Paneer Pound Cake

Being in Bangalore during summer this year seems like a relief when I recollect last summer that we spent in Chennai. Kids' were taken to the salon every month to chop all the hair off their head. We would make them wear smallest of chaddis (How we wished we could flaunt in a similar attire) They were given bath atleast thrice a day and prickly heat powder sprinkled generously all over their body. Severe heat meant all food items persihed even when kept out of the refrigerator for a small duration. Milk would curdle every other day and I learnt making rasagullas out of it. Recently I saw this paneer cake recipe at Divya's blog which she had made out of curdled milk. It don't possess the heart to forcefully curdle milk on purpose. One night I forgot (unintentionally) to place the milk saucepan in the refrigerator before going to sleep. The next morning when I saw the saucepan lying on my kitchen deck, I knew it was time for the bookmarked Paneer Cake. 

I made the cake in a Bundt Pan. The colourful eggs that you may see in the pics are empty egg shells that I preserved and painted.

Ingredients
Cake flour - 3/4 cup[make your own-add a tbsp of cornflour into your measuring cup and top it with flour-sift well] – (I used Weikfield’s vanilla custard powder instead of cornflour)
Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Salted Butter - 60 gms
Fresh Paneer [drained] - 3/4 cup
Granulated sugar - 3/4 cup *
Egg - 1
Lime juice - 1 tsp

Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp (I added rose essence)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line an 8' round cake tin. (I used a Bundt Tin)
2. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Keep aside.
3. Make a smooth paste of Paneer by blending it in the mixer. Cream the paneer and the butter till soft and fluffy.
4. Mix in the sugar and beat till the mixture is creamy. Scrape down the batter from sides of the bowl in between.
5. Add the egg and vanilla extract (in my case, rose essence) and beat well till mixed.
6. Spoon in the flour mix and beat on medium speed till you get a smooth batter. Add the lemon juice and beat again. The batter might look slightly curdled, but that's alright.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or till the top has turned a golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
8. Cool the cake in the tin for 5 minutes and then gently transfer to a wire rack for further cooling.
9. Slice and serve.

Note:
* I found the cake a bit extra sweet for my sweet tooth although when I tasted the batter before baking it seemed fine. I'm gonna reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup next time.

Sending this to 'Bookmarked Receipes every Tuesday' event hosted by Priya and Aipi