Cake Slice Bakers: Zebra Cake

Chocolate cake?  Or vanilla?

Life is full of tough decisions.

If you're anything like me and have a hard time deciding between chocolate or vanilla cake, then you're going to love this month's Cake Slice Baker's selection...Zebra Cake!  Just the name of this cake was enough to win me over.  (It appealed to my inner Peggy Bundy.  What can I say?  I'm a red-head who's wild about animal prints!)   

Zebra Cake is a vanilla and chocolate striped cake, very much like a Rainbow Cake, only with more stripes and without all of the bright colors.  I didn't get as many stripes as I should have, because I baked the cake into two 9-inch rounds, so I could share one with my visiting sister-in-law. 

I loved this cake!  It was so light and tender.  And the flavor was a subtle balance of butter, vanilla and chocolate.  This Zebra Cake is definitely a keeper!  

Zebra Cake
(from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan; set aside.  (The recipe says to line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, then grease and flour the parchment as well.  But you know me, I'm a rebel.  I skipped this step and didn't have any problem getting the cake out of the pan.)

In a 2-cup measuring cup combine the milk, melted butter, vegetable oil and vanilla; set aside.  (This step isn't part of the recipe, but I think measuring out and combining all of the liquid beforehand makes whipping this cake up that much easier.) 

 In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

Combine the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until thick and pale.  (About 5 minutes.) 

The whipped eggs and sugar looked so inviting, I wanted to dive in and take a swim.

 With the mixer on low speed, add the milk, butter, vegetable oil and vanilla mixture, making sure to occasionally scrape the sides of the bowl.

Stir in the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time.

Pour 1/3 of the batter (about 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 cups) into another bowl and whisk in the cocoa powder.

Pour 1/4 cup of the vanilla batter into the center of the cake pan, followed by 3 tablespoons of the cocoa batter directly in the center of the vanilla batter.  

Continue alternating the vanilla and cocoa batters until you've used all of the batter.  Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes. 

Serve and enjoy!!!

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