Do you love marble cake but have always wanted a dessert that’s a little more unique? Something different from what everyone typically has at their luncheon or brunch?
This cake takes “marbling” to a whole new level, by employing a wonderful and extraordinary zebra pattern throughout. When served at a child’s birthday along with some animal and safari related decorations, it can become a center piece on the coffee table.
The best thing is, it is really easy to make despite its complex appearance. You just have to spoon layers of dough on top of each other. Depending on your patience levels and attention to detail, you can either use a common tablespoon or a larger kitchen spoon. This has some influence on the pattern of the cake as it becomes more complex by using a smaller spoon.
I prefer this variety because the chocolate dough flows through the whole slice. When I used to try to make an ordinary marble cake by using conventional instructions, I could never manage to get my cake to “marble,” and half of the cake was white while the other half was dark.
However, by using this procedure it has always worked out. In addition to that, it’s always a surprise to see how the cake looks inside, as it turns out a bit different each time.
Whereas I used a loaf pan for this particular cake, you can actually choose whatever kind of baking tin you prefer. This recipe will also work with a springform baking pan as well as a bundt cake pan.
With the topping, you can use various items – frosting, glaze, and even fruit syrup all work. Try our recipes for cocoa fudge frosting or chocolate ganache glaze for that extra chocolaty oomph!
To give your cake a more extravagant look for a celebration, why not layer in some black and white chocolate stripes?
Of course, if you’re in the mood for a simpler, less striped dessert, check out our basic two ingredient cake recipe!
End up with a flat, lifeless cake in the end? Don’t worry – we’ve got an article full of fixes for a cake that doesn’t rise.
The Recipe
- 4 large eggs separated
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until fluffy and creamy.
- Stir in the oil and water. Then add the flour and baking powder.
- Gently fold in the egg whites.
- Divide the dough into two parts and mix one half with the cocoa powder.
- Put one or two spoons of white dough into the middle of your baking tin. It will slowly flow in all directions. Then put the same amount of dark dough directly onto the first, not next to each other.
- Repeat this procedure until the dough is used up.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes at 180°C/360°F.
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Photos by Nina-Kristin Isensee, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details.
About Nina-Kristin Isensee
Nina lives in Iserlohn, Germany and holds an MA in Art History (Medieval and Renaissance Studies). She is currently working as a freelance writer in various fields. She enjoys travel, photography, cooking, and baking. Nina tries to cook from scratch every day when she has the time and enjoys trying out new spices and ingredients, as well as surprising her family with new cake creations.
You know what I hate? Seeing cake boxes of ‘zebra mix’ when I go shopping. Thanks for reminding everyone how easy & just generally better it is (taste, nutrition, quality) to make your own. You can dress it up according to your tastes as well. No one gets made when you top a zebra cake with delicious treats. Just don’t screw up your pattern adding it to the mix.
Those mixes are a rip-off aren’t they! You’ve usually got everything you need right there int he kitchen cupboard and the end result is a whole lot nicer too!
Indeed. I was just noting how simple the ingredients list is. Most of the stuff is already handy in the cupboard. I might be out of cocoa, but if so, I need to buy more anyway. 🙂
Fun, funky, tasty, and easy. What more could a person ask?
I’d definitely rather have this for a treat than one made from a package mix.
Hello! Just wanted to express my appreciation of your lovely site. I’m new here, but I’ve already found something I want to try! This cake looks absolutely fabulous! I can see spending a lot of time here, everything looks so yummy! 🙂 Believe it or not, I was also just thinking about whipping out my Wok, and beginning to take advantage of some of the local produce. I’m definitely inspired!!
Welcome then 😉
It’s great that you’ve already been lucky in finding some recipes you want to try!
Have fun at baking/cooking and browsing through the different categories, I’m sure you will find lots of ideas.
The procedure for making this is actually not hard. I am shocked. It is such a fun thing to make and when my guests see it, that will be a delight. I always thought a cake like this was out of my league, so it is nice to know I can create this. Judging from another recipe I made from this site, the luke warm water is a small tip that is helpful to recipe.
I just glanced at my bundt cake pan earlier, and decided I was going to make a cake later, then came across this recipe. I love how it looks, because I am a fan of marble rye bread, and it reminds me of that. I can imagine this would be very popular as stated in the article, at a child’s party, with safari-type decorations. I have all the ingredients on hand, and am looking forward to making this. I might actually use both chocolate and vanilla frosting or drizzle on it, as well, to enhance the two-tone effect.
This cake looks like something my three year would just love! Now that the nice weather is here she keeps begging to go to the zoo so to make a cake like this would just make her day and it looks easy enough to make. Thank you so much for the great idea!
So you’re saying to me this scrumptious cake even has a name?! My mother used to make these kind of cakes and I absolutely had no idea they were called “Zebra Cakes”! Still, great name, kids would adore this, haha!
I’ve been wanting to make a zebra cake for ages now! I especially appreciate that this recipe is made from scratch; most of the other ones I’ve found have called for cake mixes which, as others have pointed out, are a total rip-off. And it’s a simple method that yields a great-looking result. Definitely going to do this soon.
Looks amazing, so that’s how your layer it up in the pan…who knew it’d be that easy? Here i was racking my brain and thinking it’d be the most difficult thing to do, i need to stop over-analysing how the process or outcome of something will be and just go with the flow 🙂
I can already tell… The next 10 or 15 cakes I make will be marble. Lol my family will never want to so much as look at a marble cake by the time
I am curious, will it be possible to use this technique with a red velvet?
Well, definitely have fun at marbling 🙂
I have to admit that I didn’t know red velvet cakes before. Here in Germany I haven’t heard of it but I looked it up and as far as I can see, I’d say you can exchange the chocolate part with a red velvet dough. I think that looks great too! I hope I could help you with that.
What a lovely pattern you have on your cake! I’ve never managed to make my cakes marble very well, but the zebra look is much more fun anyway. I love the simple ingredients list too; I’ve never been a boxed cake mix person and wonder why anyone would buy these heavily processed foods when it’s so easy to make them yourself using good and natural ingredients.
I’ll definitely give this cake a try.
I’ve heard all of the hype around zebra cakes and have spotted them in supermarkets. However, I’ve never tried them before even though they look like a nice way to spoil yourself to a treat. Cool to see you making them and making them look great too.
My daughter loves animals, especially zebras, and she loves cake…so I think this is destined to make its way onto my table at some point this summer. Zebra cakes are really popular, as another comment said they’re all over the supermarket. I don’t think the average person has considered making them. It’s awesome to see a recipe for it.
Thank you for this recipe. Growing up my mom always made this cake (minus the zebra effect) and it has been a decade at least since I have had this. Reading this article and seeing the beautiful picture of this cake made want to bake today. I will definitely be making this tonight, my hubby will love it!
It’s nice to hear that my recipe brought back some memories to you 🙂
If you’ve already tried, I hope everything turned out well and you could achieve a fancy pattern, too!
This looks absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to try it! I guess my diet isn’t going to work out so well this week either. 😛 Your food all looks so amazing I can’t help it! Guess I’m going to be hitting the ol’ jogging trail tomorrow as well!
Haha, thank you! I’m sure a slice of sporty zebra cake is allowed after a long jogging-safari 😉 I often can’t help it either, but especially during the colder months (right now here in Germany), it’s just so much more comfortable to have a fresh cake and a coffee instead of doing sports in the cold (I mean, it is snowing right now!) 😉
What an amazing idea. I love the concept of a marble cake that is easy to formulate and bake. I don’t like to have to take an uncommon amount of time putting the whole thing together, so anything that looks this good and is still easy to make is fine by me. This gives me some ideas for different colors throughout the cake as well, which would make it less zebra-like but just as much fun. I’m going to have to try this soon and perhaps have it for a summery dessert.
Absolutely, with different colors, you can create some beautiful and interesting cakes. There’s a lot to experiment with. The last time, I didn’t use a loaf pan, but a springform pan. And with some dark/white chocolate icing on top, it was looking really funny. So enjoy trying out some things and have fun!
Me and my family love cake. Oftentimes we buy the mixes or the cakes to go but this recipe is so simple I could make it right now if I wanted to.
I also am so surprised that the pattern is not that hard to do yourself. I always thought only professionals could do that sort of thing….
That’s great, did you aready had a try at this?
You can also use a springform pan for this, the layering looks really awesome in there, too.
I know what you mean, sometimes it’s surprising how easy you can achieve amazing looks without special equipment or lots of accessories. This is what I like about this recipe. And every time, it looks just a bit different 🙂