Marble Cake

Marble cake or zebra cakes are so pretty and i love making them. I have tried them before from here.
Recently I bought a book by Anneka Manning - Mastering the Art of Baking and I love the book i have tried few recipes from the book and they turn out great.

This recipe was in the book and i was instantly drawn towards it.So here it goes I made it for my boy's 2nd Bday.

What you need:

6 & 1/2 oz unsalted butter softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs at room temp
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup self rising flour ( All purpose flour with a pinch of salt and pinch of baking powder)
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1-2 drops of red food coloring

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4/350 F and grease a pan of your choice with butter flour.
2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.Sift the flours and fold into the butter sugar mixture alternately with the milk until combined and smooth.
3. Now divide the batter into 3 bowls. In one bowl add the red food coloring and mix well
4. In the second bowl add the cocoa powder and mix well, leave the 3rd one as it is.
5. Now drop spoonfuls of each mixture alternately into the baking pan and bake for 50 mins.

I covered my cake with Vanilla Butter cream, the recipe calls for Chocolate butter cream. so its your choice.

The recipe for the vanilla butter cream is below, it makes about 1 cup of butter cream.

3 &1/2 oz unsalted butter softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1&1/3 cup caster sugar

2 tbsp Milk

1. Use an electric beater to beat butter and vanilla in a small bowl until pale and creamy
2. Gradually add the caster sugar about 1/2 cup at a time until well combined
3. Test the consistency if its too thick add the milk 1 tbsp at a time until you reach the desired consistency.