One Cake: Three Ways

Ingredients

Method

1. Variation 1. Vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and passionfruit.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan-forced. Grease and line a 20cm cake pan and a 20 x 20cm square cake pan. Prepare a 12 capacity muffin pan with liners.
3. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for around 5 minutes or until pale and thick.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well in between and scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.
5. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and add half of it to the butter mixture along with half of the milk and beat slowly to combine. Add the remaining flour and milk and beat once more until a smooth batter forms.
6. (Variation 1). For the vanilla cake, pour ⅓ of the mixture into the 20cm cake pan. Split the remaining ⅔ between two bowls.
7. Bake the vanilla cake for 35–40 minutes. Let it cool completely in its tin.
8. Make the cream cheese frosting by beating together the cream cheese and butter until pale, fluffy and smooth. Add the icing sugar and continue beating for around 5 minutes or until it is smooth and light. Top the cake with frosting and fresh passionfruit pulp.
9. (Variation 2). For the apple and cinnamon tea cake, combine the chopped apples with ½ tsp cinnamon in a bowl and stir to combine. Combine the remaining cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
10. Fold the apples through one of the cake batters and then pour into the 20 x 20cm square cake pan. Top with the sliced apples and bake for 35–40 minutes. While still warm, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
11. (Variation 3). For the raspberry muffins, fold the frozen raspberries through the last batter and spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin casings.
12. Bake for 30–35 minutes or until cooked through and golden. Let them cool before dusting with icing sugar.