Marble Butter Cake

This is a recipe adapted from Bakericious' Marble Butter Cake  (which adapted from Mrs NgSK's famous butter cake).  I did not use the egg separation method as I was too lazy; and since I couldn't find any self-raising flour in the pantry, I used plain flour instead, but added baking powder into it. Much to my disappointment, the cake came out from the oven with cracks on top.  However, it still taste good - rich and buttery!

Ingredients:
230g butter, softened
120g caster sugar
4 eggs (200g without shells)
1 vanilla pod, scrape all the seeds out
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp dark cocoa powder

• Preheat oven to 170 deg C.  Grease and line a 7 inch square cake pan with baking paper.
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
• Cream butter, caster sugar and vanilla seeds in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating to combine.  
• Fold in sifted flour mixture, alternating with milk; beginning and ending with flour mixture.
• Remove 1/3 of the batter and mix in cocoa powder.
• Spoon the plain and cocoa batter into the prepared pan alternately and use a chopstick to swirl the batter.
• Bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Stand cake in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Cinnamon Wholemeal Buns

Starter Dough:

95g bread flour

65g wholemeal bread flour

65g plain flour

20g caster sugar

5g instant dried yeast 

180g water

Main Dough:

110g bread flour

50g wholemeal bread flour

70g plain flour

60g caster sugar

3/4 tsp salt

20g milk powder

65g egg (lightly beaten)

40g water

40g corn oil

Toppings:  Mix together

Ground cinnamon

Ground walnuts

Black sesame seeds

Brown sugar

          

• Mix all the started dough ingredients until well combined.  Cover and leave at room temperature until the dough rises and becomes sticky, pasty and has a stringy appearance ("honeycomb"-like). 
• In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine all main dough ingredients, except oil. Then add in the starter dough, knead until well combined.  Add in oil and continue kneading until dough is smooth and elastic and leaves the sides of the bowl and passed the Window Pane Test.
• Place the dough in a bowl, cover and let it rise until double in size.
• Punch down the dough to release trapped air.  Divide dough into 16 pieces (about 51g each).  Roll each portion into a ball and placed them onto a lightly greased baking pan.
• Cover and leave to rise until almost double in size.
• Preheat oven to 175 deg C.
• Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with toppings.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.