Zebra Cake

This is an interesting cake idea I recently found online. It is a different take on a marble cake; instead of gently swirling the two batters together, rings are created, that bake into a cake resembling zebra stripes. It's fun, and actually not that difficult. Pretty impressive if you get it right too, and if not, it looks like a marble cake and still tastes very good! Any cake recipe can be used to make this, just divide white cake batter in half, and add some cocoa to one half.
A thinner batter works better with these types of cakes so it will spread out quickly. This batter was actually on the thicker side, and didn't spread as well, which is why I ended up making four separate rings, which surprisingly still worked out quite well. However, keep in mind that with a thinner batter, you will have to work quickly!
You can easily do a quick search of "zebra cake" for step-by-step videos showing the process of putting the batter in the pan. 
This is what mine looked like before baking:

Zebra Cake
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated (white) sugar
2 large eggs
2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
1 1/3 cups evaporated milk
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Grease and flour an 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the baking powder, salt, and 1 cup of flour. Pour in the milk and remaining flour and mix well. Divide batter in half. Add cocoa to one half.

Now for the zebra effect. I used 1/8 cup measuring cups for this, as they are equal to 2 Tablespoons. You can also spoon the batter into two pastry bags or plastic bags and squeeze them out instead of scooping.
Place one scoop of vanilla batter in the center of the pan. Let it spread a bit. Put an equal scoop of chocolate in the center of the vanilla. Let it spread a bit. Keep alternating vanilla and chocolate batter  allowing the batter to spread and fill the pan and create circles of vanilla and chocolate batter.

Bake for about 40 minutes in a 9 inch pan, or slightly longer for an 8 inch pan, as the batter will be deeper. Cool in the pan for ten minutes, then turn it to cool. Frost as desired.
And this is what it looked after baking:

More about the icing technique tomorrow!