Zebra Cake

I’ve been taking advantage of the great weather this past week or so by having breakfast on the patio, which more often than not consists of nothing more than coffee and cake (not so healthy but I’ll live with my conscience).

Zebra Cake

Zebra Cake is this weeks cake of choice and a great one it is too. Simple things impress me and it turns out (courtesy of my wife) that the stripy effect is even easy enough for me to manage!

Its also time to tell you all about this month’s seasonal food blogging event “In The Bag”, being held over at A Slice of Cherry Pie. The ingredients are strawberries and white chocolate – absolutely delicious together in any form. Head on over there and take a look!

Zebra Cake Recipe – Ingredients

Note recipe originally found here after my Wife went on a search for the recipe. Slightly modified for our purposes but still delicious!

• 2.5 Glasses of Plain Flour
• 1 Glass of Olive Oil
• 1 Glass of Sprite (or other fizzy drink)
• 1 Glass of Caster Sugar
• 5 Eggs
• 2 Tablespoons of Cocoa
• 2 heaped tsp Baking Powder
• 15g Vanilla sugar (or, preferably, 1 scraped out vanilla pod)

Edited 22/07/2008: Magdalena has posted an excellent conversion in the comments below which I just had to include in the recipe due to popular request:

1 cup – 240 ml Sprite
1 cup – 240 ml olive oil
2.75 cup – 660 ml – 400 g white flour
1 cup – 240 ml – 250 g white sugar
5 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa
3 flat teaspoons Polish baking powder or 4 flat teaspoons US baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

Bake until done, about 90 minutes, at 150C or 310F.

Zebra Cake Recipe – Method

1. Whisk eggs with sugar until mixed. In a seperate bowl sift flour and baking soda and mix together.
2. Begin adding the ingredients to the sugar / egg mix. Start by adding a quarter of each of the others (flour, olive oil, sprite) at a time and whisking until combined. Repeat until all are added and then mix in the vanilla sugar.
3. Seperate the entire mix into two equal bowls. In one bowl add two tablespoons extra of plain flour and mix. In the second add the cocoa and mix.
4. Take a lined cake tin and pour 2 to 3 tablespoons of the white mixture into the centre, creating a small circle. Next take 2 to 3 tablespoons of the dark mixture and repeat. If you’re careful you should find concentric circles of alternating colours forming in the tin. Repeat until all the mixture is used.
5. Bake in an oven at 180 degrees for 50 minutes and then check the cake; stab with a cocktail stick to see if it is cooked (if it comes out clean, its ready!). If not, leave alone for 5 minutes or so before re-checking.
6. Remove from oven, allow to cool and enjoy with a cup of hot coffee. You could do worse than serve with some fresh, seasonal strawberries too. Enjoy!

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