16 Sept 2015

Zebra Cake | How to make a Zebra Cake

Zebra Cake is a treat to the eyes! My kids were so thrilled to see the stripes that my daughter who hardly eats sweet dishes, was tempted to eat a slice! Even adults were excited to see the 'stripey' cake! 
I always bake a marble cake when I want to mix up the chocolate and vanilla batters so this time I tried this zebra cake and some egg free chocolate cupcakes (will post later) for my parent's anniversary and we enjoyed both the cakes immensely! 

Making a zebra cake is pretty simple if you can get the batter right. You need to layer the vanilla and chocolate batters alternately. The most important part of this cake is the batter. The consistency of the batter needs to be right. If the batter is too thin then you won't get the zebra effect right. Check the notes section for more details.

I have included lots of pictures to help understand the process easily. Special thanks to my husband who clicked so many pictures capturing the whole process beautifully :)


Zebra Cake


ZEBRA CAKE
Preparation time 15 mins | Baking time 40 mins | Serves 8-10
Adapted from here

Ingredients
  • All purpose flour (maida) - 2 cups (plus more if needed)
  • Eggs - 4
  • Sugar - 1 cup
  • Milk - 1 cup
  • Oil - 1 cup
  • Cocoa powder - 5 tbsp
  • Baking powder - 2 tsp
  • Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
  • Salt - 1/2 tsp
Zebra Cake

Method
Preheat the overn to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 8 or 9 inch round pan. I used a 9 inch round pan.
1. Beat the eggs 2 at a time along with vanilla extract and sugar until it's light and frothy.

2. Add the milk and oil and beat again.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Fold gently.

4. Divide the batter equally into 2 bowls.

5. To one bowl add the cocoa powder and beat well until it's incorporated.
6. {Add more flour to the white batter if it's too thin (check notes)}

7. Use 2 ladles which is almost similar in size for each batter. Or use big 2 spoons or ice cream scoops of same size.
8. Pour one ladle of vanilla batter in the centre of the pan. 

9. Next pour one ladle of chocolate batter on top of the vanilla batter.

10. Do not wait for one batter to spread. Keep on adding the batters one on top of the other.

11. Keep alternating with both batters until the batter's are over.

12. Do not tilt the pan to spread the batters. It will spread on it's own. 

13. When both the batters are over, place the pan carefully in the oven bake the cake in the pre heated oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

14. Once done, let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then remove from the pan.
Zebra Cake

Notes
1. Dividing the batter is quite essential! If possible, weigh the two batters and divide equally. If you don't divide the batters equally then one batter will get over sooner than the other batter and you will loose the zebra effect.
2. The consistency of the batter is very important. If the batter in thin, then it will just flow out and the zebra effect will be lost. The chocolate batter will be thick since we are adding extra cocoa powder. If your vanilla batter is thin, add more flour until you get a slightly thick batter. It should resemble an idli batter. Add 1 tbsp flour at a time until you get a slightly thick batter. My vanilla batter was thin, so I added some extra flour to get a thick batter.
3. Use a good quality cocoa powder, only then the stripes will be bright and clear. Otherwise you will get dull stripes which will not stand out. 
4. I powdered my sugar to help it dissolve easily.


Until next time,
 photo New signn_zps3ubziitr.png
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8 comments:

  1. Always a treat to the eyes! Looks really good dear...

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  2. Wow perfect Zebra cake.... delicious too... :)

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  3. I've never done one of these but you inspire me to try!!

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    Replies
    1. It's simple and quite nice to look at Nicole, do try it sometime :)

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  4. Hi for all your recipes - do you use normal sugar or caster sugar/icing sugar?

    Also do you use an electric mixer/whisker for beating the batter?

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    Replies
    1. If I have store bought caster sugar, I use that. If not, I powder the granulated sugar and use that. Just make sure it's super fine. And I use an electric mixer.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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