I saw this beautiful Zebra butter cake in Sonia place and I know I going to bake it. I make Zebra cake before but not as nice as hers. The key is controlling the amount of plain and cocoa batter used in the layers. The bottom 2-3 layers used more batter. It reduces gradually as you work towards the upper layers. Mine one still has a lot of room to improve. Thanks to Sonia's tips on the Zebra pattern technique.
Butter cake with egg separation yields lighter texture. Definitely is worth the effort when knowing you are going to enjoy moist and soft pieces of butter cake :)
Adapted with slightly modification from Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover *makes a 8” or 7” round cake pan Zebra Butter Cake/ 斑马蛋糕 (Egg Separation Method) Ingredients: (A)
227g unsalted butter
70g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 egg yolks
(B) 190g cake flour
½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ teaspoon double action baking powder ½ teaspoon salt
*Sift above together and set aside.
4 tablespoons milk
(C) 5 egg whites
70g sugar
(D) 10g cocoa powder
2 tablespoons hot water
1½ tablespoons milk, to add with plain cake batter
Methods:
1. Mix cocoa powder and hot water, set aside. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy.
2. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the sifted flour and beat well to combine. Fold through the milk and combine well.
3. Beat egg whites in a clean large bowl until soft foam. Gradually add in sugar, and beat till soft peak.
4. Take one portion of the egg white mixture, and use a hand whisk to stir well with egg yolk mixture till combine. Slowly fold in the balance egg white with a spatula till well combine.
5. Divide cake batter into two portions. Add in cocoa mixture in one of the cake batter and lightly mix till combine. This will be cocoa cake batter.
6. Add 1½ tablespoons milk into plain batter, mix well. This will be the plain cake batter.
7. Using a small soup ladle, scoop 3 of plain batter into center of cake pan. Then, scoop 3 of chocolate batter onto the center of the plain batter. Use the back of the ladle, smooth out the batter a bit. Continue to scoop another 3 plain and chocolate batter, then reduce to 2 scoops and continue layering and reduce till 1 scoop towards at the end. The circles become smaller and smaller as you working with the batter. Lightly tap on worktop to remove air bubbles. 8. Bake in a preheated oven at 180c for about 45-50mins or until the skewer insert comes out clean. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack before cut and serve.
Not sure why wrinkles on cake surface? Do you know why?
I am submitting this post to ~See Ya In The Gumbo hosted by Ms. enPlace~Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior's Cookin w/Luv