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

Preheat the oven to 350oF.
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 350oF 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.
hello ms. connie…i dont bake but i just wanna say that you’re really SOMETHING else!!!….am amazed at how the cake turned out…it looked complicated to achieve the tri-colored cake but you did it!!!….you’re really gifted!!!…truly amazing!!!…. :)
Hehehe thanks. Sometimes, my imagination goes really wild. :razz:
There’s a rainbow cake recipe that’s been making the rounds lately – I’m sure you might have seen it already: http://www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake
Beets might be a good option if you need brighter colours and I don’t think the taste will be too overpowering.
Omigosh, that’s what Sam wants — all those colors!
This cake looks amazing! I’m going to try it this weekend and serve it to some unsuspecting friends ;)
Really lovely, what a great idea, and the possibilities of all the flavour combinations… mmmmmm….
ganda naman sarap din siguro imagine yung intermingling ng tastes
wow this really looks yummy! I don’t think i can bake one, but I’d really want to try one! On the other hand, It looks too good to eat.
Thanks for the great post! I’m inspired to make ube/macapuno/lanka… maybe with bits of macapuno for texture :)
I saw the zebra cake a while back- I’ve been drooling about it since!
That is absolutely beautiful! (I found out about your site from a Filipino friend here in Japan. Lovely recipes!)
I read your zebra cake article and I used the same technique but with banana cake. It was so nice. Thanks for the tip!… The zebra cake and this one will be next!
Ms. Connie why is that when i remove the cake out in the oven it shrink? What do you think went wrong? It always happen specially with the chiffon cake. Do I need to take out the cake as soon as it finish baking or I need to wait after 2-3 min. before taking it out. Please help me am really desperate about this.
Thank you so much & may God bless you always.
You know, all those times that the same thing happened to me, it turned out that the baking powder was past its expiry date.