My Recommended recipe series #1

Every week I am going to post one of my favourite tested recipes.

I am no masterchef therefore the fact that I was successful in following this recipe and it turned out not only to be edible but also yummy, is in itself a near on guarantee that anyone can bake this treat!

First up: Lorraine Pascale's "Crouching tiger, hidden Zebra cake" from her book "Fast, fresh and easy."

Here is what my final cake looked like (I used the left over mixture to make little buns);

Lorraine's recipe;
  Prep time: 25minutes Time baking in the oven: 35 minutes Makes: 12 wedges
Equipment: 23cm springform sandwich tin (or whatever's in your draw!) , large baking sheet, large bowl, medium bowl, zester (or fine cheese grater), wire rack.

Ingredients:
250ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
250g of caster sugar
100ml of semi skimmed milk
4 medium eggs (at room temperature)
A few drops of vanilla extract
300g of self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2.5g cocoa powder
1 orange

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, (for a fan oven 160) , 350 degrees Fahrenheit m Gas mark 4. Grease the bottom of e sandwich tin with a little oil, line with baking parchment and oil again. Set aside on a large baking sheet.

-Put the oil,sugar , milk, eggs and vanilla extract in a large bowl and beat everything together well. Best not to use an electric whisk as it will introduce too many bubbles, which are not needed for this cake.

- Pour out 400ml of this mixture in to a medium bowl (or 400g).

- Sift 175g of self raising flour into one bowl along with 1/2 a teaspoon of the baking powder. Mix well and set aside. This is your vanilla mix.

- Sift the remaining 125g of self raising flour and 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder into the other bowl along with cocoa powder. Finally grate the orange zest in, mix everything together well and set aside. This is your chocolate mix.

- Now put a tablespoon of vanilla mix into the middle of your tin. Then, using a clean table spoon, put a blob of the chocolate mix in the middle of the vanilla one. keep doing this, alternating between vanilla and chocolate, so you form a type of "bull's eye" or "target board" look. Each time you dollop a blob in, the whole mix will spread out on the base. By the time you have used up both cake mixes, they should have just reached the edge of the tin.

- Bake in the oven for 35mins.

- Check the cakes cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre. It should come out clean, if not return it to the oven for another 5 mins until cooked. Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the tin. Then carefully remove from the tins and leave to cool completely on a wire rack (can eat it warm if you can't wait!).

- Cut the cake, serve and enjoy!