Rainbow cake

Remember the zebra cake? Toward the end of that entry, I mentioned that I wanted to use the same technique for making a tri-colored and tri-flavored cake — a red, green and yellow cake with strawberry, apple and vanilla flavors. Well, I’ve done it except that I used melon and pandan for a more Filipino flavor.

I wish there were more natural ingredients available for making this cake but I had to settle for melon and pandan extracts which you will find in the baking section of most supermarkets. I also added a few drops of red and green food color because, otherwise, the red and green stripes would have been too pale.

Ingredients:

2 c. of all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. of baking powder
1/2 tsp. of salt
4 large eggs
1 c. plus 1 tbsp. of white sugar
1 c. of milk (I used skim milk; if using evaporated milk, use 1/2 c. milk and 1/2 c. water)
1 c. of vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. of melon extract
1/2 tsp. of pandan extract
a few drops of red and green food color

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Preheat the oven to 350^oF.

If you don”?t have a non-stick baking pan (I used silicone), lightly brush the sides and bottom of a 10-inch round pan with oil.

Stir the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the eggs and sugar until smooth and light colored, about two minutes on high speed of a hand mixer. Add the oil and milk, and mix for another minute.

Add the flour mixture and mix just until blended. The batter will be of pouring consistency but not thin.

Divide the batter into three portions. Stir in the vanilla into one portion; the pandan and melon into the other two, respectively. Stir in 2 to 3 drops of red food color to the melon-flavored batter; stir in 2 to 3 drops of green food color to the pandan-flavored batter.

Assemble the cake. The best way to do this is to use three cups with spouts. Liquid measuring cups are ideal. If you don’t have anything with spouts, you’ll have to use small cups of equal sizes.

Place the baking pan in front of you. Pour about 1/4 cup of the vanilla-flavored batter at the center of baking pan. Immediately pour the same amount of melon-flavored batter right at the center of the vanilla-flavored batter. Follow with the pandan-flavored batter. Repeat until all the batter has been poured in. You have to do this fast without allowing the batter to spread too thin before pouring in the next.

Bake the cake in a preheated 350^oF oven until a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes to an hour and five minutes.

Cool the cake in the pan for about 10 minutes. Invert onto a plate and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes or so. The cake can be sliced and served warm. Or, you can cool it completely and cover it with buttercream icing.