Zebra Cake

Beautiful “Zebra” stripe cake made with chocolate and vanilla layers might look complicated,but they are easier to make.

Before making this cake,first step is to make sure your eggs,milk and butter is in room temperature.Because Cold ingredients do not incorporate together as easily. At room temperature these ingredients form an emulsion which traps air.So when you bake ,these trapped air expands and make your cake light and fluffy .

Prepare cake pan

Rub a little butter or oil inside and sides of the tin to grease it.Then line with parchment paper .If you don’t have parchment paper don’t worry ,take some flour and dust lightly ,turn upside down and gently remove excess flour.Flour will stick to the grease adding an extra layer of protection.

I used 9 in round cake pan.

Preheat Oven at 350F(180)

Now lets see what all ingredients you need to prepare this delicious cake.

Ingredients :

1. All Purpose Flour – 2 1/2 Cup
2. Salt – 1/4 tsp
3. Baking Soda- 1/4 tsp
4. Baking Powder-2 1/2 tsp
5. Vanilla essence – 2 tsp
6. Eggs-4 (room temperature)
7. Milk- 3/4 Cup (room temperature)
8. Sugar – 1 1/2 Cup (Powder sugar and make it fine )
9. Butter – 1/2 Cup ( 8 Tbsp- room temperature)
10. Oil – 1/2 Cup

For Chocolate Batter

1. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 4 Tbsp
2. Milk- 1/4 Cup (room temperature, used 5 Tbsp milk for this recipe)
3. Sugar- 1 Tbsp

Directions:

Dry ingredients : In a mixing bowl,whisk together all purpose flour,salt,baking soda,baking powder.Now sift the flour 2 or 3 times.Do not skip this step,as sifted flour is slightly more smooth and uniform.

Vanilla Batter:

In a large bowl add butter.Using a hand mixer beat butter until smooth.

Then add Sugar and combine well.

Add eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated .

Add milk and beat everything until creamy

Add vanilla extract and mix well.

Add flour in small batches.

Slowly fold in the mixture using a spatula or whisk.Do not over Mix.The vanilla batter is ready.

Chocolate Batter:

In another bowl mix the Cocoa powder with milk and Sugar.Add half of the prepared batter (vanilla)into this mixture and mix well.Do not over mix the batter.The Chocolate batter is ready.

For this recipe i am using unsweetened Cocoa Powder,if you are using sweetened Cocoa powder skip sugar in the Chocolate batter.

How to make those “Zebra” Stripes :

Now we need to create the layers of the batter on the prepared pan.Begin from the middle of the pan,pour 2 tbsp of vanilla batter then over it add 2 tbsp of Chocolate batter ,then again pour 2 tbsp of vanilla batter. Repeat adding 2 tbsp batter each for the first 5 or 6 layers and then 1 tbsp each until all the batter has been used. Do not stop and wait until the previous batter spreads,it will spread and fill the pan gradually.

Do not fill your pan full,batter may spill over the sides of the pan.if you have extra batter you can use that batter to make cupcakes.

Baking Time:

On preheated oven bake for 35 to 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean .Do not open the door for the first 25 minutes because the cake will collapse.For me it took 50 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for 10minutes.

Run a thin knife around the edges to loosen ,place a wire cooling rack over the top of the cake and flip the pan onto wire rack.Now carefully lift the pan off the cake.Gently peel the parchment paper off the cake.Now flip the cake again and let it cool for 15 minutes before cutting.

Enjoyyy !!

Happy Cooking !