Zebra cake
November 19, 2009 • Hello. I am currently out of the country and unable to respond to comments and e-mails. Rest assured, however, that future posts have been scheduled so new recipes will go live almost everyday during my absence. I'll be back soon with lots of stories and photos. Ciao for now! ~ ConnieA zebra cake is basically a chocolate marble cake. The difference is in the pattern. Instead of the marbling created by running a knife through randomly dropped blobs of vanilla and chocolate cake batter, the zebra pattern is created by pouring small cupfuls of vanilla and chocolate cake batter one on top of the other. The last cupful of batter poured pushes the one below it causing it to spread.
I didn’t invent the idea for the zebra cake. I found the recipe in Farida’s Azerbaijani Cookbook a while back and the link has been in my Food from all over page for months. I’ve been promising myself to try it but it wasn’t until tonight that I had a chance. By “chance” I mean I just happened to have all the ingredients I needed.
Unfortunately, I did not have time to take step-by-step photos. Perhaps, next time. And I’m sure there will be a next time because my kids loved the cake. In my younger daughter’s words, “Astig!”
Ingredients:
2 c. of all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. of baking powder
1/2 tsp. of salt
4 large eggs
1 c. plus 1 tbsp. of white sugar
1 c. of milk (I used skim milk, the pour and drink kind)
1 c. of vegetable oil
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)
Preheat the oven to 350oF.
If you don’t have a non-stick baking pan (I used silicone), lightly brush the sides and bottom of a 10-inch round pan with oil.
Stir the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the eggs and sugar until smooth and light colored, about two minutes on high speed of a hand mixer. Add the oil and milk, and mix for another minute.
Add the flour mixture and mix just until blended. The batter will be of pouring consistency but not thin.
Stir in the vanilla.
Pour half of the batter into another bowl. Add the cocoa powder to one portion and stir lightly to blend.
Assemble the cake. Place the baking pan in front of you. Place the bowl of white cake batter to the left of the pan and the bowl of chocolate batter to the right of the pan. Take two small cups of equal sizes (I used two 1/4 measuring cups). Pour a cupful of the white cake batter onto the center of the pan. Then, pour a cupful of the chocolate batter directly at the center of the cupful of white cake batter. Repeat until all the cake batter has been poured into the pan.
In the original recipe, it says don’t wait for the batter to spread before pouring in the next cupful. I followed that instruction. So, I was working fast pouring cupfuls of white and chocolate cake batter alternately into the pan.
Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean. Mine took exactly 55 minutes to bake.
Cool the cake a bit before inverting onto a plate. It won’t hurt to invert the cake while still warm since the top is dry with a very light crusty texture.
We ate the cake while it was still warm. To be more precise, I inverted the cake onto a plate about 15 minutes after it came out of the oven. When I was slicing it, when the knife went in, steam came out from inside the cake. Did it crumble? No, it didn’t. It’s a great cake, really. Not too fine and airy like a chiffon cake but not too dense like most batter-type cakes.
I’m thinking of applying the zebra technique by creating a cake with three colors. You know, divide the batter into three portions, color one portion with red food color and flavor it with strawberry extract, another with green color and apple flavor, and the third can stay white with the original vanilla flavor. But that’s for another time. 
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Connie,
I love, love marbled cake and this is awesome! I can’t wait to try this. Thanks for the great recipes.
This cake looks so tasty, I’m going to give it a try soon. Thanks!
That is beautiful!
sure is ASTIG!!! great idea with the colors as well! panalo n naman ito miss connie
That looks really cool! Will try that this weekend.
hi connie,
i am just curious…my question is not related to the zebra cake…do you use a hand mixer or a stand mixer for baking?
(i know, i know, it has nothing to do with all the baked goodies that come out of your kitchen….curious lang ako.)
thanks!
Hand mixer. I used to have a stand mixer, used it only for about 2 months, then the house helper forced the paddle off the grrove without pushing the release latch and it was totally unusable after that. Went back to my trusty 17-year-old hand mixer.
Hi Ms. Connie,
Its been a while since I last posted a comment here, but been browsing your site regularly..
I did try baking the zebra cake twice last christmas and it sure was an easy one. On the first try my cake turned out a bit dense, but on the second try it was ok. I got the link here in your site got curious by the name and tried it. She also has a very detailed recipe.
Tho’ a bit late but thanks for the link…:-)
that’s impressive…
got to try this for sure
looks easy and yummy.. gotta try this one soon. thx again.. i’ll wait for you to post the red and green combination.:)
Hi Connie! i’ve been reading your blog since I got married at 2007
so helpful for a new cook like me!Thanks! Anyway my question is about the milk, i dunno if that exists here in France. Can I use evaporated milk?
Yes, I suppose you can. But I suggest diluting it with water.
Hi, Ms Connie. I will be trying your zebra cake today!
40 minutes more… makikita ko na (at matitikman) ang outcome ng zebra cake na nasa oven ngayon! thanks for the recipe ms.connie!
Hi,
I will like to ask whether you can steam this zebra cake, following your recipe. Will it taste not as good?
I don’t know. Never tried steaming cake except for puto.
Sorry to ask again, but is it okay if I used a 8-inch round baking tin? It will be a taller cake but will it in any way affect the texture?
It’s the baking time and temperature that will have to be adjusted to make sure the texture stays the same. Can’t say the texture will be the same if you steam the cake though.
hi! this recipe is so perfect for my son’s safari themed birthday party. i plan to make this as his birthday cake…i’ll be trying this recipe this weekend. instead of a 10 inch round baking pan, can i use a rectangular pan? Do you have any idea what size of rectangular pan should i be using? can i also use this method using cupcake molders? thanks a lot
I don’t think the pattern will look uniform if a rectangular pan is used. Cupcake molders, yes, but only tablespoonfuls of the batter should be poured.
I made it!!! LOL! I really sucks in baking but through this recipe at last my misadventure became an adventure in the kitchen. I was so proud of my myself. I even show it to my hubby before we dig in. Thanks Ms. Sassy:))
Great!!! I can imagine the feeling. Must be something similar to the way I felt after the first baking project that didn’t turn out to be a disaster hehehe
Hi Miss Connie!
I have a question regarding the ovens. I know you use a traditional oven for all your baking.. I do too before in my mom’s house whenever I bake brfore. But I am a newly wed (2 1/2 mos ^_^) and we got this wonderful convection oven a relative gave us for our new home. I don’t know if the result of baking in a convection oven will be the same with using the traditional ones.
I wanted to try this recipe you posted (actually, I saw the rainbow cake first and immediately fell in love with both!) but I am worried that if I use our oven, I won’t have the same effect.
Please help!
Thank you so much!
A convection oven is much, much better. The heat is more evenly distributed and cooking time is shorter. I have a convection oven (we brought it from the old house) but it still needs a housing (it’s a built-in type) together with the cooking hob that we used in the old house. We have a secondary (outdoor) kitchen and we plan to use it there. When it’s all set up, that’s what I’ll use for baking cakes. Gas oven is great for stews but for bread and cakes, convection is best.
Ok! I got it! Thank you very much and more power! I will definitely try this one out.
hi connie,
I try to bake the zebra cake its amazing I got it perfect i followed ur instuctions how to make it and its awesome and of course taste yummy,im always browsing ur site whats the new recipe that you post. your a great cook…. tnx for this i will try again the rainbow cake but i have to buy first a round pan to bake,good job connie..