How to Make Soviet Striped Zebra Cake

In Soviet times, people loved to bake various cakes and pies on weekends. One of the popular ones, especially in the 1980s, was the Zebra cake. It was loved for its originality — the cake turned out striped, like a zebra.

To make it, you need 4 eggs, a cup of sugar, 2 cups of flour (not heaped), 150–200 grams of margarine or butter, a cup of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of baking soda. A little sunflower oil or a piece of butter or margarine is needed for greasing the pan.

Mix the eggs and sugar — preferably with a mixer, add melted margarine or butter, salt, baking soda, sour cream, and sift in the flour. Mix everything and get a semi-liquid batter. Separate half of the mixture into another bowl. To one part, add 2–3 tablespoons of cocoa powder (depending on how bright or mild you want the chocolate color to be), to the other — 2–3 tablespoons of flour. Mix thoroughly.

Grease the pan with oil and start layering the batter. First, carefully pour a tablespoon of batter of one color into the center, then, on top of the formed circle in the center — a tablespoon of batter of the other color. And so alternate the layers one after another until the batter is used up.

If you want to get distinct contrasts, it’s better to use a tablespoon, not a teaspoon — then the circles will be wider. We used a teaspoon for the layers, so the color difference wasn’t very bright. You can choose any option, and even alternate two tablespoons of batter at a time — then the stripes will be wide.

You can also create a pattern — as in the second photo, by drawing lines from the center with a knife.

Bake the cake for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (356°F). Check the doneness with a skewer — if the cake is baked through, the surface will remain dry after piercing. If the middle of the cake remains moist for a long time, you can cover the pan with foil.

In the end, you’ll get a striped cake. You can eat it as is, or you can spread it with cream — sour cream, custard, or the classic delicate one — condensed milk mixed with butter.

Earlier, we told you how to make a carrot loaf for tea.