Zebra Cake

Zebra Cake is delicious! Great as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea or coffee. It is surprisingly easy to make.

Best of all, no zebras are harmed in its creation! It is named for its striped layers of chocolate and vanilla cake. 

The layers are usually not as wavy as mine are - when I was pouring the batter I discovered that the bench I was on sloped so the batter poured unevenly. It still tasted good though!

Ingredients

4 eggs

250 ml milk

250 g sugar

250 ml vegetable oil
2 cups (10 oz / 300 g) plain flour
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon (equals 3 teaspoons) baking powder 

2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar and beat until light and fluffy.Add milk, vanilla and oil, and continue beating until well blended.

3. In a separate bowl, combine and mix flour 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.  Batter should run slowly off the beaters. If it is too thick add more milk, if too runny add more flour.

4. Divide the mixture into 2 bowls.  Add cocoa powder into one of the bowls and mix well. You may need to add a little more milk to maintain the batters fluidity.

6. Lightly grease a round cake pan with oil. 

7. This is the most important technique in the whole process, as this is what gives the zebra cake its distinctive stripes. Pour 3 heaped tablespoons of vanilla cake batter into the middle of your cake pan. Then immediately pour3 tablespoons of cocoa batter and pour it in the center on top of the plain batter. Then 3 tbs of vanilla, 3 of cocoa, and so on until both batters are used up. DON'T stop until it is done. At the end you should see concentric rings of batter in your pan.

8. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

9. Invert, cool, dust with icing sugar and serve.