Bread, bottle gourd (Lauki) cake

I had some left over bread and there was a big bottle gourd in the refrigerator. Thought of making some sweet and this idea dawned on me. Baked the cake, I felt that it may taste better cold, so put some pieces in the freezer to cool it fast. Then I asked my husband to taste both the warm and cold cake and tell which one tasted better. He liked them both and as he was enjoying it, he told, “Mmm, I’m loving it”

So, here’s the recipe…

Ingredients:

Bread broken to small pieces  – 5 cups. I used four slices of sandwich bread

Bottle gourd, peeled and grated            - 1 cup

Sugar   - 1 cup (100 gm)

Ghee    - 1/3 cup

Egg      - 1

Milk     - 2 cups

Raisins  - 1 tbsp

Vanilla essence- 1 tsp

Cinnamon pwder          - ¾ tsp

Dried ginger powder     - 1/3 tsp

 Method :

-         Warm the milk. Beat the egg, add to the milk, along with the vanilla essence, cinnamon powder and dried ginger powder

-         Take 1 table spoon ghee from the 1/3 cup ghee, heat it and add the grated bottle gourd. Keep stirring on medium flame. When the water evaporates, and it becomes dry, add the sugar and stir, till the sugar melts.

-         Heat the remaining ghee; pour it over the bread pieces. Add the bottle gourd sugar mixture and raisins to the bread

-         Pour the milk and mix gently. Pour into a greased baking dish.

-         Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degree for 45 minutes.

-         Let it cool, invert it, cut and serve. Tastes good when warm and also after refrigeration.