Zebra cake was especially popular in the Soviet Union. It turns out not only delicious, but also incredibly beautiful. Moreover, for its preparation requires a minimum set of products and very little effort.
Cake "Zebra" (step by step recipe) - the basic principles of preparation
The creation of this dessert is real creativity. A cake is prepared from the dough of two colors: white and brown. For this, the dough is divided in half. One part is left white, and cocoa powder is added to the second. Hence the name of the cake.
For the preparation of the test, use the most common products that are found in every home: wheat flour, cocoa powder, chicken eggs, butter, sugar, sour cream and baking soda.
Beat eggs with sugar. You can do this with a whisk, but it's better to use a mixer, it will turn out much faster. Continue to beat until the egg mass does not increase in volume by two to three times.
Then add sour cream. It can be replaced with kefir. Melt the butter over low heat, or in a water bath. You can use any creamy fat. Add to other ingredients and mix thoroughly.
In the resulting mass add baking soda. It can be pre-extinguished with table vinegar or lemon juice. Lastly, pour the sifted flour and continue to beat with a mixer until there is not a single lump left.
Vanilla is added to the dough for flavor.
The dough is divided in half, pouring them into separate bowls. Pour cocoa powder into one of them and shake it until it is completely dispersed according to the test.
Deep round shape is greased with oil and crushed with flour. Take a tablespoon of light dough and spread it in the center of the mold, then pour a spoonful of chocolate on it. Repeat in this order until all the dough is in shape.
Cake is baked in a well-heated oven. Readiness is checked with a wooden skewer or toothpick.
The finished cake is taken out of the oven, cooled and glazed, or crushed with icing sugar. This is a variant of a simple Zebra cake.
To prepare a more complex dessert, the cake is cut in half and spread with cream.
Cake "Zebra" is prepared on milk, marshmallows, condensed milk. For a change, slices of fresh fruit, nuts, or dried fruits can be added to the cake.
Recipe 1. Classic Zebra Cake (step by step recipe)
Ingredients
Dough
wheat flour - 270 g;
table vinegar;
cane sugar - 260 g;
baking soda - ½ teaspoon;
sour cream - 200 g;
cocoa powder - 50 g;
butter - 50 g;
three chicken eggs.
Glaze
cocoa powder - 50 g;
milk - 50 g;
butter - 50 g;
cane sugar - two tablespoons;
Sprinkling
coconut flakes or white chocolate - 50 g.
Cooking method
1. Drive the chicken eggs into a deep bowl. Pour sugar and whisk with a whisk or mixer until an air mass with bubbles forms.
2. Add sour cream to the beaten eggs. Put the butter in a small bowl and place it over a pot of boiling water. Hold until the butter has melted. Cool slightly and introduce into beaten eggs. Mix everything well.
3. Sift flour twice. To extinguish soda with table vinegar. Instead of vinegar, you can use lemon juice. Add everything to a mixture of eggs and sour cream and mix gently so that no lumps form. You should get a consistency dough like a pancake. If the dough is too liquid, the cake will be moist inside. From too thick a dough, the cake will be tough.
4. Divide the dough in half. Arrange it in different dishes. Add cocoa powder in one part. The amount of this product depends on how much color you want to get. Add as much flour to the light dough as you added cocoa in the second half. This is done in order to smooth the texture of light and dark dough.
5. Lubricate the demountable mold with oil and grind with flour. Spread light and brown dough in the center alternately with a spoon. The thickness of the strips determines the portion of the dough that you lay out. So that the strips along the edges and in the middle of the cake are approximately the same, you need to gradually reduce the portions of the spread dough.
6. Put the mold with the dough into the oven preheated to 160 ° C. Bake for about an hour. Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes. Check the readiness of the cake with a wooden skewer or a toothpick. Stick the stick in the middle of the cake, take it out if it is dry, then the cake is ready.
7. Remove the mold from the oven and cool the cake. Then put it on a kitchen towel or wire rack so that the bottom is not damp.
8. For glaze, pour milk into a saucepan, add sugar. Put on a small fire and cook until crystals are completely dissolved. Add butter. Once it disperses, pour in cocoa and mix well. Remove from heat.
9. Cover the cake with warm glaze, coating the sides. Sprinkle completely cooled icing with white coconut. Serve with tea, coffee, compote or other drinks.
Recipe 2. Cake "Zebra": a step by step recipe with cream
Ingredients
Cake
400 g of premium wheat flour;
two teaspoons of vanilla sugar;
four chicken eggs;
5 g of baking soda;
60 g of cocoa powder;
200 g of 20% sour cream;
a pack of butter or margarine;
200 g of cane sugar.
Sour cream
half a liter of 25% sour cream;
200 g of white sugar;
lemon.
Condensed Cream
150 g butter;
600 g of condensed milk.
Glaze
three tablespoons of sour cream, cocoa powder and sugar;
butter - 50 g.
Cooking method
1. First, be sure to sift the flour. This is done in order to saturate it with oxygen. Combine the sifted flour with baking soda and mix.
2. First remove the oil or margarine from the refrigerator and leave for an hour to make the fat soft. Put sour cream in a deep bowl, add eggs, white sugar and soft butter to it. Sour cream can be replaced with kefir. Shake everything with a whisk until smooth. Pour the flour into the sour-cream mixture a little and mix so that no lumps form. Add vanilla sugar and mix again. Put half the dough in a separate bowl. Add cocoa powder to it and mix well. Add the same amount of flour to the white dough. This is necessary so that the consistency of white and brown dough is the same.
3. Lubricate the round shape with oil. Lay out half the white dough. Pour half brown into the center. Pour the remaining white dough into the center and brown again. Using a wooden skewer, mix the dough in a circle from center to edge. Put the mold in the oven, preheating it to 180C. Bake for about an hour. Then remove the cupcake from the oven, cool it and put on a wire rack. Cut the cake lengthwise into three parts. This can be done with a knife with a long thin blade, or using a confectionery thread.
4. To prepare sour cream, put sour cream in several times folded cheesecloth, connect the edges and suspend all the liquid in the glass. Put thick sour cream in a bowl. Pour in sugar and beat thoroughly with a mixer or whisk. Wash the lemon, wipe and remove the zest from it with the smallest grater. Squeeze a tablespoon of juice from the lemon. Add zest and juice to the cream and mix.
5. Prepare a cream of condensed milk. Jars with condensed milk put in a pan and fill with water so that it completely covers them. Put on a small fire and cook for an hour and a half. Remove the jars from the water and cool completely. Open the cans. Put the boiled condensed milk in a bowl, slightly kneading it with a fork. Add soft butter to the condensed milk and beat with a mixer for ten minutes.
6. Lubricate the lower crust with sour cream. Lay out the second cake on top. Coat it, the top and sides of the cake with cream from condensed milk.
7. Prepare the icing. Put sour cream, white sugar and cocoa in a stewpan. Stir everything until smooth. Put the stewpan on a slow fire and warm, stirring continuously. Do not bring to a boil. Remove the icing from the stove, add the oil and mix until it melts completely. Cool the icing to a warm state and pour it over the surface of the cake. Top you can decorate with white chocolate or coconut flakes. Leave the Zebra cake (step by step recipe) soaked for a couple of hours.
Cake "Zebra" (step by step recipe) - tips and tricks
Sift flour for the cake at least twice to make the dough airy.
The color intensity of the brown dough depends on the amount of cocoa added to it.
In the place of cocoa, you can add dark chocolate to the dough, having previously melted it in a water bath.
Coconut flakes or finely grated white chocolate are used as decoration.
