Baked Ripe Plantains & Eggs – Kaipola (Indian Kerala Recipe)

Oven baked kaipola is a gluten free sweet plantain dessert from India, which is made with ripe sweet plantains & eggs as the main ingredients. Traditionally, kaipola is a steamed dessert or snack, but here we use the oven to bake this easy dish which can be enjoyed as a dessert or snack. Since we do not use any flour in this recipe, it’s a gluten free dessert or snack as well!

What is kai pola dish made of ripe plantains?

Kai pola or kaya pola is a simple dessert or snack made of ripe plantain bananas, cashews and eggs as the main ingredients.

Kaipola recipe (here the word kai refers to cooking plantain banana in malayalam language and kaipola recipe in malayalam language means plantain banana cake recipe) is a delicious traditionally steamed plantain dessert made of ripe plantains or cooking plantains and this is a snack recipe popular from Malabar region in Kerala.

I am not sure if we can refer to this as a cake, because eventhough the texture is similar to that of a cake, it is also similar to a baked custard or baked sweet frittata with ripe plantain bananas and eggs.

I am refering to this dessert as a sweet plantain cake anyways :), as that is how it is referred locally.

While the traditional kaipola recipe using ripe plantains, cashew nuts, eggs and a few other ingredients is a steamed dessert, you can also bake this dish in the oven and the result is still delicious.

This recipe is also known as pazham pola recipe where pazham means fruit or banana (plantain banana here).

Making Indian Kerala style kaipola without steamer or pressure cooker

I was actually trying to make the traditional Kerala Malabar food recipe named kai pola recipe or kaya pola recipe in the traditional way by steaming it, but I ended up baking this dessert kind of snack in the oven.

As I mentioned above kai pola is a well known dish from Malabar, which is the northern part of Kerala in South India.

This recipe calls for ghee and although it will work if you use melted butter instead, I highly recommend using pure ghee for the authentic taste and flavor.

This plantain banana cake is actually a very delicious and simple dessert made out of ripe plantains, cashew nuts, eggs, sugar and few other ingredients and the kaipola recipe ( whether you steam it or bake it) is very easy to follow.

The bananas that we use here are the ripe cooking bananas (ripe plantains). 

It is very important that you use ripe plantains for this recipe or else it would affect the taste and texture of the dish.

I skipped the raisins from the traditional kaipola recipe since I didn’t have any raisins left at home as I made this dish very unplanned. 

I highly recommend you to use the raisins in this kaipola recipe.

You can buy organic raisins here.

As I mentioned above, the traditional kaipola recipe is normally steamed or made in an iron skillet, but instead I baked this kai pola recipe in the oven.

Even though I was anxious about the final result, it was so good!

So here is how you can make this baked Kerala style plantain cake with cashews and eggs following this easy recipe for oven baked kai pola or kaya pola.

More Kerala style plantain banana recipes include green plantain stir fried with coconut, banana curry with green moong dal, kaya mezhukkupuratti (stir fry with spices), pazham pori (plantain banana fritters), sweet plantain stir fry with coconut, ripe plantain milkshake, pan fried caramelized ripe plantains etc!

So here is how you can make this simple, easy dessert or snack using ripe plantain bananas and eggs!

How to make kaipola in oven?

We use the following ingredients to make easy, yummy kaipola in the oven.

ingredients to make baked kaipola

3 ripe plantains (cooking bananas)

3 eggs

4 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons ghee or melted butter

3 tablespoons raw cashew nuts

1 tablespoon raisins

¼ teaspoon cardamom powder (if you do not have cardamom powder, you can use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract for flavor)

Step by step instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

Cut the bananas into small cubes and shallow fry in 2 tablespoons of ghee ( or melted butter) and keep aside.

Fry the cashew nuts and raisins also in ghee and keep aside.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs with sugar.

Add the remaining ghee or melted butter and whisk again.

Once the egg sugar mixture is very well combined, add the fried bananas cashew nuts and cardamom powder (or vanilla extract) to the mixture and stir well.

Grease a baking pan, pour the mixture and bake for about 30 minutes or until the inside is completely cooked.

You can use a toothpick & insert it to the centre of the kaipola to see if it comes out clean. If it’s not sticky, it’s completely cooked.

Baking time in ovens can vary, so please check in between to avoid burning.

You can also try this in an iron skillet, or you can just steam it.

The traditional recipe is called kaipola, and it is usually made by steaming.

Also adjust the sugar in the recipe if you want it more sweet and of course, you can always add more cashew nuts and raisins to make it more tasty.

Notes: Make sure to use ripe sweet plantains to make this dish.

I haven’t tried it with regular bananas so I am not sure if it will taste good if you use regular bananas instead of plantains.

Below you can get the recipe for baked kaipola in detail.