Zebra Butter Cake

The Mrs Ng SK Cake was made popular by Wendy of Wendyinkk.blogspot.com. This was one recipe that I tried and really loved! So earlier this week, as the school was going through EV and that my colleagues had worked so hard preparing for it, I decided to bake them a butter cake for all to share! 

It has been an easier week for me as I was not involved during EV but I was part of the PSLE Oral by serving in the waiting room. I also had the luxury to do more marking. I've always had an issue with students who can't write neatly. My buttons were pushed to the extreme when this silly boy of mine has his 'f's looking like 't'! This work here that I've marked is not the first as I've had him write like this time and time again in my work and I've even penalised him for such handwriting during his spelling. However, this time round, it was too annoying. His entire worksheet was laced with imperfect 'f's. I decided to print out those tracing worksheets used for young children for him to practice his 'f's. Urrrgh, sometimes, kids.  

That aside, I adopted Wendy's recipe and made it Zebra styled. I just love how beautifully flat the butter cake worked out to be! 

This recipe took me about 1 hour 15 minutes in all to prepare and bake. I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Zebra Butter Cake Recipe

This recipe yields one 8" square cake

230g unsalted butter, room temperature

4 eggs (55g in size)

200g castor sugar

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

A

100g self raising flour

30ml milk (I used fresh milk)

B

95g self raising flour

5g cocoa powder

30 ml milk (I used fresh milk)

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius, fan mode. Sift the flour in both mixtures separately. (A in a bowl and B in another)

Grease and line the baking tin with baking paper.

Sifted B mixture.

This was the butter I used. Not as fragrant as Elle & Vire. I like that one better. 

Separate the egg yolks from white. Ensure that no yolks, oil or water gets into the whites mixture/bowl.

Beautiful yolks are present when eggs are fresh! (:

Add in 50g of castor sugar and whisk till stiff peaks are achieved.

When the meringue is still and ready, it should not fall off/drop when the bowl is inverted. 

  

Add remaining 150g of castor sugar into the butter that has been brought to room temperature. I thawed mine for about 10 mins after bringing it out of the fridge. 

Cream the butter and the sugar till light in colour. The mixture should be fluffy. 

Add the vanilla bean paste and mix well.

Add in one yolk and mix well. Repeat for 3 other yolks one by one till all the yolks are well incorporated.

You should get something like this.

Weigh the mixture and divide into 2 bowls. 

Add in A into one bowl. Mix well. 

Add in 30ml of the milk and mix well. You should get something like this. 

Add B into the other bowl. Mix well. 

Add the other 30ml of milk and mix well.

You should get something like this. 

Portion your meringue by 'cutting' it into 4 portions in the mixing bowl it was mixed in. Since it is stiff, it's pretty easily to portion it by 'cutting' it with your spatula. Add in 1 portion of the meringue into the plain batter bowl and fold in till no traces of meringue can be seen. 

You should get something like this.

Add 1 more portion of meringue into the mixture and fold it in gently till it is well incorporated. 

You should get something like this. 

Repeat the same steps for the chocolate batter. 

  

You should get something like this.

Ideally, a Zebra Cake should look something like this:

Image taken from http://www.bakingishot.com/sites/default/files/images/ZebraCake-AnncoosHobby.JPG

However, mine did not even out as much as I like it to be. So my Zebra cake isn't a full fledged zebra cake. I'll have to experiment the method again but till then, this is my rendition of it. It tasted really good.. so it didn't really matter to me that it wasn't as pretty inside as it should be.

The idea is to have the batters scooped into the tin in alternate fashion.

Mine got a little heavy and started slanting to one side! 

So I was kinda desperate but I figured that my Zebra might as well be a special one, so as long as it tastes great. 

Once all the batter is in, drop it gently from a short height onto the table to even out the layers. Bake it for about 45 minutes in the oven or till a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cake.

I LOVE how the cake seems so peaceful and flat! Maybe it's just me but I HATE erupted cakes. It's just a sign of bad temperature control. This cake made me happy! (: Allow it to cool for 5 - 10 minutes before gently removing from the baking tin to allow it to cool further. Slice it only when it is cooled completely. 

I kept some of this cake for my family and brought the rest to school for my colleagues. I'm really happy that it was a HIT with my colleagues! I shall bake this again and attempt to perfect the zebra technique! Till then, bake this and let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did! (: 

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: