Hetal's Gulab Jamun Cake Trifles

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Gulab jamun is the quintessential Indian dessert. Soft, fried dough balls dipped in a sugary sweet syrup spiced with cinnamon, rose water, and cardamom. Many people don’t know it, but making Gulab Jamun takes a lot of skill. It’s all about technique, and sadly, it’s a technique that I rarely get right, which is why I turned it into a cake! For this recipe, I sized down my popular Gulab Jamun Bundt Cake recipe from my cookbook, Milk and Cardamom, and turned it into a small batch trifle recipe! The trifles are made with warm cubes of cardamom pound cake soaked in Transcendence Coffee x Diaspora Co. Indian Gulab Jamun Syrup and topped with a fat dollop of rose whipped cream. All the flavors of gulab jamun with half the work!

Ingredients

For the pound cake:

1/4 cup (56 g) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup (54 g) granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground Baraka Cardamom
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (57 g) all purpose flour
4 tbsp Transcendence Coffee x Diaspora Co. Indian Gulab Jamun Syrup

For the rose whipped cream:

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp powdered sugar (or to taste)
1/8 tsp rose water
1 tbsp chopped pistachios (optional)
Paneer Rose petals to garnish (optional)

Methods

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease and line a 6-inch cake pan with parchment paper and set aside.
In a small bowl, add butter sugar and cardamom. Using a hand mixer, mix on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla extract and mix for an additional minute. Fold in all-purpose flour until it's well combined and there are no lumps of dry flour. Spoon the batter into a prepared pan and smooth it out into an even layer. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles.
Bake the cake for 16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes before cutting it into 1/2-inch cubes.
To make the rose whipped cream, add heavy cream, powdered sugar and rosewater to a small bowl and whisk until you have soft peaks. This should take about 3-4 minutes.
To assemble the trifles, add some cubes of the pound cake to the bottom of your ramekins. Drizzle 1 tbsp of Transcendence Coffee x Diaspora Co. Gulab Jamun Syrup over the top of the cake cubes and then take a dollop or a generous portion of the rose whipped cream.
Garnish with rose petals and pistachios and serve.