Indian street food
What is milk cake?
The name covers two different desserts: a traditional Indian milk sweet made by reducing milk until it is thick and grainy, and a modern soft sponge soaked in milk that cafes call a milkcake.
From the Tapri Chai kitchen · November 2026 · 2 min read
Traditional
Reduced milk sweet
Modern
Soaked sponge
Flavours
Cardamom, saffron
Served
Chilled
01
The traditional milk cake
Traditional Indian milk cake is a sweet made by simmering milk, often with a little sour agent, until it thickens into a grainy, caramel-coloured mass. It is sweetened, set in a tray, cut into squares and flavoured with cardamom. It is closely related to kalakand and is a common festival sweet.
02
The modern milkcake
In cafes, a milkcake is a sponge cake soaked in sweetened milk, sometimes called a tres leches style cake, topped with cream and flavours. It is soft, wet and chilled. Cafes in India have given it many Indian flavours.
03
Rasmalai milkcake
Rasmalai is a Bengali dessert of soft cheese dumplings in cardamom-scented, sweetened milk, often with saffron and pistachios. A rasmalai milkcake borrows those flavours: saffron, cardamom and pistachio in a milk-soaked cake.
04
Biscoff milkcake
A Biscoff milkcake is another fusion, with caramelised cookie spread and cookie crumbs on a milk-soaked cake. It reflects how Indian dessert makers have mixed global flavours with traditional milk sweets.
Questions, answered.
What is Indian milk cake?
A dense sweet made by reducing milk and sugar until thick, set into squares and flavoured with cardamom.
What is rasmalai milkcake?
A milk-soaked cake flavoured like rasmalai, with saffron, cardamom and pistachio.
Is milk cake the same as tres leches?
The modern cafe milkcake is similar to tres leches, a cake soaked in milk. Traditional Indian milk cake is a different, firmer sweet.
Does Tapri Chai serve milkcake?
It is not on the printed menu at the moment. Please check the menu page for current desserts.
At Tapri Chai
Taste it for yourself.
Our kitchen in Barrhaven is 100% vegetarian. 200 Kennevale Dr Unit 104, Ottawa. Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 11pm. Closed Mondays.