1. Take out the malai from the refrigerator and keep it on the kitchen counter for 10 minutes. Malai, normally has some milk with it. Do not try to separate the milk. Let it be as it is.

2. In the meantime, do the following preparations. Grease a 6" baking pan and dust it with flour. Tap it to remove excess flour, if any.

3. Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda at least 3 times (more the better). This is a very important step in order to have light cakes. Sifting incorporates air in the flour which in turn makes the cake light. Also, sift the flour from a little height, that is, keep the sifter slightly above the bowl.
4. Preheat oven to 180 degrees for 15  minutes.
5. Now, take malai, add sugar (3/4 cup only) and vanilla essence and beat with a wire whisk for 3 to 4 minutes or till sugar dissolves and all the lumps are gone.
6. Start adding flour mix into the malai mix and mix nicely. It will be a very thick dough type mixture.
7. Add milk and lightly mix everything. It should be of dropping consistency.

8. You can bake it as it is or follow the steps below to make thew zebra pattern.

9. In one bowl, take cocoa powder, brown sugar and make a paste using 1 tablespoon milk.

10. Now divide the cake mix into 2 bowls, one remaining as it is and the other added to the cocoa mix. So, you have two batters, one white which is vanilla and the other is brown which is chocolate.

11. Put one ladle of vanilla batter in the cake tin. On this, put one ladle of chocolate batter. Like this, keep on adding the two batters alternatively and you will see alternate lines of two colours.

12. Do not tap the bowl otherwise, the pattern will be disturbed.

13. Bake it for 30 to 35 minutes.

14. Check for the doneness by inserting a skewer. The skewer should come out clean.

15. After about 5 minutes, take out the cake by inverting it.

16. Keep it on a wire rack till cools down, otherwise heat at the bottom will make it soggy.

17. Once completely cool, have it with tea or use in your Ice cream Sundaes/Puddings.

18. Shall, I tell you one more fantastic way of having it? Serve it with ice cream and fruits. It tastes super yum.

19. You can store the remaining cake in an airtight container. Remains good for 2 days at room temperature or keep it in the refrigerator for longer storage (up to a week).

Variations

1. To make Vanilla cake, omit cocoa powder, take 1 cup flour and proceed as given above, omitting points no. 8 to 12.

2. To make a Fruit cake, add 1/4 cup tooti fruiti or chopped nuts in the flour after sifting and proceed as for Vanilla cake given above.

3. To make a Chocolate cake, take cocoa powder 3 tablespoons and sift flour with cocoa powder and proceed as given above, omitting points no. 8 to 12.