El maca cake It is a delicious dessert from Peru, being a reference in world gastronomy as one of the preparations most delicious and nutritious ever known.
This is a delicious and succulent alternative, suitable for little ones lunch box or for a special occasion, whose flavor will not only leave you satisfied but will reach your heart making it exalt with joy.
Maca Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 gr of wheat flour
- 100 grams of Maca powder
- 1 and ½ cup of water
- 1 and ½ cups of sugar
- ½ tbsp. bicarbonate
- 1 tbsp. vanilla essence
- 1 tbsp. of butter
- 2 tbsp. of baking powder
- 4 tbsp. cocoa
- 1 pinch of salt
- 3 units of eggs
Materials or utensils
- 2 bowls
- Palette
- Spoon
- cake mold
- Knife
- kitchen towels
Preparation
- 1st Step:
In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs, sugar and water. By getting a thin cream, reserve.
- 2nd Step:
In a second bowl add the wheat flour, the Maca, the baking powder, the baking soda, the cocoa and the salt, that is to say all dry ingredients. Stir everything very well so that each ingredient is compacted with the other.
- 3st Step:
Now, we return to the first bowl, where we must add butter and vanilla essence, always mixing so that everything is well beaten and without lumps.
- 4th Step:
Add the dry ingredients to where the wet ones are and beat little by little until a smooth and homogeneous mass is left.
- 5th step:
In a mold place a layer of butter and another of flour. Set aside while you preheat the oven to 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
- 6th Step:
Pour the mixture into the floured pan. Let bake for 60 minutes and to verify if it is ready, prick the dough with a knife or a stick, checking that it comes out dry.
culinary recommendations
- Commonly, the preparation takes wheat flour, but if you get maca flour, the result could be different by intensifying the flavor of the tuber.
- If you want to add more aroma and flavor to the cake, add a few cinnamon sticks, a few pieces of milk chocolate or cloves.
- To decorate use classic meringue, so that it doesn't overshadow all the freshness of the cake with a strong or artificial flavor.
Nutritional benefits of each ingredient
- Maca It is an aphrodisiac food increases physical endurance, It is anti carcinogenic and anti convulsant.
- La wheat flour Improves mood, helps the cardiovascular system, improves digestion, the absorption of minerals and is a good energizer.
- The egg helps bone growthIt is easy to digest, contains a large amount of protein and contributes to the increase of muscles.
- Sugar helps keep the body awake so you can work with greater concentration.
- Butter contains antioxidants like vitamin A and EIt is also a good source of selenium and vitamin K2, essential to prevent arterial calcification.
What is Maca?
Maca or Lepidium Meyenii it is a herbaceous plant annual or biennial native to Peru, where it is cultivated for its edible hypocolyte. It is known by other names such as Maca-maca, maino, ayak chichira, ayak willku.
Where does Maca come from?
Anthropological evidence of the cultivation of maca in Peru has been found since 1.600 BC Maca was considered by the Incas as a gift from the gods. They, in addition to growing it as food, used it in religious ceremonies to dances and rituals.
The Spanish chronicles tell that during the conquest of Peru, the animals brought from Spain did not reproduce normally at that point; the natives warned the conquerors to feed their animals like Maca; with which they managed to reach normal reproduction levels. It is so that during the first hundred years of colony the bed It was part of the tributes demanded by the person entrusted.
On the other hand, Father Cobo, during the colonial era, said: "Maca grows in the wildest and coldest places of the puna where there are no possibilities to grow any other food plant" being declared by the Flag Products Commission, a body of the Government of Peru as one of the Country Flag Products on July 28, 2004.
Maca cultivation
Maca grows in the high Andean plateaus of Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Peru at altitudes of up to 4.500 meters above sea level Evidence of its cultivation has been found in archaeological sites in Cerro de Pasco from 2.000 years ago.
Today its cultivation is massive in the highlands of the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes, having spread consumption in Bolivia and Peru and exported in various presentations, such as in flour, capsules, powders and syrups, also as a nutritional supplement.
Properties of Maca
Maca has some medicinal properties, one of the most popularly known is their ability to improve fertility in animals. This phenomenon was observed by the early Spaniards when they noticed that the domestic animals they carried they reproduced at a slower rate than their Andean counterparts.
Given this, it is said that the villagers advised add maca to animal feed, being able to verify the positive effects that occurred. It is known that its effect is pure on spermatogenesis in rats at high altitudes, however, research has been carried out on its aphrodisiac properties, proving that It has no effects on human hormone levels in periods of consumption of 12 weeks.
It is also attributed beneficial properties for the nervous system, especially for the the memory.
