Zebra Cake with Zebra Fondant Icing...and my Third Blog Anniversary!!!

My Blog turns 'THREE' this month.
I started this blog to record my recipes online, as a hobby; which later turned to a passion and I never thought that I would reach this far.I must admit that the culinary journey has been quite interesting, exciting and a wonderful one which gave me an opportunity to learn and know more about various cuisines.
I would like to give a visual treat to my blog and all my readers and friends with a sweet post to celebrate the occasion.I made Farida's famous Zebra cake which is quite popular in blogosphere and also tried my hands on fondant for the first time.This is my first fondant experiment which turned quite nice and gave me enough confidence to work with fondant in future.Though I have adapted a simple zebra striped pattern to go with my zebra cake, playing with various colors of fondant and rolling in to various shapes is definitely a fun filled activity which I thoroughly enjoyed.One does not need to attend any cake decorating class to start with fondant,Trust me..!! when I could work with fondant I am sure even you can.I have mentioned few pointers for easy guidelines, in case you are working with fondant for the first time.Though I used a black color it did not turn out black and gave a shade of grey,I think I should added few more drops of black color.I referred Wilton's site for some tips. My S-I-L helped me while decorating it.I would also like to thank my little niece 'K' for letting me use her valuable Minnie mouse for the photographs.
Zebra Cake Recipe:
(makes one 9-inch round cake)
Recipe Source: Farida's AZcookbook

Ingredients:
2cups(300g) All-purpose flour
1cup(250g) granulated Sugar
1cup(250ml) Milk,at room temperature
1cup(250ml) Oil
4large Eggs, at room temperature
2tbsp dark Cocoa powder
1tsp Vanilla essence
1tbsp Baking powder
Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350F (180C) for 12-15 mins.
• Grease a 9" round tin with oil and dust it with flour evenly and remove the excess flour or line the pan with parchment paper.
• Sieve flour with baking powder a couple of times until it is mixed well.
• In a large mixing bowl,combine eggs(both egg whites and yellows) and sugar. Using an electric whisk or wire whisk beat the mixture until it is creamy and light in color.
• Add milk,vanilla essence and oil to the egg mixture and continue beating until it is mixed well.
• Now gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat until the batter is smooth and the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Try not to over beat the batter as this will remove the air pockets formed in the batter.
• Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions. Keep one portion plain and add cocoa powder into the other portion and beat well until it is well mixed.Make sure you sieve the cocoa powder before otherwise you will end up having the lumps in the cocoa batter.
• Now comes the most interesting part of assembling the cake to get that beautiful zebra pattern.
• Scoop 3 heaped tbsp or 1 ladle of plain white batter into the middle of the baking pan.Then scoop 3 tbsp or 1 ladle(same sized) of cocoa batter and pour it in the center on top of the plain batter.You need not to wait until the previous batter spreads and also do not try to spread the batter or tilt the pan to distribute the mixture.The batter will spread by itself and fill the pan.
• Continue alternating the batters until you finish them.
• Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes until the cake is bake and pass the tooth pick test.If you insert a toothpick in the center of the cake it should come out clean.
• Remove the tin from oven and let it cool for 5 mins.Run the knife slowly around the edges of the cake and invert the cake on to the cooling rack and turn the cake back and let it cool completely.

You can serve the cake as it is or you can dust it with icing sugar or you can can cover it with your favorite icings like butter cream,fresh cream or with fondant.
For eggless version follow my Eggless marble cake recipe and follow the procedure as of zebra cake.You need to divide the batter into two halves and mix in the cocoa powder in one half and follow the spreading process as of zebra cake.

Notes:

1. You can serve this as a tea time cake with out fondant or any other icing.
2. Just dust the cake with icing sugar or cocoa powder or serve as it is.
3. I felt the cake was bit less sweeter,it all depends on the quality of cocoa powder.If it is dark bitter one feel free to add 2-3 tbsp more sugar to the batter.

Decorating with Fondant:
Tips : Wilton's website

Ingredients:
1 pack of ready made Fondant mix(we need just a portion of it for the recipe)
black edible food color drops to create stripes
3/4 cup butter cream icing(ready made or freshly made)

Method:

• Take a big orange sized fondant dough and knead the fondant dough until it is smooth and shiny for roughly around 4-5 mins.
• Take a lemon sized fondant dough and add few drops of black color to it and mix well and knead to a smooth dough.
• Spread a tbsp batter of butter cream in the center of the serving plate and fix the cake over it.
• Now slowly cover the cake with a thin coat of butter cream icing all over the cake.
• Roll the kneaded white fondant dough into a big round of 1/4 inch thickness(remember it should be big enough to cover the cake completely).
• Slowly lift the rolled fondant and cover the cake and press it slightly so that it will hold on the cake.Using the pizza cutter or knife cut around the edges (where the cake ends near the plate) and remove the extra fondant.
• Roll the black colored fondant into a thin round of 3-4 mm thickness and cut into random stripes of different length and size and width using the pizza cutter.
• Stick the cut stripes applying water on one side of the strip on the cake(white fondant) creating the zebra pattern.
• Cover the bottom portion of the cake with small pebble sized balls made out of fondant.