To make a ghee cake, beat soft, set ghee with sugar until it turns pale, fold in flour, milk powder, baking powder and soda, loosen with milk and curd, and bake at 160 °C until a skewer comes out clean. Our starting point for a 20 cm tin is 200 g of flour, 100 g of ghee, 150 g of sugar and 50 g of whole milk powder. The ghee must be soft but still set when you cream it, and the reason is below.
At a glance
- The Canadian baking text on LibreTexts says a fat beaten with a paddle builds up a structure of air pockets, and the better that creaming, the lighter the cake.
- Bake Info, the Baking Industry Research Trust's site, puts the best creaming temperature at 21 °C and says fat at 24 °C or more holds less air.
- USDA FoodData Central lists ghee at 900 kcal per 100 g, all-purpose flour at 364, granulated sugar at 387 and whole milk powder at 496.
- On those figures our 20 cm cake is 2,609 kcal, about 217 kcal a slice over 12, with 8.3 g of ghee and 12.5 g of sugar in each.
- ICMR-NIN's 2024 guidelines say to limit ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, and define sugar above 25 g a day as high.
What is a ghee cake?
A plain, close-crumbed tea cake in which ghee is the only fat. The recipes that rank for this query, including one in a Kerala newspaper and one labelled Calicut bakery style, build it from ghee, sugar, milk powder, maida, baking powder, baking soda and milk, with curd standing in for the egg in the eggless versions. That is as far as we can trace it; we opened no history of the cake.
Swapping ghee for butter in a recipe written for butter is a different question, covered in our guide to baking with ghee in place of butter.
Why must the ghee be soft and set, not melted?
Because the air that lifts the cake is beaten into the fat, and only a fat that is still solid can hold it. The Canadian baking text on LibreTexts defines creaming ability as the extent to which a fat, beaten with a paddle, builds up a structure of air pockets, and says the better the creaming ability, the lighter the cake.
The ranking recipes say to use thick ghee, not melted, and stop there. The baking sources say why, though for butter and shortening, not ghee. Iowa State University Extension's note on how ingredients affect cookies says butter in solid form traps air during creaming, which expands with heat, while "melted butter incorporates no air". Bake Info gives the temperature window: 21 °C is best, cold fat "is not plastic enough to incorporate quickly and hold air cells", and fat at 24 °C or more "will not be able to hold as much air".
No opened source tested ghee itself, so take those findings as the general direction. As our article on the melting point of ghee sets out, ghee's fats soften over a range, and in an Indian summer the jar may already be liquid. If it is, chill it until it is opaque and yields to a spoon, then cream it.
What does milk powder add?
Milk solids that ghee cannot supply. On USDA FoodData Central's SR Legacy record, whole milk powder is 26.3 g of protein, 26.7 g of fat and 38.4 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, while ghee is 100 g of fat with no protein and no carbohydrate. No opened study tested its effect in a ghee cake, so we can say only that it adds those solids; the deeper browning and milkier taste we see are kitchen experience, not a tested finding.
What ratio of flour to ghee and sugar should you use?
Our starting point is two parts flour to one part ghee by weight, with three-quarters as much sugar as flour and a quarter as much milk powder: 200 g, 100 g, 150 g and 50 g. The ranking recipes differ, so adjust after a first bake.
| Ingredient, 20 cm round tin | Our starting point | USDA record, kcal per 100 g | Calories in the tin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maida (all-purpose flour) | 200 g | Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, unenriched: 364 | 200 × 3.64 = 728 kcal |
| Ghee, soft and set | 100 g | Butter, Clarified butter (ghee): 900 | 100 × 9.00 = 900 kcal |
| Sugar | 150 g | Sugars, granulated: 387 | 150 × 3.87 = 580.5 kcal |
| Whole milk powder | 50 g | Milk, dry, whole, without added vitamin D: 496 | 50 × 4.96 = 248 kcal |
| Milk, full cream | 150 g | Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat: 61 | 150 × 0.61 = 91.5 kcal |
| Curd | 100 g | Yogurt, plain, whole milk: 61 | 100 × 0.61 = 61 kcal |
| Whole cake, 12 slices | 750 g | — | 728 + 900 + 580.5 + 248 + 91.5 + 61 = 2,609 kcal; 2,609 ÷ 12 = 217.4, about 217 kcal a slice |
Baking powder, soda and cardamom are not counted, and we weigh the milk rather than measure it. If you measure ghee by the spoon, our guide to ghee spoon measures in grams explains why a tablespoon weighs 12.8 or 15 g depending on who is counting.
How do you make ghee cake step by step?
Cream the set ghee with the sugar until pale, sift in the dry ingredients, loosen with curd and milk, and bake at 160 °C in a lined 20 cm tin until a skewer comes out clean.
- Prepare. Line a 20 cm round tin with baking paper and grease the sides. Heat the oven to 160 °C, shelf in the middle.
- Check the ghee. Weigh 100 g. It should be opaque and soft enough to take a spoon's mark, not liquid. Chill it if it has melted; let it sit if it is hard from the fridge.
- Cream. Beat the ghee with 150 g of sugar on a low to medium speed, scraping down the bowl, until pale and fluffy. The LibreTexts cake text says low speed makes the best air cells, that higher speeds only warm the mix, and that it can take 5 to 10 minutes.
- Sift. Sift 200 g of maida with 50 g of whole milk powder, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, ½ teaspoon of baking soda and ½ teaspoon of ground cardamom.
- Combine. Fold in a third of the flour, then 100 g of curd, another third, 150 g of milk, then the last of the flour. Stop as soon as no dry streaks remain.
- Bake. Scrape into the tin, level the top, and bake for 40 to 50 minutes without opening the door for the first 30.
- Test. Push a thin skewer into the centre. Clean or dry crumbs means done; wet batter means 5 more minutes, then test again.
- Cool. Ten minutes in the tin, then onto a rack; cool fully before slicing into 12.
What oven temperature, and how does the skewer test work?
Our starting point is 160 °C for 40 to 50 minutes in a 20 cm round tin; the recipes that rank use between 160 and 180 °C. The LibreTexts cake text says: "Too high a temperature will cause the top to set before it has risen enough. Too low a temperature can lead to it not rising enough and falling."
The skewer test checks that the centre has set: batter clings to a skewer pushed into an unset centre; once the crumb has formed it comes out clean or with dry crumbs. Test the centre, not the edge.
Why does the top crack or the middle sink?
The LibreTexts cake text gives the two oven causes. A top that sets before the cake has finished rising comes from too high a temperature. A cake that does not rise enough and falls comes from too low a temperature, and the text adds: "Do not open the oven until the cake has fully risen and the structure has set. This can cause the cake to fall."
That text does not use the word crack, and no opened source tests a cracked ghee cake. A cracked dome is what we see when the top sets over a batter still rising; a sunken centre points the other way, to an oven running cool or a door opened too soon.
How does a slice fit the ICMR-NIN guidelines?
As an occasional tea cake, not a daily one. The ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians (2024) say: "Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible." On their 5 g teaspoon, that is 5 to 10 g. One slice of our cake carries 100 ÷ 12 = 8.33 g of ghee, about 1.67 teaspoons (8.33 ÷ 5), plus the fat in the milk powder, milk and curd.
On sugar: "Consumption of sugar in quantities that contribute over 5% of total energy intake per day or 25 g/day (based on average intake of 2000 Kcal/day) is defined as 'high' sugar." One slice carries 150 ÷ 12 = 12.5 g, half of that. If a doctor or dietitian has set your fat or sugar intake, follow their advice rather than our table.
The ghee is the only fat here, so its flavour is the cake's. Ours is Himdhara's A2 bilona ghee; any ghee that is soft and set will cream the same way.
The short version
Ghee cake is an eggless tea cake with ghee as its only fat. Cream 100 g of soft, set ghee with 150 g of sugar, fold in 200 g of maida sifted with 50 g of milk powder, leavening and cardamom, loosen with 100 g of curd and 150 g of milk, and bake at 160 °C in a 20 cm tin until a skewer comes out clean. The ghee must be set because only a solid fat holds air when creamed, as the baking texts say of butter and shortening. A slice is about 217 kcal on USDA figures.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- BC Cook Articulation Committee (2022). 3.4: Functions of Fat in Baking. Understanding Ingredients for the Canadian Baker, Workforce LibreTexts.
- Rink T, Thibodeaux WR (2025). 6.3.2: Cake and Buttercreams. FNDH 313: Science of Food, Kansas State University, Medicine LibreTexts.
- Baking Industry Research Trust (2026). Creaming method. Bake Info.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.