My sister is visiting this week and it is her birthday on Sunday. As a gift, I took her to get her first tattoo. I had to make a cake too. C’mon… I have been looking for an excuse to make this cake for ages.

With the zebra cake, the humble marble cake gets a makeover. It is essentially the same principle in that you divide your batter and make half of it chocolate. Instead of the ‘dollop it in and swirl’ method popular with the marble cake, a little more subtlety is required. A small amount of each mixture is piled on top of the other. The result when baked and sandwiched (top to top) is supposed to resemble a zebra.

I am not sure that I think it would fool a lion, but it sure looks pretty. And boy, it tastes lovely too.

I chose to fill and cover this with Salted Caramel Buttercream, but you could use any filling or frosting of your choice. A glossy ganache would work just as well.

TIP: This recipe works best if the cake bakes as level as possible. So that you don’t have to cut off the top of the cake to level it, and risk loosing the detail of the design, use some baking strips (link below).

Zebra Cake

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Ingredients

• 175g Unsalted Butter
• 280g Caster Sugar
• 4 Free-range Eggs
• 300g Plain Flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• pinch Salt
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 160ml Whole Milk
• 30g Cocoa Powder

Directions

1.	Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 5 / 190°C / 375°F
2.	Beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy
3.	Add the eggs one at a time making sure each is fully incorporated, beating at high speed, before adding the next
4.	In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder
5.	Add half the flour to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly on a lowish speed
6.	Add the milk and vanilla extract. After that is mixed through, add in the rest of the flour and salt
7.	Take half of the mixture and put in a separate bowl. Fold in the sifted cocoa powder until mixed thoroughly
8.	Take two 8" sandwich tins that has been greased, and spoon in 1 heaped tablespoon of vanilla mixture into the centre of both pans.
9.	Now take a heaped tablespoon of the chocolate mixture and spoon into the centre of the vanilla
10.	Repeat this process until all the mixture is used up. Tap the pans once on the counter top to force out any air bubbles
11.	Bake for 25-30 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean
12.	Leave to cool, then sandwich (top sides facing each other) with your favourite buttercream or frosting recipe