Every year and since serving my national service as a Singaporean, I go back to the army for reservist for additional combat training. As such, I decided to make a Camouflage Cake for the occasion, and it is absolutely apt especially since it is inspired by my army uniform.

The story, of course, goes a little longer. In short, and not to bore, my army mates were there sampling my bakes since even before I started Bakeomaniac! They were extremely supportive and after we started on reservist, it is really unfortunate that I haven’t god a chance to share my bakes. Finally and after 6 years, I am glad to share these homemade bakes with them again!

The making of a Camouflage Cake often involves multiple colours including the different shades of green, black and dark brown. In the baking world, this is oftne achieved through fondant or buttercream. However, this is something I am unable to do so as this Camouflage Cake will need to survive the entire trip back to camp, and without any air condition as well.

As such, I thought to base this Camouflage Cake on my Butter Cake Recipe, and to use real flavours that can offer colours. In order to achieve this, it was a balance of green pandan and brown cocoa powder. The only added colouring I used was black, as I’ve ran out of black cocoa powder and they can often dry out the cake. Furthermore, the toggling of ratios for the different components do allow different shades of green!

My Camouflage Cake consists of 3 main colours:

  • Olive Green (Pandan colouring with a small dash of black colouring)
  • Army Green (Pandan colouring with a bigger dash of black colouring)
  • Camel (Original Batter with just a tsp of cocoa powder)

Thereafter, the pattern can be formed by alternating dollops from the 3 colours and to marble it! An important question you will need to ask yourself is how much colour of each would you like to see. A good start would be to split the batter into three for this purpose. However, I prefer Olive Green to be the main colour and as such, I did set aside more batter for it.

I hope this recipe is useful for you, especially if you know someone in the army too! Alternatively, perhaps you’re just a very big fan of camouflage!

Without futher ado, the recipe.

Easy Camouflage Cake Recipe
by Javier Tan August-18-2024

This Easy Camouflage Cake Recipe was absolutely apt for my reservist and army days! Not only does it look good, the cake tastes good too!

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup or 225g Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature
  • 3/4 Cup or 150g of White Sugar
  • 3 Large Eggs, Room Temperature, 55g each
  • 1 Teaspoon or 5ml Vanilla Extract or 10ml of Vanilla Essence
  • 1/3 Cup or 90ml Full Cream Milk, Room Temperature
  • 1 and 1/2 Cups + 1 Tbspn or 190g All Purpose Flour, Sifted
  • 1 Teaspoon or 4g Baking Powder
  • 1/4 Teaspoon or 1.4g Table Salt
  • Pandan + Green Food Colouring (As necessary)
  • Black Food Colouring (As necessary)
  • 1 Tsp of Cocoa powder (As necessary)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C / 320F and line your 8 inches round baking tray with parchment paper.
  2. Then, beat the unsalted butter slightly for a couple of minutes to fluff it up and loosen it.
  3. Next, cream butter and and sugar until light and fluffy.
  4. Add in the eggs, mixing well after each addition. 
  5. Then, add in the milk, vanilla extract and salt and mix well.
  6. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold them using a spoon / spatula until the dry ingredients are incorporated (approx 30s).
  7. Divide the batter into approximately 3 for the different colours.
    – Olive green: 1 drop of black colouring + pandan / green
    – Pandan green: 3 – 4 drops of black colouring + pandan / green
    – Camel brown: 1 tsp of cocoa powder
  8. Put dollops of the batter, alternating between each colour, to the baking tin. Use a knife to make a couple of large swirls, similar to a marble cake and bake the cake for about 52-55 minutes. You can use a toothpick to test and it should only have a couple of crumbs. If you observe the cake browning too much half way, place an aluminium foil over.
  9. Cool at room temperature for an hour before slicing.
  10. Enjoy!

Details

  • Prep time: 3 hours
  • Cook time: 20 mins
  • Total time: 3 hours 20 mins
  • Yield: 1 Hard to Miss Easy Camouflage Cake

Notes:

  1. If you would like to be updated for more recipes which I strive to create to perfection for sharing and for free, do check out my Instagram, Facebook Page, or YouTube 🙂 Thank you so much for all of your support! Feel free to tag me or link back here!
  2. Serve fresh at room temperature (on the day itself and up to 4 days) or in a fridge (up to a week). If refrigerated, do remove it 20 – 30 mins prior to serving.
  3. Please do not copy and paste the recipe without my permission, but feel free to link back here!

Enjoy!
– Bakeomaniac, Javier Tan