A Zebra Cake for His birthday :) (Eggless)

It was my husband's birthday yesterday and I made this beautiful cake for him. This is the first time I am trying out a Zebra cake and I am really happy that it turned out  great. Zebra cakes are just like marble cakes, but as the name suggests these cakes have stripes in them. Initially I had thought that its difficult to make these patterns, but they are simple once you try them. Make a simple cake batter, divide the batter into two. Mix cocoa in one batter. You have to keep on adding the vanilla and cocoa batter alternately to the centre of the pan. That's it...you can get these pretty patterns :)

The best part is that its eggless and butterless too. I have adapted my recipe from my friend Julie's Eggless Marble cake and Sum's Eggless Zebra Cake for making this cake. I wanted to take the pictures of making zebra patterns, but alas... I couldn't !! I had planned for a simple frosting also as it was a birthday cake, but my hubby dear was so happy with this striped beautiful cake and he said that frosting isn't necessary, its already so pretty :).  Hope you all will love this beautiful and delicious cake !

You need...

1.5 cups All Purpose Flour

1 cup thick Yoghurt

2 cups powdered Sugar (or 1 cup Sugar)

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Baking soda

1.5 tsp Vanilla extract

2 tbsp Cocoa powder

1/2 cup Oil

a pinch Salt

approx 1/2 cup Milk

To prepare...

Grease a cake pan and keep ready. Sift the flour twice and keep aside. In a medium size bowl, add cocoa powder and about 3 tbsp milk, mix well without lumps and keep aside .

Take the yoghurt in a bowl. Add sugar and salt into the yoghurt, mix until it dissolves. Now add baking powder and soda, mix and leave it for 2-3 minutes. The yoghurt slightly bubbles and becomes frothy. Add oil and vanilla extract and mix gently. 

Now slowly add the flour little by little and fold it over. Do not mix vigorously. The cake batter is ready now and it will be very thick.

Take half of the batter and put into the cocoa mixture bowl. Mix gently and your cocoa cake batter is ready. So you have a vanilla batter and a cocoa batter now.

I found the batter very thick. So I added about 4 tbsp milk to the vanilla batter and 1 tbsp milk to the cocoa batter.( We have already added 3 tbsp milk while making the cocoa paste). The batter should be of medium consistency, not very thick and not very runny. If you put a little batter on a flat surface, it should spread slightly by itself.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Take the cake pan. Put 1 tbsp of vanilla batter at the centre of the pan. The batter will spread slightly.  Now add 1 tbsp of cocoa batter to the centre of the vanilla batter. Add the batter this way alternating the vanilla and cocoa batter until the batters get finished up. Remember that batter will spread itself and do not shake the pan. Keep putting the batter continuously without stopping.

Reduce the temperature of the oven to 350F. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted at the centre comes out clean. Once baked, leave it in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Remove gently from the pan and cool the cake completely.

Enjoy the beautiful cake :)

Have one more look before you go :) isn't it pretty ?