Tricolor Marble Cake

The rains are here and i feel like baking!LM had her term holidays and I wanted to make her eat some good stuff.This cake came out really well as i have been hunting for metal baking trays and have been disappointed.So now i have a make-do solution to it..have started using my steel thaalis( yes the plates used for meals) and this works beautifully.With the tremendous shortage of baking trays I might as well get plates in all shapes and sizes now!

This cake i had made a tri color marble cake but the colors i have used turned out really light ( i should have added some more color and essence).I used vanilla, chocolate and rose-almond flavours.But all my colors were powdered colors so i didn't get the desired shades(:( but the taste was super).

I got this link from My Diverse Kitchen- lovely food blog and eye popping beautiful captures!I have halved the original recipe.

if u look carefully u can catch a bit of pink at the bottom!

You need

All purpose flour 1 n half cups
Butter 1/2 cup softened at room temperature
Sugar 1 cup
Eggs 2
Baking powder 2tsp
Salt a pinch
Milk 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder 2 tablespoons + Vanilla essence 1/4 tsp(for the brown part)
Almond essence 1/4 tsp(if you are not using rose syrup, use almond essence+red food food color for the pink part) or Rose syrup 1/2 tsp(like i used)
Lemon extract 1/2 tsp + yellow food color ( for the yellow part)

• Preheat the oven to 250C.
• You need 9" round baking tray greased and dusted with flour.( the cake was not too thick use a smaller tray if you want a thick sponge)
• Combine flour,baking powder,and salt ina bowl and set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs beating well after each addition.
• Combine the dry flour mix to the butter-egg mixture, alternating with milk.Mix well to a smooth batter.
• Divide the batter into 3 parts:  ( i have changed this part to suit my ingredients, you are free to follow the original recipe)

1. Add vanilla essence + cocoa powder.
2. Add almond essence + red food coloring
3. Add lime extract + yellow food color.

• Add each of the colored portions alternately or start with one portion at the sides, then pour the second and the third and then make swirls with a knife or skewer.
• Bake at 250C for about 20 - 25 mins or until the skewer comes out clean from the center of the cake.

• Allow to cool for 10 minutes before you jump in and grab a taste! 

• Dust the cake with caster sugar and serve with tea!

Tips:
- Mix the cocoa powder with warm water into a creamy mix and set aside.
- The colors look darker on the batter but when they bake they were too light.I had a baby pink shade which is not visible in the pictures.
- I used kesari powder for the yellow portion and like wise the color was too light.