Hawaiian Guava Cake

 

I first heard about this guava cake from my cousin Manju who lives in California. Every three weeks or so we have these long phone conversations where we update each other on stuff that has happened since we last talked. Along with gossips and stories from India and elsewhere, we also talk about food. She is a fantastic cook who also loves baking, and is the one who regularly lets me know about this new recipe in that blog and that cake in this magazine. It was during one of those fun chats that she told me about this Hawaiian cake which was all the rage in California ( this was a while back, and she also gave me the name of the particular bakery, whose name I now forget). She suggested I try this recipe from The Polynesian Kitchen and I promised her I would, soon. I bookmarked the recipe and then, like always, forgot about it.

 

 

Now, I love guava, both the white ones and the red ones. It was a fruit we regularly enjoyed in India. There used to be two big guava trees in my grandparents’ house and my sister and I would climb up the trees, pluck the big, round, juicy fruits fresh and eat it. It was also used to make juices, jams and jellies. A few weeks back, I came across this guava buttercream crafted by the lovely Bonnie at the awesome blog, Thirsty for Tea. She uses guava paste in her recipe. This reminded me about guava cake, and I decided to make this. Thanks Bonnie!

This is a very exotic, very tasty cake. If you are a guava fan, you will love this one. My only gripe is that it uses a boxed cake mix, which I am not a huge fan of. I enjoy the art of sifting, scooping, and measuring flour, sugar and whatever ( and making a total mess of my kitchen ) so much, that I only use a cake mix when I absolutely have to. You could use either a yellow cake or a strawberry cake mix; I used the latter, which gives it a beautiful pink shade. I took this beauty to a party where it was much admired, loved and gobbled up by everyone. Thanks Manju chechi!

Packing this to Fiesta Friday #28 at The Novice Gardener.

 

 

Hawaiian Guava Cake

Recipe courtesy: The Polynesian Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 pkg Yellow Cake Mix or Strawberry Cake Mix

1 C Guava juice, or the amount called for in the cake mix

3 Eggs

1/3 C Vegetable oil

1 8-ounce Package cream cheese, softened

1/3 C Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

1 small pkg Cool Whip, thawed

2 C Guava juice

1/2 C Sugar

1/4 C Cornstarch

Method:

Bake the cake according to package directions, substituting guava juice for water.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with hand mixer until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla and beat in.

Slowly fold in the Cool Whip and refrigerate until ready to use.

In a medium sauce pan, bring the 2 cups guava juice and sugar to a boil. Make a paste out of the cornstarch and a small amount of water. Remove guava juice from heat and stir in the cornstarch mixture. Return to heat and bring back to a boil and boil for one minute. Cool in refrigerator.

To assemble: Thickly ice the cake with all of the cream cheese mixture. Glaze the top of the cake with guava gel. Refrigerate until ready to serve.