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!
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.
In a mixing bowl, using a hand mixer combine oil, eggs, sugar, milk for about two minutes till creamy. Do not add vanilla essence.
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.
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.
Keep alternating batter until you have exhausted both batters.
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.
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.
