Zebra Cake

This 3-layer zebra cake features mesmerizing swirls of chocolate and vanilla, plus a silky chocolate cream cheese frosting. This marbled cake is easier than it looks because it starts with just 1 batter!

One reader, Laura, commented: “I made this cake for my mom’s retirement party and it turned out amazing! The cake is light and moist and the icing isn’t super sweet, which is refreshing. The steps are spot on and I love all of Sally’s helpful tips. I have learned so much about baking because of the information she provides. I highly recommend this cake! ★★★★★“

You’re looking at chocolate and vanilla cakes baked together in a striking striped pattern. Pretty impressive, right? Much easier than you think to pull off, too. Like marble loaf cake but a little more flashy. Zebra cake is often baked as a single-layer cake or a Bundt cake, but I needed a fun and towering cake for a friend’s birthday. And an excuse to make chocolate cream cheese frosting!

*No zebras were harmed in the making of this cake. 😉

One reader, Erin, commented: “This cake is delicious! It’s fun to make, and the final product looks astounding. The cake has a wonderfully soft and fluffy texture. And the frosting!! That chocolate cream cheese frosting has to be the best kind of frosting I have ever had. It’s creamy, smooth, chocolate-y, and downright perfect. Even my dad, who hates frosting, loved it. It’s nice because it’s not as tooth-decayingly sweet as normal buttercream. And the cream cheese adds a fabulous tang! This is definitely my new favorite chocolate frosting recipe. ★★★★★“

Ingredients You Need

• All-Purpose Flour: Cake flour is too light to stand up to this particular cake. Use all-purpose here, and be sure to sift it before measuring. Sifting the flour rids any clumps and aerates it, which I find important in a cake recipe that uses this much flour.
• Baking Powder & Baking Soda: These leaveners lift the cake up while baking.
• Salt: To balance out the sweet.
• Proper Room-Temperature Butter: To achieve a good rise, properly cream the butter and sugar together. You have the crutch of baking powder and baking soda, but the cake’s crumb truly sings when that creaming process steps in. You need softened, room-temperature butter, which is actually still cool and firm to the touch, not soft and greasy. Butter that’s too cold or too warm won’t mix properly.
• Sugar: We’re using granulated sugar to sweeten this zebra cake.
• Eggs: While I sometimes use only the egg whites to make white cake, we’re using whole eggs today. We don’t want a crumb as light and fluffy as the white cake; rather, this crumb is similar to the rich, moist texture of yellow cake.
• Sour Cream: It adds moisture and richness, and makes for a creamy, tender texture in every bite.
• Pure Vanilla: Reach for pure vanilla extract—a full Tablespoon goes in the cake batter, and then you’ll use it to flavor the frosting, too. You’ll really taste it in this recipe, so I don’t recommend using imitation vanilla here.
• Buttermilk: Store-bought buttermilk gives the best result, but you can make a DIY buttermilk substitute if you can’t find it in your grocery store.
• Cocoa Powder: Use unsweetened cocoa powder, and either Dutch-process or natural cocoa is fine. There’s enough acid in the cake batter that it wouldn’t make a difference. (Learn why that’s important here: Dutch-Process vs Natural Cocoa Powder.)
• Espresso Powder: Optional, for a deeper chocolate flavor.

Made From 1 Batter

The cake batter follows a simple, familiar process. Whisk the dry ingredients together, then work on the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs, then the sour cream and vanilla. Pour in the dry ingredients and then with the mixer running, slowly add the buttermilk.

The chocolate cake is made from the vanilla batter, so you don’t have to prepare two completely separate batters. YAY! Divide the batter in half and add cocoa powder to one.

But since we’re adding a dry and bitter ingredient to the chocolate batter, it will dry out the cake. A little sugar and warm milk or buttermilk solved that problem. (Warmth helps the cocoa powder bloom/dissolve.) Both the vanilla cake and chocolate cake are so moist. We did it!

You can also add a little espresso powder to the chocolate batter. Just to help bring out the chocolate flavor. This is an optional ingredient. You can find it in the coffee or baking aisle at the grocery store, or online.

IMPORTANT: This is a thick batter, which is important for this recipe because as you are layering the two batters together, it helps keep them separate, whereas a thin, runny batter would end up just spreading all together.

---

Use Parchment Paper Rounds for Cakes

Lining cake pans with parchment rounds is the trick I use every single time I bake a round cake, whether I’m making a 1-layer sprinkle cake, a 9-layer Smith Island cake, or today’s recipe. Store-bought pre-cut parchment rounds are convenient, but it’s really easy to just make them yourself. You can cut the exact pan size you need, whether you’re making a 6-inch cake, an 8-inch cake, or a 9-inch cake. If you don’t make a lot of round cakes, just cut them as you need them. If you bake a lot, cut many at a time and store them with your baking pans, ready for the next time you bake.

Very lightly grease the cake pan with butter or nonstick spray. Place the parchment paper round inside, and then grease the parchment, too. Yes, you grease the pan and then also grease the parchment. This creates an ultra-nonstick environment for your cake. The cake won’t stick to the pan, and the parchment round won’t stick to the cake. For more tips on this method, see Parchment Paper Rounds for Cakes.

---

How to Make Zebra Stripe Cake Layers

Now here’s where the zebra shows up! You create the beautiful zebra stripe pattern by layering the batters on top of each other. Before baking, the cakes look like a bullseye.

Start with a spoonful of 1 batter in the center of each of the pans, then place a spoonful of the other batter on top. Alternate between the 2 batters until you’ve filled the pans.

Every now and then, tap the pans on the counter and give them a little shake, to level the batter off and help it spread toward the edges of the pan.

Don’t worry about making this look perfect. The layers of the finished cake are going to look swirly and stripey—we aren’t trying to achieve perfectly straight lines here.

Bake the cakes and then let them cool completely before you make the…

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Regular cream cheese frosting is one of my all-time favorites because it’s not as cloyingly sweet as American-style buttercream and it’s easier than, say, making Swiss meringue buttercream. It’s the creamiest of frostings with a silky smooth and velvety mouthfeel. With carrot cake, red velvet cake, banana cake, and pumpkin cake… it’s just the best!

But could we possibly improve on the perfection that is cream cheese frosting? By adding… chocolate?? Oh yes… we could indeed.

Not in the mood for cream cheese frosting? Chocolate buttercream, Nutella frosting, vanilla buttercream, or Swiss meringue buttercream would also taste fantastic on this zebra cake.

Assembling This Zebra Cake

Once the cakes have baked and cooled, trim the tops using a cake leveler or a large serrated knife to create an even surface. A flat top ensures a sturdier and more stable layered cake.

If you’d like a little assistance with this part, I have a full post and video tutorial on how to assemble a layer cake.

Now the moment of truth. Cutting into the cake to see how those zebra stripes look!

One reader, Amy, commented: “Sally, thank you for this cool and easy technique! I omitted the cocoa & used pink & green food coloring to make an Easter cake. My 11-year-old son helped & said ‘I like that this is a cool, not boring, way to make a cake.’ ★★★★★“

Cool and not boring? I’ll take that as a major compliment, coming from an 11-year-old!

Print