My recipe stash had like a bunch of recipes lined up that I could have posted, but this one takes the cake for me. Like quite literally! A naked marvel in itself, Zebra marble cake is an absolute family favorite. Generally, the reason marble cakes are so diverse is because they aren’t very sweet.Therefore they make a great addition for evening tea sittings or as a proper dessert if frosted and covered up. Personally I love marble cakes to be bare, with very minimum frosting and a fresh fruit paired with it.
These stripes that show up with every slice look mesmerizing! Over the time I have tried about 4 versions of this cake. And I found that some recipes made the chocolate batter sink a lot which would make the cake more chocolaty at the bottom and more vanilla-ish at the top. Enters this recipe! A perfect balance of chocolate and vanilla on the top and bottom of the cake.
My mom particularly prefers this recipe as it uses very basic kitchen staple ingredients and is oil-based rather than butter based. Start by mixing all the wet ingredients together in one bowl and all the dry ingredients in the next.
Once you’ve made your entire batter completely, you’ll have to divide it in two bowls. Don’t worry about it being absolutely equal. Just divide it by approximation.
TIP 1: Try keeping the vanilla batter slightly more than half in quantity than the chocolate one. Doing this, gives me more even pattern than dividing them up equally.
TIP 2: Adding cocoa powder to half the batter makes it slightly more dense. Balance it out by adding around 1 tbsp of extra flour to the vanilla better. Both your batter will now be equally dense and your chocolate batter won’t sink at the bottom.
Creating the pattern is my favorite part of the recipe. Start by pouring one spoonful of vanilla batter in the center of the pan and then pour chocolate batter right on top of it. Keep continuing this and viola! You have your Zebra Cake pattern in-place and finally ready to bake.
TIP 3: Using identical spoons or ladles for both batter is key. You automatically pick up equal amounts of batter every time you pour some in the center
TIP 4: Pouring the batter from the tip of the spoon will give us almost concentric circles.
Just like regular marble cake, the chocolate flavor is very subdued and mild. Loving how this cake is just the proper amount of soft. Its dense enough, that it can be frosted and covered if need be, while also being soft enough to be eaten just as it is.
ZEBRA MARBLE CAKE RECIPE
Zebra Marble Cake
Ingredients
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup castor sugar
- 2 cup all-purpose flour + 1 tbsp extra at the end
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 cup milk at room temperature
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- A few drops of vanilla essence
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 175°C. Prepare a 9-inch cake pan by spraying with baking spray or buttering and lightly flouring.
- In a bowl, combine all purpose flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- In another bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla essence together for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Gradually add half of the flour mix to the egg mixture and just beat until flour is mixed well, do not over-beat at this point.
- Add milk and beat only enough till the batter is combined.
- Now add in the remaining flour and beat for a minute or 2 to bring the batter together. Don't overbeat.
- Divide the batter into two equal portions.
- Add cocoa powder to one portion and similarly add 1 tablespoon flour to the other portion. Mix the add ons well.
- Using spoons or ladles, pour 1 spoonful of vanilla batter in the centre of the prepared cake pan. Add a spoonful of chocolate batter right on top of the vanilla in the centre. Continue this process alternately till you have eventually used up the entire batch.
- Bake for 50 minutes. Check by inserting a toothpick in the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean, remove the cake and let it cool down.
- Serve plain or top off with cream and fruit
Notes
- Presentation – Finally, serve it freshly whipped cream and fruits or just have it warm with your evening tea.
Nutrition
Did you try out our other popular dessert on the blog?
The caramel tiramisu!
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Umeimah Zia says
This is such a perfectt recipe. Tried it today and the patterns came out so well. And taste was delicious too, a perfect tea time partner ????Loving it ❤
Wajiha says
I saw the picture you sent me on instagram! lovedddd it!
Iqra Syed says
Must try.. It turns out sooo good!! ❤️
Zuneira says
When should we add milk and oil ??
Wajiha says
milk and oil are added before the flour, it is mentioned in the steps on the recipe card hun
Natasha says
Hello….this looks delicious. Would you be able to suggest a good frosting recipe for this. Thinking to make for my sons birthday. Will have around 50 people
Secondly can I freeze this. Thank you !!
Wajiha says
Hey Natasha! thankyou for reaching out to me! For around 50 people I would suggest to make triple this cake’s quantity. I’ve made this vanilla frosting, chocolate frosting and coffee frosting and it works with all of them! Here’s a quick chocolate frosting recipe that you can use with this cake:
1 & 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 cups icing sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3 – 4 Tbsp heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
In a the bowl, whip butter on moderately high speed until very pale and fluffy (nearly white in color), about 5 – 8 minutes, occasionally scraping down sides of the bowl.
Sift in cocoa powder and icing sugar, heavy cream and vanilla and mix on low speed until combine, scrapping down the sides of the bowl as needed and adding up to 1 tbsp additional cream to thin if desired.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions. I’d love to see a recreation of the cake if you make it! 🙂 best of luck!
Peanuts and cacahuetes says
Definitely a recipe I want to try!! This looks delicious!
I love marble cake but never tried doing one actually! Time to change that! 😉
Wajiha says
I know right! marble cakes are so versatile! Give it a go! Lemme know what you think 🙂
Quratulain Mehdi says
This is amazing! Im always in awe at people who love baking – the patience, the taste and the presentation of the food. I can almost do only one thing haha. I have tried making a zebra marble cake before but failed miserably. I think i’ll forward this to my sister would loves baking. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Wajiha says
hahaha U r so cute! Aww try it with her! if u can do just one thing, bake! 😀 all the rest will come naturally