The Indian love for biscuit dipping in tea is legendary. Similar to biscotti, these twice-cooked cake-like slices are buttery, ideal for dunking and soaking up masala chai!  

The cake rusks are just slices of a delicious vanilla cake, which with a second baking turns into crispy crunchy classic cake rusks, which are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

But did you ever wonder where the rusk, so deeply intertwined with our culture today, actually comes from? They are said to originate from Elizabethan England where cakes were made so that would last longer due to the low moisture content, keep for long periods of time and were a staple navel provision, only makes sense now how the British invaded their way around the world, with a  cuppa tea and a rusk in hand.  

These were my Mum’s go to teatime treat.  I grew up in a home where bapore ni chai /afternoon teatime (4:00-5:00PM) was where we came together as a family, snacked on all sorts of treats, whilst chit chatting about the day and whatnot, sometimes these tea sessions would last up dinner time, when more tea was made, more food was added, guests dropped in, and the afternoon turned into evening. 

As such, the pandemic brought back my love of teatime and carving out some time with my kids after school, or just catching up with personal messages before dinnertime, and there is nothing I enjoy more than a good cup of karak chai a snack and a good read to end the day.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 6 organic eggs
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder or
• 1/2 tsp fennel/aniseed/variyali powder
  
  

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 355°. Grease  (9-inch) rectangle/square cake pan/foil tray.
2. Grind the sugar in a coffee grinder or blender to a fine powder (do not use ready powdered sugar!)
3. Using a hand or stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter for 4-5 minutes or until the butter mixture is slightly creamy. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl once or twice while mixing.
4. Reduce the speed and add sugar, a little at a time, then increase speed again and cream until fluffy and pale in color.
5. With the mixer on low, add the eggs one at a time and beat for 20 seconds after each addition.
6. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, then stir in the vanilla.
7. Bake for 55 mins. or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake sit in tray for 10 before flipping it out into a cutting board.
8. Using a sharp knife cut the cake down the middle, and then into 1/2  inch strips.
9. Lay the slices flat on the baking tray and re-bake in the oven for 25 minutes;  then turn the oven off and leave rusks inside the warm oven for 1 hour.
10. Remove the cake rusks from the oven, and place on a wire rack to cool then store in an airtight container.

Notes:

Mum never used food coloring to give these that golden color, she used organic eggs with the bright orange yolks, or as she would say “mayai kienyeji”- meaning free roaming chickens not broilers or factory raised.


She also used cardamom or fennel seed powder, I do not as my family loves just the cakey taste.


She always insisted on grinding the white sugar, and that is what I do as well.