Monday, December 22, 2008

Zebra Cake

I love cooking and baking is my new found interest. I tried baking cakes twice but both times the cake crust came out very crisp. I was using a glass dish to bake. When I left a comment on Divya's blog suggesting my failures, to my surprise she replied with a brief mail stating the probable reasons for these failures. This time while baking I avoided all the mistakes. The texture of the cake for the first time came out well. But again the crust came out crispy and also the centre was the only part that was undercooked. The rest of the cake came out well and spongy with no signs of undercooking! I used the "use and throw tin foils". Followed the recipe to T making no changes at all.
The upper heating element as well as the lower were working. The Oven was pre heated for 10 min. I kept the cake at the lower rack and baked it for about 30 mins before opening it for the first time. When I saw the cake browning too fast, I loosely covered it with Aluminim foil (Thanks Divya, It did really help). By this time its surface was spongy to touch and since it was not completely baked I put it back. At the end of 40 mins the sides were completely done but center was still not done. I tried baking it for additional 6-8 mins but the crust became crispy so dropped the idea completly. The cake did rise in the centre and there were cracks. The batter visible from the cracks were the ones that did not bake. Just a small portion. Can anyone suggest what might have gone wrong with my cake. The oven is realtively new.
I followed Deeba's Recipe for Zebra Cake. The taste was perfect and it is sure Vanilla and chocolate at its best. Thanks Deeba for the wonderful  recipe. Once I get to know my mistake will surely make it again as we loved the taste. Please hop on to her wonderful blog to see perfectly striped cake :) and many more cakes which make you drool

32 comments:

Namrata Kini said...

Lovely cake Ujwal. I have never tried making a zebra cake. But never experienced the problems u mentioned with the ones that i made. I guessed the problem may be with ur oven or the positioning of the racks. I am still an amateur in baking so cant say for sure. But would love to have a piece of ur cake. It looks very inviting.

Anonymous said...

What a gorgeous cake! I always want to make one, but a novice baker that i am , i get scared just by how complicated it looks.

urs look perfect.

indosungod said...

UJ, I am not a big baker by any means, variations of pound cake is all I bake. Here are a few that have worked for me, reduce the oven temperature by 10-15 degreesm usually 350-375 works and position the rack in the middle, this will prevent the outside from getting cooked rapidly and the inside getting cooked evenly. Maybe the strenght of the baking powder, reduce that a bit.

But the cake looks gorgeous by the way.

Anonymous said...

I love the name you gave it : ) Very cool!

Looks awesome and I'm sure it tasted even better.

Gita Jaishankar said...

The cake looks delicious! I have also had so many misgivings in baking, so I am sticking only to brownies and chocolate cake for now. its great that you are baking these types of cake, for me its too complicated...

Yasmeen said...

Farida's zebra cake is a classic cake,it definitely in my list of cakes to bake.Deeba made it so well too and your is no exception Ujwal,looks perfect:)

anudivya said...

I have been wanting to make this for ages! The problem I face is that I use whole wheat pastry flour for cakes and the thing just makes everything brown... the zebra effect would really not take off with that flour.
:( I wish there was a way out!

Unknown said...

looks nice..i made this too..its a regular thing at home now..

Uj said...

Namrata,
Thank you dear for suggestion. There are only 2 racks. One top one and one lower. Not sure what went wrong! Do give a try. This recipe is a keeper for sure.

Soma,
Its never too late. Do give a try. You will get addicted.

ISG,
Thank you dear.Sometimes, even minor points do seem to make a lot of difference. Like few suggestions that Divya gave me. I will try reducing the temperature. Coz I faced this issue even when I baked some buns. Even then the crust was crispy. May be I shud reduce the temp. I have only 2 racks. The top is closer to heating element so I kept it lower. Will try reducing the baking powder next time.

Supriya,
That was the name I saw in Deeba's blog :D It attracted me instantly

Gita,
It is not at all complicated. I made it for the first time. You are much ahead of me. You can fix this easily I am sure.

Yasmeen,
Thanks.

Divya,
Oh..right it may not give that effect.

Sowmya,
good for you :)

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

wow wow.. cake looks soooooo cute ujwal. wanna grab some right away... the double color is an attraction.

Deepthi Shankar said...

wow, you have loads of patience to bake zebra cake. way to go. i guess we all learn by mistakes. my cakes were a disaster too. you will learn with time

Neha said...

cake is looking very nice uj,
my cakes a disaster too, always, i'm never sure what it will come out ,even with the same recipe , :(
But still go on trying...

Sanghi said...

Ur recipies and clicks are fantabulous! Thanks for visiting my blog and the lovely comments.

Deeba PAB said...

That looks good to me
Uj...maybe you can work with a different oven temperature. Glad you enjoyed it!!

vidhas said...

Very nive cake. Mouhtwatering and so tempting to hve right now

CurryLeaf said...

Looks perfect to me.But I will go for 35 minutes -I also agree with ISG.I wish I too knew what it was,I am also learning baking with trial and error.Do post either in the same post or next one if you ever get the correct advice and the cake comes out finally.It will do a lot of good to others like me .Thanks for the info on baking in this post.I too use tin foils tgh I preheat only for minutes.But my oven is giving me problems by turning off sometimes. :( Hope I not doubling your confusion.Cheers

TBC said...

Your Zebra cake looks gorgeous. I've been wanting to make this ever since I first came across it on Farida's blog.

lubnakarim06 said...

Zebra bread always make me suprise. Looks soft and yummy.

Shama Nagarajan said...

looking perfect.......nice name....love to hv it....

VG said...

Hi Uj, thanks for visiting my blog and for your comments. Regardless of your 'issues' you cake still looks delectable! I wouldn't mind a piece right now.

I am not an expert but through my own baking and experience, my advice would be:
(1) preheat oven for 10 to 15 mins.
(2) position rack in the middle of the oven so your cake is sitting the same height away from the top and bottom heating elements.
(3) Decrease the heat by 10 deg celsius if you have a fan forced oven. A 'cracked' cake is a sign of the oven being too hot but this is quite hard to 'fully' control.
(4) do not open the oven door during the first half of cooking. Even then, do not slam the door shut when you do open it to check.
(5) As you have done, if the top is cooking faster than the inside, cover with foil, with the 'shiny' side of the foil down.
(6) Most importantly, make sure that your ingredients are all at room temperature when you are assembling the cake. If your ingredients are too cold, it will go into 'shock' when you put it in a hot oven. Hope this helps.

Apologies if this sounds as if I am trying to teach you to suck eggs. Just want to help as it frustrates me too when things don't turn out perfect!

Cheers, VG

notyet100 said...

zebra cake looks perfect,..:-)

notyet100 said...

zebra cake looks perfect,..:-)

AnuSriram said...

That sounds wonderful and delicious!
Thanks for visiting my blog!

Srikitchen said...

looks superb!

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

wow Ujwal the cake looks great, first times always failure but later you become an expert... I am sorry for disappearing without a word I am held up with guests at home and doing a lotta travel these days but for sure I will be back soon with a nice post and thanks for remembering and dropping by...

Priya Suresh said...

Awesome cake UJ...just drooling over them...

Red Chillies said...

I am having tea now and would love to have a piece of it Uj. Me too, I have problems baking too and stay away from it. Your cake looks terrific.

Red Chillies said...

I am having tea now and would love to have a piece of it Uj. Me too, I have problems baking too and stay away from it. Your cake looks terrific.

Uj said...

Mahimaa,
It was the attraction of the colours that made me bake this cake.

Deesha,
You are right. It is when we make mistakes we realise. Thank you dear.

Neha,
Thank you dear. Yeah I am going to keep on trying.

Sanghi,
Thanks dear.

Deeba,
I will try with different oven temperature next time.

Vidhas,
Do come over I have some pieces to share

Curry leaf,
I plan to bake another cake soon and this time I will follow the suggestions that all have patiently mentioned. If it comes out good I will surely make a post so that it would help a lot of people like me. No dear you have not added to any confusions :)

TBC,
Give it a try. Its worth it.

VG,
Thank you dear for taking so much time and writing it out for me. I will bake another cake and let you know how it turns out. Sometimes even the minor pointers do seem to be working. And there is no need for apology, after all you are helping me out. Thanks a lot once again.

notyet100,
Thanks.

Anu,
Thank you for stopping by.

SriLekha,
Thank you dear.

Ramya,
Oh.. ok.. have a good time dear. And come back soon.

Priya,
Thanks

RC,
Please do come over we can have tea together. I really want to learn the art of baking :D

Divya Kudua said...

Lovely cake Uj..it looks very pretty,the stripes have come out well too..;-) and hey..thanks for the link..;-)

CurryLeaf said...

Thanks for the Response and waiting for my piece when you bake a scrumptious cake.MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Anonymous said...

I tried this recipe and it's easy and tasty as well as looks good.
Thanks Uj for posting this recipe.
All the best Uj and continue to add such interesting recipes.