Eggless Zebra Cakes Or is it Tiger cake?

I have always wondered what eggless cakes taste like. I have never ventured to eat one, leave alone bake one. But I tried a wonderful eggless chocolate cake recipe from the Cadbury's cocoa powder tin and I was pleasantly surprised. The cakes turn out wonderfully spongy, springy and light. It does not feel heavy and dense. I was also skeptical about baking the cake in the microwave mode. I tried it out and it wasn't bad at all.

So I was interested in trying out the eggless version of the zebra cake in the microwave. I have baked the zebra cake (with eggs) in the convection oven on a couple of occasions with great results.

Ingredients:

APF (maida) - 2 cups
Sugar- 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence-1tsp
Baking powder -1tsp
Baking soda-1 tsp
Milk - as reqired to make smooth paste - I used 1 1/2 cups
Cocoa powder (I used Cadbury's ) - 2 tbsp

Method:
Cream butter and sugar together. Add flour baking powder and soda and milk to make smooth paste. Mix well and add vanilla essence.

Divide the batter into two equal portions. Add cocoa powder in one part and mix it well. My little girl mixed the cocoa powder in the bowl and splashing it all over, including her face and dress. Missed taking a picture then :).

Grease a microwaveable baking dish with butter or ghee. 

With different spoons, pour one scoop of the vanilla batter in the centre; the batter will start spreading on its own. 

Pour a scoop of the chocolate batter in the middle of the dish over the vanilla layer; This will start spreading too.

Alternately pour scoops of the batters until you use up all the batter. 

Microwave for 6-7 minutes on 80 % power. If not done, microwave for another 2-3 minutes.


































The cake is done when a toothpick inserted int he centre of the cake comes out clean or with a few crumbs stuck to it. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Later, invert on a wire rack and cool completely before slicing.

Verdict: The cake does not form a crust when baked in the microwave mode. I used natural vanilla essence (dark brown in colour). So I ended up with yellow and brown stripes instead of white and brown :). Hence I was wondering if I should call this a tiger cake instead?

Anyways the cake tastes great, is quite easy to put together and wonderful to serve when you have guests coming home at a very short notice.