Bakers Royale

Zebra Bundt Cake

By 68 Comments

I love zebra cakes, but I love a zebra bundt cake more. It just seems like less work. No need to cut layers and the frosting is a simple chocolate glaze. However you like or decide to carve your zebra cake, a zebra styling of any sort is pretty much a guaranteed no-fail dress to impress dessert. I’ve added a step-by-step picture panel for a visual on how to make a zebra cake.

Zebra Bundt Cake

Okay, so my striping is not even close to being perfect like what you see here. But I used a thicker batter, so layering the batter with a spoon proved to be a little bit of a challenge. A quarter of the way through, I switched to a small ice cream scoop and it was so much easier.

For this zebra bundt cake I used a marble poundcake recipe from Tish Boyle’s The Cake Book, while good, I found it wasn’t as moist as I generally like my pound cake. To be fair, I did adapt the recipe by melting the butter instead of creaming of it. Along with that, the original recipe calls for a marbling the pound cake, so I’m not sure if the extra time it took to make it a zebra bundt cake effected the end results in terms of moisture. Aside from those two things, I kept to the recipe and didn’t change anything else.

A few notes:

  • To layer the pound cake for the zebra effect use a an ice cream scoop with a release lever for easy handling.
  • Cake can be made one day ahead and kept tightly wrapped on the counter.

Zebra Bundt Cake

(adapted from Tish Boyle, The Cake Book)
Makes 1 10 inch cake. | Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover bundt pan with bake spray and dust with flour.

Ingredients:
Cake

  • 3 cups cake flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 ½ cups granulated sugar, divided
  • ½ cup natural (not Dutch-processed) cocoa powder
  • 6 tablespoons water
  • 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 5 large eggs
  • ½ cup whole milk

Glaze

  • 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
  • ⅔ cup heavy cream

Instructions:
To make cake

  1. Sift flour baking powder and salt into a bowl; set aside.
  2. In a separate medium size bowl add in ½ cup of sugar, the cocoa powder, and water then whisk until mixture is smooth; set aside.
  3. Place melted butter and sugar in a stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium high until mixture is blended, about 1 minute. Add in vanilla and beat until combined. Add and beat eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition. Once all eggs are added, beat mixture until it becomes light and fluffy (it will resemble pancake batter, but slightly thinner).
  4. Turn mixer speed down to low and add the flour in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions and mixing just until blended.
    Add 2 cups of the batter to the cocoa mixture and stir until blended.
  5. Using an ice cream scoop, pour two scoops of vanilla mixture into pan. Now alternate and pour one scoop of chocolate mixture on top of vanilla mixture. Continue to alternate between vanilla and chocolate layers until bundt pan is filled.
  6. Bake zebra pound cake for 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees F or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack and cool completely.

To make glaze

  1. Place chocolate and cream in a pan over low heat and stir until chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes before using.

Assembly

  1. Pour the glaze on top and let glaze set, about 30 minutes. Slice and serve.

Comments

  12. Bobbi says

    This is absolutely beautiful and presents so many opportunities for layering different colors! I wish I would have had this for my bridal shower so I could have done a blue & green one! Thank you for sharing! Pinning now!

  22. Dana @hotpinkapron says

    The tutorial picture montage is a thing of true beauty. All of you photos are delicious but the series of 4 is the definite, “Oh ya! I have to make this cake!” push that I always appreciate from a great post. Thanks!

  24. Hinna says

    I had no idea what a zebra cake was until I read your post. This is definitely something I want to try out. What size ice cream scoop did you use?

  29. Brian @ A Thought For Food says

    I’m in love with those step by step tutorial pics. Seriously fabulous!

  33. Jesica @ Pencil Kitchen says

    wow, such simple methods to get such a beautiful cake! Will surely try this method out! with other colors!

  36. Javelin Warrior says

    This bundt cake is tremendous – and I’m in awe of the perfect swirl. I’ve never attempted this, but now I might have the courage to try, so thank you 🙂 I am featuring this post in today’s Friday Food Fetish roundup (with a link-back and attribution), but please let me know if you have any objections. It’s a pleasure to be following your creations…

  42. Namitha says

    Lovely ! beautiful pictures as always 🙂 My kids love this, though I never made a bundt version before. Bookmarking this,will def try sometime,thanks

  44. Madelyn says

    If I wanted to make the vanilla batter a peanut butter batter how would it turn out adding a cup of creamy peanut butter?

  45. Naomi says

    Hi Madelyn- I’m not sure. But it sounds like a great idea, so come back and let us know when you do make it. My only thought is I would try melting the peanut butter with the butter so it keeps the batter density close to one another or one will bake faster than the other.

  46. tanja says

    this looks fantastic! I’ve made a zebra cake before, but in a round pan and didn’t come out looking as nice. I should give your recipe a try.

  47. Mei says

    This looks so beautiful! I’m going to attempt this the next time it’s my turn to bake for the team. Thanks for the tips about layering!

  48. May says

    I made this cake yesterday and it turned out beautifully. Tastes great too! However, afer slicing the whole cake, I realized I forgot to make the glaze. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

  50. Esther says

    Easy & delicious. My cake came out more like a giraffe than a zebra design, but it was still great!

    Dont’t forget to add in the baking powder & sugar. The recepie does not say when to add these in.

  52. Annette says

    I made this cake and I have to agree with you. It is a little dry. I searched melted butter vs creamed butter and from what I could tell that us not the reason. Not sure why. With all that butter and all those eggs you would think it would be ver moist. Also, I was not as patient as you and mine looks more giraffe-y than zebra but that is my fault. Thank you for the step by step instructions with photos. I think I would like to try this method again but with a different recipe!

  53. Cintya Maria says

    Hello Naomi!

    I’m from Brazil and I also have a blog.
    This is the first time I write here.
    I’d would like you to know that I’ve just made this cake and I have to say it is wonderful! I’m a big fan of you!
    Thanks a lot for sharing your spectacular recipes with us!

    xxoo

  54. Brooke At Love's Gumbo says

    @Julee, I am thinking the same thing. I’m gonna try it with my high-protein, high fiber flour mix. Fingers crossed.

  55. Megan says

    Just made this. And I have to say it has to be one of the worst cakes ever!! It’s not dry and it’s not wet. It’s just greasy. It’s practically oozing separated fat that coats your tongue. Glad I tasted it before I made icing. Into the garbage it goes..

  56. peps says

    Hello!
    I am in love with your cake!!!
    I made it twice in 3 weeks!
    I melted the butter, the first time i used yogurt instead of milk and the second one, milk.
    Best ever cake!!!!
    Thank you!!!

  57. Flavia says

    Try reducing half a cup of flour, and try reducing about 2 tablespoons of butter and see if it gets a little bit more moist. If not, once the cake is out of the mould or even before you do that you can poke some holes with a fork or serrated knife and you can moisten it with 1/4 cup of milk mixed with Hershey’s syrup or some Coca-Cola or just some plain milk before adding the frosting! Keep cake in airtight container as soon as it cools. But in the cakes defense this is more of a coffee cake type of bundt. Meaning it’s supposed to be enjoyed while sipping a cup of tea or a nice hot cup of coffee. You want wet super moist cake go with the layers filling and frosting combination!

  58. MoranSha says

    I’ve come to learn that the way to make such a cake moist is to use oil instead of butter – oil is liquid at room temperature, therefore the cake stays moist, whereas butter is solid at room temperature, therefore the mix turns out heavier and dries up faster.

  59. Maria Hanrahan says

    I made this tonight with a minor change and it came out perfectly, not dry at all. I happened to have several egg yolks after having made a white cake yesterday, so after reading the comments that some people experienced a dry cake, I decided to use two whole eggs and 4 egg yolks instead of 5 whole eggs. Also, I did not have whole milk, so I used equal parts heavy whipping cream and skim milk to yield 1/2 cup. I opted to go without the glaze, and the cake was wonderful without it. I didn’t quite get a great zebra pattern, however, and I think using two scoops of the vanilla batter to one scoop of the chocolate was to blame. Toward the end, I had way more chocolate batter. Next time I plan to alternate the batters one-to-one instead.

  60. Kaitlyn says

    I made a few changes to ensure that the cake came out moist and not dry. I substituted one stick of the butter for 1/2 cup of oil and substituted the milk for heavy cream. The cake was moist and delicious! A real show stopper and crowd pleaser. It tasted just as good if not better than it looked! Great recipe!

  63. Valerie says

    That was really rude of you to say if you didn’t like it than alright that’s your business but if you seriously have nothing good to say shut your mouth because that was completely disrespectful.

  64. Kaitlyn says

    I make this cake all the time for dinner parties and get togethers and its always a huge hit! I sub 1/2 cup of oil for 1 stick of the butter both to add moistness and make the batter thinner. It comes out perfect every time! definitely don’t skip the glaze bc its the best part!

  65. Leigh-Anne says

    My raspberry version turned out great all loved it. Will try a little oil next time see how it goes. I do need more practice with the marbling. I added a link to your recipe since I used it as the base for mine. Thanks!

  66. Natalie says

    Hi would you use the same amount of oil as the butter never made this are befor and have read your comments on using oil instead xxxxx

  67. carol says

    I can’t print the directions for the Zebra Bundt Cake. the Neopolitan Zebra Bundt Cake, or the brownies that have the butterscotch cookie dough inside. I don’t know why I cannot print some of the recipes. I do not really want to download all of the recipes. I just wanted a few of them.

    Thank you.

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