Craving an easy Indian fusion dessert? These eggless ras malai tres leches cake bars are baked in single-serve loaves - perfect for special occasions, parties, gifting, and make-ahead celebrations. Infused with the flavors of cardamom and saffron, they are moist, and ready in under 1 hour for the perfect festive yet fuss-free treat.
- Ingredient Notes
- How to make Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake Bars
- Anvita’s Top Tips
- Common Mistakes & how to fix them
- Related
- Eggless Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake Bars
Diwali always inspires me to add a personal touch to my edible gifts, and this year, I’m excited to add these Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake Bars into my Diwali hampers. I love that these are so cute and easy - just grab one and enjoy. No messy cutting, and everyone gets their own treat and a decent portion size. I also took a cake decorating class last year, so love putting those skills to use.
Ingredient Notes
The detailed list of ingredients and measurements are in the recipe card.
- I bake my cake from scratch, but you can use a box mix if you want to make it faster.
- Ras Malai can be homemade or store-bought, I got mine from the store this time!
- Saffron and cardamom make the cake smell and taste super yummy.
- Whipped cream on top makes each bar extra creamy and fun, but if you think piping is not something you want to do, just garnish the cake bar you will be just fine.
How to make Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake Bars
This is just a gist of the steps involved, the detailed recipe is in the recipe card.
- Mix up the cake batter with saffron and cardamom, and pour it into small bar pans or molds.
- Bake the cake and let it cool down, so it doesn’t get soggy when you add milk.
- While the cake is baking or chilling, whip heavy cream with powdered sugar until it gets soft and fluffy.
- The next day or the same day if you like, pour sweet ras malai milk over each cake bar.
- Pipe some whipped cream on top. Decorate with ras malai pieces, rose petals, edible gold leaves and pistachios if you want!
- Done! Everyone gets a sweet mini fusion cake.
Anvita’s Top Tips
- Put your mixing bowl in the freezer before whipping cream-this helps it puff up quicker.
- Whip the cream till you see soft peaks that stay on your spatula. That means it’s ready for piping
- To nail this in one hour , I bake the loaves and prep the cream a day before, and I just pipe and garnish the loaves the day of serving them. This helps save time on allowing the cake to cool and cream to set. And I still land up only contributing a total time of 1 hour on this fuss-free treat.
Common Mistakes & how to fix them
| Whipped cream is runny or disappears | Topping is messy, soaks into cake | I chill bowl before whipping & add stabilizer like powdered sugar for firm peaks |
|---|---|---|
| Whipping cream on high speed | Cream becomes buttery | I whip on speed 4 in my Kitchen Aid |
| Not using enough rising agent | Cake sinks or collapses in middle | Make sure to use correct amount of baking powder |
| Overbaking cake | Cake is too dry and crumbly | Bake just until done, check with toothpick or timer |
Go make these Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake Bars and earn some Instant Fans! They’re fun, yummy, and great for parties or as a sweet gift. Tell your friends and try them for Diwali-they’ll be a hit!
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
- Badam Halwa in 5 minutes
- Melt-In-Your-Mouth Besan Ladoos + Tips
- Easy Make Ahead Mawa Gujiya
- Easy Vada Pav Sliders: The Ultimate Party Snack!
Equipment
- 12 Mini Disposable Loaf Cake Pans with Lids
Ingredients
For Cake Base
- 170 grams oil
- 220 grams homemade or store bought plain yogurt check out our recipe
- 120 ml hot milk
- 280 grams sugar
- 325 grams all purpose flour / maida
- 5 grams baking powder
- 5 grams baking soda
- 1 teaspoon saffron strands crushed
- 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
For Decorating
- 16 oz whole whipping cream
- 2 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon crushed saffron strands
- 2 cups hot milk
- ½ cup pistachios, soaked & peeled
- ¼ cup edible rose petals
- 24 pieces ras malai check out our ras malai recipe
- edible gold flakes (optional)
Instructions
Preperation
- Soak Pistachios in hot water and keep side
- Soak saffron strand in hot milk for sponge cake & decorating and keep aside
- Optionally chill your kitchen air container in the freezer for 30 minutes before whipping the cream. This will help the cream not heat up while whipping.
Bake the Ras Malai Sponge Cake
- Preheat oven at 320F / 160 C
- Add all the wet ingredients, oil , hot milk, yogurt and sugar to a large bowl (such that you can even add flour in it later) and whisk to combine in ingredients together.
- Sieve through the dry ingredients, all purpose flour, baking, powder, baking soda.
- Combine the ingredients using a spatula to form a smooth lump free batter.
- Fill ⅔rd of each disposable mini loaf molds cake batter. Don’t worry about coating your mold with flour or oil. you will be just fine.
- Arrange the molds in the oven and bake at 320F for 20 minutes.
- Once done, check for doneness by poking a toothpick make sure it comes out clean.
- Keep aside and allow the cake bars to cool.
Whipping Cream
- While the cake is baking, add the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar to the kitchen mixing bowl and whip until you get firm peaks at the speed of 4. Keep an eye out as you don’t want to overbeat the cream or else it will become buttery. This takes approximately 8-10 minutes.
- This is also a good time to peel the pistachios
Piping the cake bars
- Once the cake bars cool, poke holes with a toothpick as shown in the video.
- Using a table spoon, pour 5 tablespoon of saffron milk on each bar for the sponge to soak up the milk.
- Next pipe the cake bar using a piping bag or a ziplock. If you won’t want to pipe simply just spread a layer of cream with a spatula on the cake bar.
- Cut each ras malai into halves or quarters. Arrange ras malai pieces on each other.
- Add a a few drops of saffron milk on each ras malai (optional).
- Garnish with edible rose powder or rose petals, slivered pistachios and edible gold flakes.
- Cover with the lid and refrigerate until ready to serve or pack. Before serving at a party, make sure to bring the cake to room temperature.
Video
Notes
- This recipe will give you either 12 cake bars or a 12 inch cake.
- You can half the recipe for a 6 inch cake.
- If you plan on layering the cake with cream, you will need to double the cream recipe.
- If you don’t want to spend a total time of 1 hour on this dessert, I recommend baking the loaves and whipping the cream a day prior and the next day simply decorate them. This way you will not spend more than an hour making this dessert. However if you want to consume or serve these the same day, cooling the cake will take time, unless you are a pro at refrigerating the cake and pulling it out at the right time.
Nutrition
Equipment
- 12 Mini Disposable Loaf Cake Pans with Lids
Ingredients
For Cake Base
- 170 grams oil
- 220 grams homemade or store bought plain yogurt check out our recipe
- 120 ml hot milk
- 280 grams sugar
- 325 grams all purpose flour / maida
- 5 grams baking powder
- 5 grams baking soda
- 1 teaspoon saffron strands crushed
- 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
For Decorating
- 16 oz whole whipping cream
- 2 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon crushed saffron strands
- 2 cups hot milk
- ½ cup pistachios, soaked & peeled
- ¼ cup edible rose petals
- 24 pieces ras malai check out our ras malai recipe
- edible gold flakes (optional)
Instructions
Preperation
- Soak Pistachios in hot water and keep side
- Soak saffron strand in hot milk for sponge cake & decorating and keep aside
- Optionally chill your kitchen air container in the freezer for 30 minutes before whipping the cream. This will help the cream not heat up while whipping.
Bake the Ras Malai Sponge Cake
- Preheat oven at 320F / 160 C
- Add all the wet ingredients, oil , hot milk, yogurt and sugar to a large bowl (such that you can even add flour in it later) and whisk to combine in ingredients together.
- Sieve through the dry ingredients, all purpose flour, baking, powder, baking soda.
- Combine the ingredients using a spatula to form a smooth lump free batter.
- Fill ⅔rd of each disposable mini loaf molds cake batter. Don’t worry about coating your mold with flour or oil. you will be just fine.
- Arrange the molds in the oven and bake at 320F for 20 minutes.
- Once done, check for doneness by poking a toothpick make sure it comes out clean.
- Keep aside and allow the cake bars to cool.
Whipping Cream
- While the cake is baking, add the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar to the kitchen mixing bowl and whip until you get firm peaks at the speed of 4. Keep an eye out as you don’t want to overbeat the cream or else it will become buttery. This takes approximately 8-10 minutes.
- This is also a good time to peel the pistachios
Piping the cake bars
- Once the cake bars cool, poke holes with a toothpick as shown in the video.
- Using a table spoon, pour 5 tablespoon of saffron milk on each bar for the sponge to soak up the milk.
- Next pipe the cake bar using a piping bag or a ziplock. If you won’t want to pipe simply just spread a layer of cream with a spatula on the cake bar.
- Cut each ras malai into halves or quarters. Arrange ras malai pieces on each other.
- Add a a few drops of saffron milk on each ras malai (optional).
- Garnish with edible rose powder or rose petals, slivered pistachios and edible gold flakes.
- Cover with the lid and refrigerate until ready to serve or pack. Before serving at a party, make sure to bring the cake to room temperature.
Video
Notes
- This recipe will give you either 12 cake bars or a 12 inch cake.
- You can half the recipe for a 6 inch cake.
- If you plan on layering the cake with cream, you will need to double the cream recipe.
- If you don’t want to spend a total time of 1 hour on this dessert, I recommend baking the loaves and whipping the cream a day prior and the next day simply decorate them. This way you will not spend more than an hour making this dessert. However if you want to consume or serve these the same day, cooling the cake will take time, unless you are a pro at refrigerating the cake and pulling it out at the right time.
