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 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 sugarBake until done, about 90 minutes, at 150°C or 310°F.
Zebra Cake Recipe - Method
Whisk eggs with sugar until mixed. In a seperate bowl sift flour and baking soda and mix together.- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
Jeanne
Y
Lil
Coffee and Vanilla
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)
peabody
Katie
leigh
We Are Never Full
Kalyn
June 16th, 2008 at 4:48 am
I love Zebra cake…always looks impressive.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:31 am
It looks beautiful!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Looks amazing!
June 16th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Thanks for explaining the technique — I’ve never made this because I’ve always been completely intimidated!
June 16th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
i’m extremely impressed–i’ve seen lots of zebra cakes on various blogs, but this is by far the most perfect one i’ve come across! nice work!
June 16th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
peabody: If it gets your seal of approval then it must be OK - your cakes are always so perfect!
Dagmar: Thanks. It tasted pretty good too.
Nicisme: You’re too kind - but it’s really my Wife you should be thanking, I just stirred things around and generally made a mess.
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry): Not a problem. I was learning as we went, too.
grace: For me its not tried and tested, this was my first time…
June 17th, 2008 at 5:04 am
This is really stunning. I have only seen a swirl or two in the past, nothing like this perfect repeating swirl. Truly gorgeous.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Erin @ The Skinny Gourmet: It’s probably luck rather than skill to be honest. Still, well worth a go in your own kitchen!
June 18th, 2008 at 4:05 am
So you’re like the lion pouncing on the poor zebra! Great looking cake.
June 18th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
That is gorgeous! It has been unusually cold here the past couple days. I’ve been trying to think of what yummy baked goods I can turn out in expectation that it’ll soon be too hot to bake again. I am making this tonight and I expect that it’ll go over gangbusters!
Thanks for another way to impress my hungry audience.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
[...] had seen a zebra cake on RealEpicurean.com earlier in the day and it seemed the perfect candidate to take my mind off my top-of-the-mitt, [...]
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
This is really stunning. I’ve never heard of zebra cake before. Quite certain that mine would not turn out like this - the stripes are just perfect!
June 25th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
This looks incredible!
(how big are your glasses?)
June 26th, 2008 at 2:09 am
What a cool cake! I love how everything is measured in glasses.
June 29th, 2008 at 5:20 am
That is such an awesome looking cake!
July 1st, 2008 at 6:51 am
Now that is some cool cake
July 1st, 2008 at 6:55 pm
wow!! that looks seriously impressive! sounds easy enough to make the layers… i’m bookmarking it
July 1st, 2008 at 11:57 pm
I am truly impressed. That is one fabulous cake!
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:44 am
That looks amazing!
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
whoa — crazy!!! very cool — i will definitely attempt this at some point! yours looks awesome.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:55 pm
All: Thanks for the great comments! I’m in such a rush right now as I’m packing to go on holiday hence no individual replies but I still appreciate each and every comment…Thanks again!
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:46 am
i know you’ve heard this so many times, but this looks freakin’ awesome!!! i’ve so gotta try this!
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:07 pm
cyn: I have heard it so many times but still consider it as just people being polite. Basically I’ll never say no to a compliment!
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Amazing, Scott! Absolutely stunning!
I will try this and, even if it turns out looking like a Hippo, I will eat it in your honour.
Now, you have to tell me: how big is a glass?I’m guessing we’re not talking pints here. Is “glass” the pommy equivalent of “cup”?
July 4th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Syrie: Well if you look at the “original” recipe above, that’s where whole glasses thing comes from. I didn’t worry too much about the conversion and it worked out ok. My glasses at home are “can of coke” sized - so about 330ml.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:00 am
This is the coolest cake!
July 11th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Chris: It is a cool cake, in a kind of geeky way
July 18th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Never seen a Zebra cake before! Very interesting!
July 18th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Looks like a tasty breakfast treat. So how long do you think it would take to make including prep time?
July 18th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Just for info, an american cup is 8 fluid oz (227ml) and a british cup is 10 fluid oz (284ml), so from what you said scott it looks like the glass is close to a british cup.
Did you really make this with *olive* oil ? Olive oil has a very strong taste, and I’m suprised to see olive oil used in a sweet cake (the french use it all the time in savoury cakes). Also, what kind of size cake tin did you use ?
July 18th, 2008 at 3:18 am
OK, don’t hate me as I didn’t shoot the Zebra, but I have a Zebra head mounted on my living room (aka the African Room) wall.
The poor creature died some 75 yrs ago and I bought it from a British gentleman who was down on his luck. Lord knows where he got it!
At any rate the cake sounds fantastic, but I can’t make sense of the measurments, is one glass one cup? So please let me know the american measurements.
Thanks very much
July 18th, 2008 at 3:23 am
it looks good.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:52 am
Looks amazing and time consuming! Will try it, my little girls would love it and just because it is cake.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Looks astounding. But, in the ingredients, it says baking powder, and meanwhile in the method it says baking soda. Which is it?
July 18th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Love the looks of the cake but somewhat reminds me of the tiger cake
which is made the same way using same ingredients, but the “stripes” aren’t that strict 
I have to try and make one
July 19th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
That looks so yummy.
July 19th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
beverlyz: I agree - I hadn’t seen it myself until a couple of months ago.
The Grub Hound: No more than a couple of hours, I promise. It isn’t as hard as it looks!
Buggie: Yep, olive oil - it’s none the worse for it. The cake tin is, ummn, about 9 inches by 4 deep. I’m never very good with cake tin sizes!
paresh: Thanks!
Bryan Taylor: Don’t be put off, its not that time consuming honestly. Just pouring two lots of cake mix into a tin, that’s all!
Jordan: Baking powder. I’ll fix the recipe - thanks for pointing that out.
Mervi: Not seen tiger cake before but I’ll google it in a mo. You should give this one a try.
BunnygotBlog: It is. Believe me!
July 20th, 2008 at 6:21 am
[...] All Recipes My Lasagna Recipe Zebra Cake Rocks!! July 20, 2008, 5:21 am Filed under: 1 http://www.realepicurean.com/zebra-cake/ No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI [...]
July 20th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I’m sure it tasted as good as it looks!
July 20th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
When we were kids we used to make marble cake using a plain and a chocolate cake mixture swirled together. This zebra cake is so much more grown up and elegants though.
What about a twist of orange liqueur and rind grated in and call it tiger cake?
July 20th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Michelle: It did. Yum!
July 20th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Diane from chocolate freebies: Sounds great. My wife tells me clear orangeade (I can’t find any of that here) works well in place of the sprite, so your suggestion would go down really well!
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 am
This comes at a great time, as I was planning to bake something for my co-workers this friday. thanks a lot! this will certainly beat plain ol’ chocolate chip cookies
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Iz: Nothing wrong with plain ol’ chocolate chip cookies. Hey, why don’t the chips melt when you bake ‘em? One of life’s little mysteries.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Zebra cake is time consuming, but spectacular. No two are alike. Having translated many Polish recipes, I’d like to suggest the following, corrected list of ingredients and corrected baking temperature:
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 150°C or 310°F.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Magdalena: Thanks for that. I will add your conversion to the article - even my Polish wife didn’t know (she really measures everything out into glasses, too - is that a Polish thing?).
July 24th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
stumbled on this recipe and after i read it, shook my head and said to myself, “how could that possibly work?”. well, then i preheated the oven, and got started. what fun! i loved watching the pattern appear and the cake was delish. i particularly enjoyed it spread with a little peanut butter. thanks for a new favorite.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
deb d: I’ll have to try the peanut butter thing - it sounds delicious! Thanks for the compliments
July 28th, 2008 at 2:07 am
OMG this looks amaaaaazing!
July 28th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Monica Ricci: Thanks. It didn’t taste so bad, either
July 30th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Wow this cake looks sooooo good. And really pretty looking too!
July 30th, 2008 at 1:47 am
That’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen!!
August 1st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Wow, that looks amazing. You have a great skill!
August 1st, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Your techniques for making this wonderful cake are superbly described…I would love to know what size said ‘glasses’ are…. it would be very helpful - unless you are describing 1 cup as a glass…..
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Pokin: I agree. Thanks!
Christie @ fig&cherry: You guys really need to stop. My wife baked this one and here head is now rapidly expanding!
Jamaica Bob: Not me…The wife - I just helped, really!
Leah Q from the Dinner and Jam Food Blog: Check out Magdalena’s comment above - it really helped out a lot of people (thanks Magda!)
August 4th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Wow, that is very impressive looking.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:38 am
mmmm mouth watering cake
will tell my mom to try making it at home.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
That looks amazing. I love cooking, but have a real problem with presentation. Got to try this one. Thanks.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:48 am
Yum! This looks positively delectable, and fairly easy to do!
August 8th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
My boyfriend is a type 1 diabetic and I made this cake for him with Splenda rather than sugar. I had to add 1 additional teaspoon of baking powder and 1 cup of non-fat dried milk powder to help it rise. It turned out great! (despite rising A LOT during the cooking process). I finished it off with a thin layer of peanut butter and fresh berries on top - delicious!
August 9th, 2008 at 5:41 am
Do you think this would work with any cake recipe? It looks beautiful, I will definately try it. I was thinking of entering this in my local fair?
August 12th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I love cakes. Nice recipe. Can’t wait till this weekend to try this out
August 13th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Very cool cakes!
August 13th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
All: Thanks for the great comments - sorry I didn’t reply to them all individually, I’m running around all over the place at the moment!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
nice cake!!
August 16th, 2008 at 1:49 am
it says 2 different baking times and temperatures. 90 minutes seems like a long time to bake a cake, but then again, 310F is lower than most recipes i see. i normally bake at 375F which i assume is what the 180C converts to? 50 minutes seems more reasonable, i’d kinda like to know which one it is, so i don’t risk messing it up
August 16th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I’m going to try it once I have sprite & Olive oil!
It’s going to be so awesome
- http://www.AkumuInk.com -
August 17th, 2008 at 3:27 am
What a great technique! I’m going to try this one!!
August 18th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Amarnath: Thanks!
Russell: Hmmn, well spotted. The temperature in the main body is what we baked it at (and it worked well). The temperature listed in the quote from Magdalena is her conversion of the original Polish recipe. Both will work well, I’m sure!
Aldora: You’re right, it will. Feel free to substitute the Sprite for something else fizzy and sweet if you feel the need.
Indygal: A nice and easy technique, too. Well worth an hour in the kitchen!
August 21st, 2008 at 8:55 am
That is beautiful, and I agree with Indygal on great technique. When I first saw it, the first thought that went thru my head was… this person’s got a neat gadget. I didn’t realize that it was such a simple trick. Best cake I’ve seen all day.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
We would like to feature your [recipe] on our blog. Please email haleyglasco@gmail.com if interested. Thanks
Haley
blog.keyingredient.com/
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:16 am
Bentoist: All the greatest illusions are simple when you know how. Unfortunately I don’t, this is just a one off, heh
Haley: Always interested. Feel free to use so long as you quote the original source (here) and make mention of the original author (me). Basically just don’t use it in a spammy way
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 am
I stumbled upon this page and the second i saw the picture, my mouth began to water. It looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
this looks great! i’m going to make it tomorrow
September 5th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
That’s quite impressive!!! Thanks for sharing..
u r kindly invited to visited my blog
http://www.andaluss.wordpress.com
September 6th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Lovefrom1stbite: Thanks, and I did check out your blog - tried the smoothie, it was delicious. Keep up the good work!
September 6th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
This looks so yummy! I think I will make it for my barbeque this weekend!
September 7th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
You’re lucky to have the weather for a bbq - nothing but rain here all weekend
September 8th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I have seen a lot of zebra cakes, but none this fancy. It is my wife’s birthday. I know what I am making for her
September 9th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Scott, I am so glad you tried my infamous zebra cake:)) Love yours! The stripes look perfect! And I like your idea to add a fuzzy drink in the batter. I’ve seen recipes with that addition before but never attempted to try it myself. Now that you’ve approved it, I may give it a try too:) Great work!
September 10th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Grilling accessories: You should buy a present! :p
farida: It wasn’t actually your recipe that we got it from - turns out it is quite popular in Eastern Europe, such as Poland (where my wife is from). Still, following links after this recipe it seems most other Zebra Cakes lead back to your famous article - well done, you sure started a trend!
September 13th, 2008 at 10:12 am
[...] in June we published a recipe for Zebra Cake and were inundated with comments from people who loved the look of this unique [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
My sister sent this to me by way of Stumble Upon. We enjoy teasing each other with tasty things. Had a thought, what about Almond extract instead of vanilla? Could even frost with white and almond sliver to surprise the person eating it.
September 20th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Wow, that is very, very cool.
September 20th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
@Born Clicker - Any variation is possible. Almond with pecan I’m not so sure of but would love to try it!
@Jaime - Thanks
September 25th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
so i tried this with white and raspberry preserves for something different and it was wonderful. love the design and it is wonderful for parties
September 27th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
This cake looks so impressive-counting down till this diet is over!!
September 30th, 2008 at 4:39 am
[...] 29, 2008 by chefsquire NOT! Ok, so this cake looked pretty cool, and I wanted to give it a shot. I didn’t want to follow that recipe [...]
September 30th, 2008 at 4:44 am
I tried this cake using a similar recipe. Mine didn’t look as good as yours, but I will try again using your method. http://chefsquire.wordpress.com/
October 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
@kristina the creator - I’d really like to see your version with the preserves; sounds original and delicious (perhaps send me a photo?).
@Deborah Dowd - Ah, one small piece won’t hurt, will it?
@chefsquire - Looks excellent to me! I’ve added it to my roundup of zebra cake recipes…
October 9th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
will be trying this immediately - gorgeous looking. thanks
November 11th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
That looks very impressive!