April 12, 2010

Zebra stripe cake

first

A cake could look stunning by the way you decorate it, but this is the first time I have seen a cake look beautiful from the inside. There are multiple versions of zebra cake on the net, I chose to go with Farida's recipe, and it turned out beautifully.
I initially tried making it with whole wheat pastry flour and the stripes totally did not stand out. Though I am not a fan of a.p. flour, I had to stick with the recipe one more time. I did use skim milk (I know that only does not constitute healthy eating), but this is one indulgence that compensates with its beauty. I might try dividing the recipe in half and use whole wheat pastry flour for the chocolate part of the batter next time. It is a lot of work, but I am curious to see if that would work. Or maybe a different kind of flour...
I added vanilla essence only to the chocolate batter since it dulls the white if added to the entire mixture.
I used Dutch-processed cocoa and unsweetened cocoa powder on two different occasions. The unsweetened cocoa gave a very light color to the chocolate stripes. I would definitely go with the Dutch kind. The black and white contrast is very prominent, just the way it should be.
After baking my cake cracked on the surface a little bit, but was not structurally damaging or anything. If yours breaks on the top, do no panic. All is beautiful inside!

This is probably one of the most elaborate posts I have done so far. So, here we go!

first 1

Zebra stripe cake

Ingredients:

Dry:
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Dutch-processed Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp
Baking powder - 1 tbsp

Wet:
Canola/Vegetable oil - 1 cup
Large eggs - 3
Sugar - 1 cup (Sugar is considered a wet ingredient, don't ask me why)
Skim Milk - 1 cup
Pure vanilla essence - 1 tbsp

Method:

Sift the all purpose flour and baking powder together and set aside. This is to aerate the flour.

dry ing

In a mixing bowl, using a hand mixer combine oil, eggs, sugar, milk for about two minutes till creamy. Do not add vanilla essence.

wet ing

Divide the mixture into two equal halves and to one half mix the cocoa powder and vanilla essence and mix using a hand mixer. Do not add vanilla essence to the white half of the mixture.

Collage1

Grease a 8" round cake pan with non-stick spray. Preheat oven to 350F.
Use separate equal size ladles for each half of the batter. Ladle the white batter first, then immediately add the brown batter as shown in the picture. It should automatically spread out in the pan, there is no need to wait or tilt pan.

Collage2

Keep alternating batter until you have exhausted both batters.

Collage3

Bake in a pre-heated 350F oven for about 45 min or till a toothpick when inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let it rest for about 15 min in the pan.

baked cake

Invert and cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy the cake with your favorite frosting/whipped cream or just keep it plain. It is gorgeous the way it is.

last

52 comments:

  1. Perfect zebra cake u have got..looks yum!!

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  2. Divya, this looks stunningly beautiful. As you said, I have seen many Zebra cake recipes in various blogs and I am yet to try them. Thank you for the pictorial.

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  3. Aah! I never have seen these step-by-step pics of Zebra (cake!) clone process. :D Pics are really great and helpful. I can't wait to try now. Thanks so much for this post. You rocks gal! :)

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  4. Beautiful zebra cake- curious to know what happenned when u used the pastry flour, u didn't get the stripes?

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  5. DELICIOUS CAKE....LOOKS YUMMY

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  6. Looks very perfect................

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  7. Wat a beautiful zebra cake, looks fantastic, u know wat i wanted to try out this zebra cake with wheat flour, thanks for letting me that u didnt get the best zebra cake..

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  8. Stunningly beautiful.Glistening cake I feel.Never tried this thgh once I tried with brown rice flour and ahem.. it just turned out slightly marbled.My batter was a bit thick.

    Potato flour should be available in Costco.I have never seen it anywhere thgh King Arthur has one.It is nothing but cooked potatoes ground (mashed) and dehydrated.Here we get "aloo mash" which is dehydrated mashed potato flakes.If you do not have potato flour either you can use the flaked version or use cooked mashed potatoes.

    PS: if you do not have any of these and your recipe has milk powder as well,then an easy substitute is the instant mashed potato powder available in walmart or anywhere.This one has milk powder and few extra ingredients.Check and use.

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  9. Lovely cake and looks so grand! I love it...

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  10. Amazing! I have to figure out how to do this gluten-free!

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  11. HI divya, the zebra cake looks very interesting. The step by step explains the the zebra which otherwise would be hard to explain. You make it sound so easy to prepare the cake.

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  12. Wow! Zebra cake? That's fascinating. I'm going to have to try it now! Thanks for another great post.

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  13. Wow, your cake looks just perfect. I would *almost* not want to eat it!

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  14. The cake looks awesome .... i'm really tempted to try it asap ...

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  15. Step by step instructions are very helpful, lovely strips!

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  16. Sooper Divya.The zebra cake looks absolutely stunning.yummy too.

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  17. This is beautiful - I totally want to make this.

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  18. I've never seen a cake like that before. What a cool idea!

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  19. That looks fabulous. I made that cake once a few years ago and it did NOT look that good!

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  20. WOW anu ,the pattern turned out so perfect.A slice for me please :D

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  21. Hey Divya..nice to see you back..beautiful cake..

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  22. wow...that looks like a perfect slice of zebra cake...th epatters turned out beautiful.....I too made this cake some time back with half the amount of faridas recioe....felt it was not sweet enough for me.....the stripes are just perfect!

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  23. So awesome, thanks for the pictorial description - first time here

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  24. What a lovely Zebra cake....

    Mine didn't get such amazing stripes, but tasted quite nice... Check out Zebra Cake for the Rajpals

    The Variable - Nachiketa
    Crazy Over Desserts - The Variable, Nachiketa

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  25. Cake looks so good Anu...love the way you have given step by step pictures...will come in handy for baking newbies like me :)

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  26. Hi,glad to see you back!
    Recently started baking and this post with step wise pictures is going to hel p me a lot ,love to try this out!

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  27. What a beautiful cake! love the technique and love the stripes!

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  28. Cham - Yes, the stripes did not stand out with the ww pastry flour. It was all blended in.
    CL - Will look out for the potato flour next time. Thanks for getting back to me.
    Nachiketa - Yours looks wonderful too! :)
    RAKS - Good luck with baking. I am glad you have started, will keep checking your blog for more goodies.

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  29. Divya,
    I got the Murungai keerai from the Vietnamese store called Viet-Wah. They have two stores one in Seattle & Renton.

    http://www.vietwah.com/

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  30. Beautiful looking zebra cake. You've made a perfect cake. Pics are beautiful, nice clicks.

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  31. This is something that I will have to show my wife (she is the baking expert)

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  32. This is absolutely stunning--I love everything safari-like, so why not make a zebra cake!? :-)

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  33. Gorgeous cake. Who would think that something so simple could look so good?

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  34. Thanks for visiting me. You have a really good hand for baked goodies!! Nice blog! Ammm..azing cake! :)

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  35. Your cake looks so beautiful! Perfect stripes! Thanks for referring to my recipe.

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  36. absolutely gorgeous! i was in s africa on safari a few years ago - takes me back!

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  37. wow awesome!!!perfect zebra cake!!!

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  38. Looks gorgeous and so moist and perfect... yummy.. really I am craving for cake now..

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  39. Looks really gorgeous. I love that beautiful pattern.

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  40. So beautiful! your stripes look perfect and that cake looks so divine!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  41. awesome pics..the stripes have come out so well!!!

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  42. Oh! What a beautiful stripe cake...love your pictures, specially the step-by-step...thank you so much :-)

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  43. The zebra cake has come out perfect

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  44. tuorlo e francyApril 18, 2010

    Bellissima!!!Complimenti un saluto da Tuorlo e Francy

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  45. wow.. wonderful cake.. do drop in at my site whenever.. following you

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  46. wow.. wonderful cake.. do drop in at my site whenever.. following you

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  47. Your cake is beautiful and moist. Thanks for the step-by-step pics!

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  48. That's awesome - I've seen them but not tried making one yet. Thanks for the great pics.

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Thank you for taking the time to comment on this post. I will try to respond to queries as soon as I can. If I miss anything that needs to be addressed... please feel free to ping me again.
Happy cooking/baking or whatever it is you are doing in the kitchen! :)