake?
Hi Joyela,
Yes, you can. Jaggery powder will work fine.
Milk needs to be warm or cold?
Hi Shilpa,
Milk at room temperature will do fine.
Yes, you can
Thank you 🙂
Wonderful recipe. I have already baked it thrice in one day!
Once as is, second time with addition of cocoa and then as strawberry cupcakes.
My new go to healthy recipe. Thank you.
WOW!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Veena, thank you very much!
I am super chuffed reading through your feedback.
I love the variations you have tried. I am going to try the strawberry one soon (hopefully)!
Very easy and quick recipe. I modified it slightly by adding dry fruits powder and Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder, to make it tempting to kids, it turned out well !!
Thank you very much, Padma. 🙂
Lovely modifications. I haven’t baked with dry fruits powder before. Sounds delicious!
Hi,
Looks interesting. For jaggery, we usually melt it and run it through a sieve to remove any dirt. Do you think that would still work? In that case, what alteration in measurement would you recommend?
Hi Nandini,
Thank you for visiting my blog. Yes, you can use jaggery in that form as well.
Allow the cake batter to cool down before you start baking so that you don’t overcook.
From a measurement perspective, you don’t have to make any major changes. Maybe reduce a tablespoon of liquid jaggery.
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.
hi Asha,
Yes you can do it over gas. I used my prestige kadai with glass lid for the same. place a stand in the kadai and keep the cake pan on top of it. cover with glass lid. after 30 min you can check with toothpick. Adjust the cooking time accordingly. i have a 6 inch pan and baked this cake twice. came out really nice.
Thank you very much, Neelam 🙂
This is helpful info. I got to try this method soon.
Hi Asha,
You can Definitely cook using a Pressure Cooker.. Just use the stand inside the cooker before placing the baking can and pre heat the cooker for 7-8 min.
And after placing the baking can put the lead just like that dont clip it. Let it cook on low flame for 50 min
Thank you, Prangan.
This appears to be quite helpful. Have you tried this method for this jaggery cake well?
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.
I used butter instead of oil….the cake was too very soft
Thank you, Jo! So it worked with butter, yes? Or are you saying it was too soft for your liking?
I have never tried this recipe with butter.
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.
I made it twice in a day. Presented to my neighbour on her bday. Her family is gaga over the taste n texture.Its simple n tasty.
Please post some yummy simple chocolate cake receipe too.
Also when I took the cake out on the plate within seconds it started to break from centre. Like cracks appeared. What can be the reason??
Thankyou
Hi Surbhi,
Thank you very much for this generous feedback! 🙂 🙂
I have to resume baking soon. Let me plan to have that as a chocolate cake. 🙂
In the meantime, please feel free to check out the pull apart garlic bread recipe as well. It is more of a savoury recipe though.
As for the cracks, I recommend a couple of tips to explore.
– Try reducing the oven temperature by a few degrees
– Also, take care not to over-mix the batter
Please let me know the results.
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! 🙂
This recipe is awesome! Loved, loved, loved it. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. For the first time ever, I loved my own cake so much 🙂 My go-to recipe now onwards!
Thank you very much, Shubhi 🙂
And I loved reading your feedback 🙂 🙂
Thank you!!
Stay healthy, stay safe.
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 🙂
Tried this recipe today. It’s healthy and surprisingly delicious too. Thanks.
Thank you very much, Abha! 🙂
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.
This is such a hit recipe! My first cake and it came out just brilliant, moist and soft. Thanks so much Arun 🙂
Hi Manisha,
Thank you very much! 🙂 🙂
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! 😀