WOMENS DAY Special - Zebra Cake

HAPPY  WOMEN'S DAY 2014 !

How is it, pretty easy one?  Okay, Jokes apart. Last week, I surprised my son with Zebra Cake. Not with the one above, with the one below. Unlike the above, the below one is bit tricky. 

Needless to say, you know why it called so.  I also discovered a reason of my own.  “You may know, zebra’s stripe pattern is unique to the individual. Similarly every time you bake a zebra cake, the cakes also have a unique stripe pattern”. 

Seriously, without anything further ado, the Ingredients are,

4 large eggs ( Please check the egg alternatives on my Tips and Tricks page)  ;  1 cup ( 250 g) granulated sugar  ;   1 cup (250 ml) milk   ;    1 cup ( 250 ml) oil of your choice  ;  2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour  ;   1/3 teaspoon vanilla powder     ;   1 tablespoon  baking powder  ;  2 tablespoons- dark cocoa powder

In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, vanilla and sugar and mix well with your kitchen gadget, until the mixture is creamy and light in color and set aside.

Add milk and oil, and continue to mix until well blended.  In a separate bowl, combine, flour and baking powder.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamy egg mixture and mix well until the batter is smooth and well combined at the same time avoid air pockets formation in the batter. The trick is that the batter should be in-between the consistency of thick and loose.  If the mixture is too thin, add a little more flour.

Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions and Add cocoa powder in one portion and mix well, leaving the other plain. Here the zebra strips made.

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Lightly grease the pan with oil or prepare the pan with parchment paper (baking paper).

The crucial part is assembling the cake batter in a baking pan, in order to get the zebra strips. Scoop 1 heaped tablespoons of plain batter into the middle of the baking pan. Then scoop 1 tablespoons of cocoa batter and pour it in the center on top of the plain batter.  This is called layering. Repeat layering until, you finish both (plain and Coco mix) batter. 

NOTE :  do not wait or stop layering process, just keep layering until it’s done. The batter will  spread and fill the pan of its own. Don’t worry about it. Do not tilt the pan or spread the batter manually.

Once done, bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for about 30 - 40 min.

I am Happy to dedicate this zebra cake not only to my female co-bloggers, also to all the women’s of this beautiful blue planet.  HAPPY  International WOMEN'S DAY 2014 !