Zebra Cake

I just love the look of this cake.  It's called a Zebra cake.  This was my first time making it.  I think it turned out great !!  I really thought it was going to be hard to do, I mean just look at it, it looks intimidating.  It's not.  It was actually quite easy. 

The recipe calls for chocolate and vanilla stripes, I made the brown stripes chocolate and the white stripes mint.  I frosted with a chocolate buttercream. What could be better, chocolate and mint cake with chocolate frosting.  YUMMY.  You could make the stripes any color you want, instead of brown, you could do yellow, pink or mint green for Easter colors.  That would be fun !!  I found this great recipe at azcookbook.com

ZEBRA CAKE

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Makes one 9-inch (23 cm) cake

INGREDIENTS:
4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup (8 oz / 250 g) granulated sugar

1 cup (8 fl oz / 250 ml) milk, at room temperature

1 cup (8 fl oz / 250 ml) oil (corn, vegetable or canola is fine)

2 cups (10 oz / 300 g) all-purpose flour

1/3 teaspoon vanilla powder

1 tablespoon (equals 3 teaspoons) baking powder (if not available, substitute with 1 teaspoon baking soda)

2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder (make sure it is not very bitter) such as Dutch-processed (A word of caution: Sometimes I use Hershey�s natural unsweetened cocoa, but since it is BITTER it takes away from the sweetness of the cake, so it may not be your best choice if you want a sweeter cake. Also Remember! Dark zebra patterns won�t stand out with light cocoa powder)

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Using a hand-held electric mixer or wire whisk beat until the mixture is creamy and light in color
2. Add milk and oil, and continue beating until well blended.

3. In a separate bowl, combine and mix flour, vanilla powder and baking powder. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat just until the batter is smooth and the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. (DO NOT OVERBEAT to prevent air pockets from forming in the batter)

?4. Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions. Keep one portion plain. Add cocoa powder into another and mix well.


5. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).

6. Lightly grease the pan with oil. If you don�t have non-stick baking pan, grease whatever pan you have then line it with parchment paper (baking paper).

7. The most important part is assembling the cake batter in a baking pan. This is what you do. Scoop 3 heaped tablespoons of plain batter (you can also use a ladle that would hold 3 tablespoons) into the middle of the baking pan. Then scoop 3 tablespoons of cocoa batter and pour it in the center on top of the plain batter. IMPORTANT! Do not stop and wait until the previous batter spreads - KEEP GOING! Do not spread the batter or tilt the pan to distribute the mixture. It will spread by itself and fill the pan gradually. Continue alternating the batters until you finish them

8. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. Do not open the oven door at least the first 20 minutes or the cake will shrink and will not rise. To check if the cake is ready, insert a toothpick into the center. It should come out clean when ready. Remove from the oven. Immediately run a small thin knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the cake, then invert the cake onto a cooking rack. Turn the cake back over and let cool.