Saturday, March 16, 2013

Zebra Cake (斑马蛋糕)

Wanna take a stroll to the wild life in your kitchen? What about Zebra?

I haven't been baking for quite sometimes. This beautiful stripes hearty bake is not a coincidence. He spent his weekend helping me doing house cleaning. So, I baked this for Max to give him a good treat.


Actually this is a repeat recipe. I used Mrs.NgSK's Vanilla Butter Cake recipe that I baked last year. All I did this time is to add some good quality cocoa powder in it, and used Échiré Salted French Butter

I love this cake. Although I didn't do well on the Zebra stripes, but I love the whimsy touch.



Ingredients
(Source : Mrs.NgSK's Vanilla Butter Cake)

  • 250g Salted Butter, room temperature (I used Échiré Salted Butter) 
  • 200g Eggs (no shell) - About 4 eggs (Grade B). 
  • 50g + 150g Castor Sugar
  • 200g Self raising flour, sifted
  • 60ml Fresh Milk 
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Paste
  • 10g Cocoa Powder (I used Valrhona Brand)
Method 
  1. Pre-heat oven at 180C (Conventional).
  2. Prepare a 9' inch round cake tin. Line the base, grease the sides.
  3. Separate egg whites & yolk. Beat egg whites until soft peaks, gradually add 50g sugar and beat until stiff. 
  4. Cream butter and 150g sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in Vanilla paste, beat for awhile, and followed by egg yolks one at a time.
  5. Put in half the flour and mix on low speed until incorporated. Add in milk in 2 additions and mix until well incorporated. Mix in balance flour. 
  6. Put in half the egg whites in and mix on low speed. Pour the balance egg whits in and FOLD using your spatula. 
  7. Divide batter into 2 equal portions. Fold chocolate powder into one of the batter. 
  8. Using a tablespoon (or a small soup ladle), scoop 1 tablespoon of the vanilla batter into the center of the greased cake tin. Then, scoop 1 tablespoon chocolate batter on top of the center of the vanilla batter. And then, another tablespoon of vanilla batter on top of the chocolate batter. Repeat the process until the batter finished. 
  9. Bake for 45 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
  10. Leave cake cooled before cut and serve.  

I've seen some bakers scooped 3 tablespoons of each batter at the beginning. And then reduce to 2 tablespoon each. And finally, the batter gradually reduced until 1 tablespoon of each batter. It's like, the circles will become smaller and smaller. This could achieve nice pattern lines on the cake. But I only read this tips right AFTER my cake is out of the oven. Sigh! Maybe I should try this tips. It should gives better Zebra result :)

Here's how I did it :)




Yes, it looks messy. But nevermind. The most important is..... Tada!!! My cake didn't crack. I'm happy!!!


And here, you could see the layers of chocolate color at the side of the cake.


The stripes looks nice! If you think baking ordinary butter cake is boring, why not give this a try?


Happy Baking!

17 comments:

  1. Hi Annie, your Zebra butter cake looks amazing. For me your zebra stripes look very even and neat work. I should try to bake one, one fine day!! LoL.

    Nice to meet you through MFF event. I've submitted mine please check your email.

    Have a nice weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Angeline,

      Nice to meet you too. Do try it. This cake is not difficult :)

      Delete
  2. Hi Annie, your Zebra cakes looks lovely to me. Tastewise definitely good as I have baked Mrs NgSK Butter cake several times. Never thought of this variation. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kimmy, If you baked Mrs NgSK butter cake before, this cake can be quite fool proof to you :)

      Delete
  3. Annie, I love the stripes! Very nicely done :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Annie,
    I find the zebra pattern looks pretty already :)
    i'm just about to make this kind of cake, but it's steamed egg whites cake :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. This cake is so pretty, Annie. Tempted to make it :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Cristalglace, don't just get tempted. You have to do it! :D

      Delete
  6. hello Annie..looking at the ingredients given, I am sure this cake is very soft and moist, I sure love the stripes, awesome! thanks for the sharing Annie...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Queenie, what are u waiting for? Go and bake one for yourself this weekend! Hahaha :)

      Delete
  7. i always have trouble doing the zebra pattern but yours look so amazing!! am so glad i popped by :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Janine, It's my first attempt actually. No high expectation. I'm happy with the result. But i do see other people could achieve really nice Zebra pattern. I'm so envious too :)

      Delete
  8. Hi Annie,
    Wow! This is a lovely zebra.
    I am tempted to give this a go..lol
    Thanks for sharing!
    mui

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mui Mui, Don't wait. Just try it. It's nice! :)

      Delete
  9. Hi Annie, would like to try. But can replace vanilla paste with vanilla essence? Awaits yr next guide. .
    Thx, sue

    ReplyDelete