Moms Birthday - Birthday Special Zebra Cake

Moms Birthday - Birthday Special Zebra Cake 

Today is a very very special day for me. It's my mom's Birthday. Although as kids I cant really remember if we really had a big party for her Birthday..No..Nada...perhaps big parties for grown ups was never the style at typical middle class Bong households.

We were made to keep the joys the sorrows, the the triumphs,  the rejections all within family.  I remember each year for her birthday baba would get a saree. The price of those saris would usually be much beyond our monthly allotted budget for clothes. The saris would mostly be rich silks or fancy tanter sari. My mom would usually make a face at the biggest splurge of the season, but then secretly admire it. Finally she would wear the sari during durga pujo, most often on an Ashtami night. She would usually do so because saris need a lot of pairings to be done before one can wear, like a blouse , matching petticoat , fall stitched etc etc. and my father would be oblivious to these needs. Men born in the 50's didn't usually care for these lady like matching stuff....isn't it? or its just my baba.

Well this is not about the saris or the not so happening grown up parties of the 90s, it's all about memories, which I want to hold tight. Never to let it go....Cut to day- when I want to celebrate Ma's birthday for my little one to know and sing along , I'm lost thinking of things to make for her birthday...it's strange after all those years I'm lost when it comes to picking out one dish my mother loves. We always had happy occasions,big family dinners, homecomings - but in all those happy cookings the food would be about what I like, what my father loves, what's my brothers favorite..etc etc it was never about her. I think with time..our family favorites became her favorite...So be it MA, this day is about you.

 Let me bake a cake today. A zebra cake that she would often bake for me...sometimes as a comforting food on sick days , sometimes as a cheer me up food when I did not get selected in school choir and  sometimes just to celebrate my half yearly exam results (even if I stood 10th n a class of 40!)..and sometimes for no reason at all.

Recipe is simple, it's the marbling that you need to follow step by step. I was never around when my mom did this for me, they only way I taught myself was through fellow bloggers.I have to give the marbling credit to Farida (AZ cookbook). Thank you for making my mom';s day special and rekindling my memories.

Mom's special Zebra cake

Ingredients

1 cup white powdered sugar
1/2cup saltless butter
2 eggs
11/2 cups all purpose flour
13/4 tsp bakig powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1heaped tbsp dark cocoa powder

Everything at room temperature.

Method


1. Preheat oven to 175 C.keep aside a greased 9X9 inch pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar.Mix in eggs one by one. Stir in vanilla.
3. Mix all dry ingredients.add little by little to wet mixture. stir till its lumpy no more. add milk, till its smooth.
4.Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions. Keep one portion plain. Add cocoa powder into another and mix well.
5. Bake around 40 mins till the fork comes out clean.
6. The zebra pattern is just about assembling it well. Put a big ladle of plain batter in between. pour the chocolate in the center.repeat.Do not spread the batter or tilt the pan. the pictures will explain it well.

Once done , it should look something like this. 

Celebration time.Too bad you can't hear my little one singing ''happy to you Nani"  

 We bongs love our tea too much, and we also love our sweets. Here's something for today';s evening. Happy Birthday Ma. Love you.

sending this entry to Whats with My Cuppa ??