Baked with love, you and me side by side

There are certain times, in life that rushes past like a fast moving train, when you want to close your eyes and reimagine, reinstall and rewind that particular instant, stopping it then and there like a song in queue, forgetting surroundings momentarily. You want to keep doing it till those best hours are reinforced with all the minute details and for a split second this exercise may result in having a faint hint of a smile, a smile that is without any trying.  

 To do that again,re live the moment, practically is difficult but like it’s said in physics about the image formed in front of a convex or concave mirror is smaller or larger or inverted or same size ( I don’t remember exactly although back in school I liked this subject), however the moment can give inspiration. That inspiration may culminate in something that satiates your yearning and hence that image may be larger or smaller, or erect or inverted but this does not matter as long as you are sort of happily satisfied. You have in your hand that beautiful moment again, that loving gesture, the priceless memory. 

 My golden ticket to that time is a mama’s favourite recipe of a basic marble cake or a plain vanilla flavoured that brings back our childhood in a blink of an eye. I would call this recipe my first step in bakingdom. The easiest one taught by mama along with a cute present for me and my sister on one of our birthdays. 

 We were so mesmerised as that cake batter doubled and tripled as mama whipped up eggs and sugar, and vanilla essence addition was like a touch of magic because everyone one of us wanted to lick the spoon, the bowl and the egg beater blades. We used to have a fight who gets more batter to enjoy as chef’s treats although mama didn’t leave much in the mixing bowl as she carefully poured it in baking pan. 

 This is one of those best loved moments that comes from being in a comfort of home cooked food and that is even made more special if it comes from loving hands of your mom. There are many more short trip down memory lane but I leave it to some other blog post.

Coming back to the recipe …. 

 Marbled Cake or Vanilla Cake with chocolate Swirls 

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons milk extra 

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease a medium loaf pan (9.5 inch into 3 inch rectangle and 2.5 to 3 inch deep) or 7 inch round pan. Dust it with flour too. Take 3 eggs in mixing bowl and whip with electric beater till light and fluffy. Add in vanilla essence and sugar tablespoon by tablespoon and beat after each addition till all is incorporated. Batter should be light and increased up in volume. Now pour oil in a single stream and gently fold it with flat metal spatula very lightly caring not to deflate batter. Sift flour and baking powder separately 3 times and then gently fold in 2 lots in batter from outside to centre along with 1/4 cup milk . Stir cocoa powder in 2 tablespoons milk in a cup. Add in 3 tablespoons of vanilla batter and mix. Now there are two methods of forming swirls. Either pour alternate vanilla and chocolate batter in baking pan i.e 2 tablespoons of vanilla and then 1 tablespoon of chocolate in centre of vanilla batter doing it all the way till all batter is used. Second method is simpler. Pour all this chocolate batter from cup  into vanilla batter, give it one gentle stir with spatula and pour it all in baking pan. Bake for 30  to 35 minutes in moderate oven till cake risen and springy to touch and toothpick comes out clean. 

Mama’s tips 

1. All ingredients should be at room temperature 
2. Always sift dry ingredients 3 times 
3. Metal spatula is best for folding in flour and oil
4. Second method of creating swirls is the best. 

You can make this cake all vanilla by omitting cocoa. And you can add chocolate chips or roasted nuts or candied orange peels on top or in batter to have varying flavour to your liking. The leftover cake is ideal for classic dessert fruit trifle.