How to make Chai-Spiced Banana Bread - Are you a big fan of Chai or Tea or Masala Tea like me, then this cake is perfect for your taste buds. Chai Spiced Banana bread is a yummy twist on a classic recipe. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and all spices elevate on all time favourite snack. Perfect for a breakfast! 

The weather in Bangalore is turning brutal day by day sometimes rain or sometimes hot or when it’s raining, it continuously raining whole day, the weather automatically changed and festivals time is in the air.

To celebrate the festival and Holiday season right, I made Banana Chai Cake. 

What is Banana Chai Cake?

Chai is the actual word for TEA in many countries but when we say CHAI in India, we’re usually referring to Ginger chai, masala chai which is a smooth and calming beverage made of black tea, milk, sugar and fragrant Indian spices. 

The warm and comforting spices of the Chai Mix, mashed bananas and nutty walnuts so well in the cake.

The flavours of chai goes beautifully with banana bread, so I’ve taken one of my favorite banana bread recipes and subtly infused it with warm chai spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. 

Chai and spices along with banana takes this cake to a aromatic & flavourful level. This Banana bread is perfect for breakfast, evening snacking or just when you feel like it! 

Many of us don’t like to eat overripe banana, so if you have any leftover bananas which you don’t want to eat, you can use them for this recipe. This is a perfect way to use overripe banana, which would come out so moist. This banana chai cake would even tastes great next day!!

This is our Recipe Swap Challenge month, where we choose recipes from our partner's blog, this month my partner. I was paired up with Ashima of My Weekend Kitchen and while seeing her blog, I saw the recipe of winter spiced banana bread, I had a ripe bananas in my fridge and I know that no one will eat it. So I used it and bake this yummy cake! 

I have just minor changes into recipe, as I am a big fan of ginger tea. So I used a mix of ginger powder, fresh and grated nutmeg powder and cinnamon powder. The actual recipe used cloves and green cardamom powder, so you can use it according to your taste-buds.

Let's check out the recipe of banana chai cake recipe with step by step photos method 

Prep time : 20 minutes
Cook time : 1 hour
Total time : 1 hour 20 minutes
Course : Breakfast
Cuisine :  American
Serves : 8 to 10 serves
Author : Jolly Makkar

Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml; 1 tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)

Salted butter softened - 1/2 cup (I used Amul one)
Castor sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs at room temperature - 3 medium 
All-purpose flour - 1½ cup 
Baking soda - 1 tsp
All-spice mix - 1 tsp (I used a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger powder)
Mashed bananas the more ripe they are, the better it is - 1 cup 
Vanilla extract/essence - 1 tsp 
Yogurt/Dahi - 1/2 cup 
Roughly chopped walnuts  - 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp (sprinkle on top)

Preparation Method :

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and meanwhile lay butter paper inside the tin(only for the bottom). Grease it with butter.

2. In a mixing bowl, creaming the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

3. Add the eggs one at a time. Incorporating well after each addition.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and spices.

5. Add the dry mixture little-little to the butter mixture and Whisk well.

6. Mix to blend.

7. Add the mashed bananas, curd and vanilla extract, mix well. 

8. Beat on low speed. Gently add in the walnuts.

9. Transfer the batter to a greased 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan.

10. Tap the cake tin two times, if bubbles are there it will sit down and sprinkle chopped walnuts on top.

11. Bake for 55 minutes and about an hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

12. Take out of the oven and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Check out more awesome cake recipes for festivals and holidays season , check out these :

eggless coconut cakeeggless carrot cake
vegan jaggery cake
whole wheat eggless chocolate cake
orange chiffon cake
rainbow swirl cake
eggless funfetti mug cake

Rava Kesari Bath Recipe with step by step photos. It is a popular South-Indian sweet dish made from semolina or sooji or rava is mainly prepared for breakfast or during festival times. 

It is a simple sweet recipe prepared with basic ingredients like rava, sugar, water, ghee and saffron or yellow food colour. 

I have used both a pinch of food colour and saffron to give natural kesari(yellowish color tone) to the pudding. 

The optional flavorings and colorants are also added. It is topped with dry fruits like chopped cashews, almonds and some raisins which gives a nice crunchy effect to it.

What is Rava Kesari ?

The term "Rava Kesari" means sooji pudding which is flavoured with saffron and yellowish color. Since the dish is made with rava/sooji and has an orange color. 

The word "Kesari" indicates yellow color tones and in some instance also means Saffron, which is called KESAR.

Rava kesari bath is similar to Sooji Halwa. In karnataka this is called kesari bath and In Maharashtra it's called Sheera, but that one made without colour. 



Rava Kesari is a very popular breakfast in Karnataka served along with khara bath. The combination of khara bath and rava kesari is known as chow-chow bath. I had this Rava Kesari first time in Bangalore, when I came here first time after my marriage, I had this kesari halwa with khara bath & coriander coconut chutney in breakfast with my tea. 

This is one of the classic Indian dessert, easy and quick kesari halwa recipe, so you don’t need any excuse or occasion to make it. 

Rava kesari halwa is often made for an auspicious occasion or a pooja, it could also be a festive occasion like Diwali, Dussehra, Ganesha chaturthi, holi or a religious pooja offered as a prasad conducted in my home or just want to have something sweet. 

Instead of water you can also used milk also. I personally prefer water, or you can take 1:1 proportion of milk and water. Addition of milk, sweet make more heavy.

Let's begin the step by step recipe of Rava Kesari recipe with pictures.

Cuisine : Sweet dish/Prasad
Preparation Time : 5 minutes
Cook Time : 20 minutes
Total Time : 25 minutes
Serving : 4 people
Author : Jolly Makkar

Ingredients :

Fine rava/Chiroti sooji - 1 cup 
Sugar - 3/4 cup or 1 cup (adjust according to your sweetness)
Water - 3 cup
Desi ghee - 1/2 cup
Cardamom Pods /powder - 2 (skin and seeds)/ 1/2 tsp
Chopped Almonds - 4 tablespoons 
Cashews - 2 tablespoons 
A Pinch of Yellow/Orange Food Colour
A pinch of saffron

Preparation Method :

1. Heat desi ghee in a heavy bottom pan or kadai, fry cashews until golden in color.

2. In the same ghee add the rava or sooji along roast till nice aroma comes out.

3. Roast the rava (semolina) and roast till you can see the ghee getting separated from the rava and the color of the rava change its color become slightly brown. This takes approx 7-8 minutes on a low flame.

4. In meanwhile, dissolve sugar, water, food color and saffron in a another pan. Crush the cardamom pods and add it sugar syrup. Keep on flame and allow it to come to a boil. 

5. Pour the sugar-saffron solution in the ghee-rava mixture slowly with continuous stirring make sure that there no lumps are formed.

6. The rava or sooji will absorb the water and the mixture will thicken. Add finely chopped almond or roasted cashew nuts in rava kesari.

7.  Stir till the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan. 
Switch off and then cover the pan for 5 minutes just to allow the rava kesari to steam. 

8. Serve hot or warm rava kesari as it is. You can also serve rava kesari as a side sweet dish.


Important Notes

1> Roasting rava properly to get the best texture. So, take your time, be patient and roast over medium low heat stirring constantly till you get nice aroma and slight color change. Do not burn or over roast.

2> You can also replace orange food colour with a yellow food colour. 

Variation: You can also substitute the water with same amount of milk and it also gives a rich & creamy texture. Or use half water and half milk which also gives the perfect balance of richness and creaminess.

Check the YouTube video of Rava Kesari Bath

If you are looking for more sweet recipes then do check :-