Tiger Skin Charcoal Sponge Cake

The kids' tutor had been with us for the past 3 years, and now that she had found a full time job, she decided to stop tutoring.  I wanted to baked her something unique, as a thank-you cum farewell gift, so I came up with this cake.  This was modified from the sponge cake recipe that I used previously.

Preparing the batter was really easy, it's really the creation of the 'skin' that drained off my energy!

Ingredients

150g cake flour - sieved 

150g caster sugar

5 eggs

15g cake emulsifier

1tsp baking powder

80g butter

50ml milk

1tbsp bamboo charcoal powder 

2-3 drops of red colourings

Method

1. Grease and lined a 8" round baking tin
   
2. Preheat oven at 150C.
   
3. Beat flour, sugar, eggs, butter, emulsifier & baking powder together, at high speed, probably for 5min, until the batter becomes very smooth & creamy.
   
4. Fold the milk gradually into the batter, until well combined.
   
5. Divide the batter into 3 portions: 2 equal portions, and 1 of smaller quantity.
   
6. Mix the smaller portion of batter with the coloring.
   
7. Mix in the charcoal powder to one of the larger portion.
   
8. With a tablespoon, transfer the batter into the tin in this manner, until all batter are used up.
   a.  Pour from the centre.
   b.  2 tablespoon original batter
   c.  2 tablespoon charcoal batter
   d.  1 tablespoon pink batter
   
9. Once done, tap the tin gently to released air bubbles.
   
10. With a skewer, 'cut' across the cake top to form pattern.
    
11. Send to bake for 60min.  If a skewer come out clean, it means the cake is ready.
    
12. When done, remove the cake from the oven to cool on the cooling rack for few minutes.  Then you may invert the cake to remove the baking tin & baking sheet.  Once this is done, you can invert back the cake to cool completely.
    

*Note:  If you prefer zebra-like pattern inside the cake, the batter should be spilt in such proportions instead, preferably in irregular consistency (means, doesn't follow a strict pattern):b.  4 tablespoon original batter
c.  2.5 tablespoon charcoal batter
d.  1.5 tablespoon pink batter

All good as a gift!