Traditional Dairy Products

Lesson 10. MILK CAKE – PRODUCT DESCRIPTION, METHOD OF PREPARATION, QUALITY, PACKAGING AND SHELF LIFE

Module 3. Khoa based sweets

Lesson 10
MILK CAKE – PRODUCT DESCRIPTION, METHOD OF PREPARATION, QUALITY, PACKAGING AND SHELF LIFE

10.1 Introduction

Milk cake is a khoa based sweet prepared from either buffalo milk or from danedar variety of Khoa. Milk cake differs from kalakand for its higher content of sugar, lower moisture content and slightly more sticky and chewy grains. Milk cake has two distinct layers i.e. central dark brown colored caramelized centre covered by light colored product on the entire surface. Whereas, kalakand is characterized by uniform whitish to light brown colour throughout the mass.

10.2 Method of Production

Whole buffalo milk is boiled in an open pan. When milk comes to first boil, 0.05% citric acid on milk basis is added as 1% solution. After addition of citric acid solution, small tiny granules tend to appear in milk. Heating is continued further with rigorous stirring. When the mass shows signs of leaving the surface of pan, sugar @ 50 percent of expected khoa yield 12.5% on the basis of milk is added and the mix is heated with rigorous stirring. Controlled heating is required at this stage to obtain better quality product. When the product shows signs of dry appearance, the mix is poured in deep metal moulds while hot. The milk cake is allowed to cool slowly at room temperature so that the central portion of the pat turns brown and caramelized flavour develops due to residual heat. After cooling, the product is cut into desirable sizes. At times, the vessel containing the hot mass is placed in a container with water so that the surface of milk cake cools fast giving white appearance outside and brown coloration in the central core.

Fig. 10.1 Flow Diagram of preparation of Milk cake

10.3 Quality of Milk Cake

Table 10.1. Chemical composition of milk cake

10.4 Packaging of Milk Cake

The pieces of milk cake are generally packed in vegetable parchment lined paper board boxes. Individual pieces are packed in LDPE pouches.

10.5 Shelf Life

Since milk cake contains higher amount of sugar and lower moisture content, it has longer shelf life than kalakand. Milk cake will have 15-20 days shelf life at room temperature.

Reference

1) Karwasra, R.K., Srivastava,D.N. and Hooda, S.(2001) Standardization of the process for manufacture of milk cake.
2) Indian J. Dairy Sci.,54(5):280-282
National Dairy Development Board(NDDB), Anand, Annual Report, 1998-99,p.23.