Kids Kitchen: Zebra Cake
We’re interrupting our usual schedule of kids’ activities, parenting inspiration, and family-friendly food to bring you 31 days of Kids Kitchen Recipes and Activities.
Have you ever made a zebra cake? They are surprisingly easy and such a fun baking activity for kids. We made ours as part of our Lion King Unit Study and it’s about time that I share with you how to make a zebra cake!
What’s awesome about this recipe (beyond those super cool zebra stripes, which just take the cake) is that you can use any cake recipe to get these results – anything from your favourite gluten-free cake to a boxed cake mix. The only stipulation is you need to “dye” half of the cake batter with some chocolate, cocoa, or food colouring, so that you have two contrasting colours to create the zebra stripes.
Have your little chef help you whip up your batters. Tasting optional.
Prepare your pans – you can really use any shape or size cake pans, but we went with mini-springform pans, which we oiled and dusted with flour to prevent the cake from sticking.
Start by adding about two tablespoons of cake batter to the bottom of the pan. Try to create a circle or mound in the center of the pan, but don’t worry about things being perfect. (Zebra’s don’t.)
Next, start the layering process. Scoop an equal amount of the opposite coloured batter into the middle of the first scoop. You don’t need to do anything else.
Try to aim as best you can to get the new layers in the center of the previous layer, so that they push out and rise in zebra stripes, but again, don’t worry about being perfect. This is a very forgiving cake.
Once you have enough layers and the cake pan is about half full of batter, your cake is ready for the oven.
Bake according to your cake’s directions.
Remove to a cooling rack and allow to completely cool before the next steps.
Use a ruler or other flat & even surface to insert toothpicks into the sides of the cake so you can cut the cake with dental floss — a much safer and guaranteed method for kids.
Basically, rope a long piece of non-flavoured dental floss around the cake, underneath the toothpicks and cross the threads to the opposite hands. Pull the threads up and towards you to tighten – the dental floss will cut the cake perfectly smoothly and evenly!
Use your favourite chocolate icing to stick the two layers back together and then frost the cake with an offset spatula. (We used a homemade chocolate ganache from Baked Elements cookbook.)
What do you think? Would you try making an easy zebra cake with your kids?
PS – the zebra was a thoughtful photo prop from Ella and is from our Wild Toob.
Today, as part of our 31 Days of Kids Kitchen series, Jen from This Mad House is sharing her recipe for Madera Cake.
Check out the rest of our 31 Days of Kids Kitchen Series here.
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Oh I adore this and what a great idea about cutting with toothpicks and dental floss. This is an ace series, thanks for hosting.