Zebra Cake and Other Foolish Promises

Hey cake-in-ators. Trying to reach you at least one more time before my little guy comes busting out of my belly. I am 37 weeks and 2 days. Doing okay, other than the odd contraction here and there.

So my cousin is going to study abroad and is having a little shindig tomorrow. A bon voyage party, if you will. I asked if I needed to bring anything, and mistakenly suggested that I would bring a zebra cake, which by the way, she is super psyched about. What.an.idiot. If you have never seen a zebra cake, here is a preview of what it is supposed to look like:

Super cool, but not the most practical item to make between contractions.

Now, I didn't want to let her down so I am going to walk you through this wreck-in-action and hope you enjoy the ride. I didn't invent this cake, but it is all over Pintrest and the mycakeschool.com blog has its own explanation how to do it. However, I assume you guys love me more than her, so you will stick by to see how mine panned out.

Now, I used a Duncan Hines classic white and devil's food cake. Some of the instructions I read for this cake called for thickening of the batter by adding less water. Unfortunately, Duncan Hines has changed the formula for its cakes since the original pin was posted. So, I had to wing it. I went ahead and made the batters per the box instructions. However, I think I should have added about 1/4 cup of water to each batter separately, as the mix was very thick, and you need a medium-thin consistency.

Anyways, I mixed the batters up in two separate bowls. Next, I greased my 2, 8" round cake pans and proceeded to shovel approximately 1/4 cup of alternating batters into the center.  Use a different spoon for each bowl, you don't want to blend the batters. Just keep piling them on top of each other. Bang the pan on the counter gently to help spread the batter if needed.

Meh, a good faith effort. I think if my batter had been a teensy bit thinner,
I would have had the Polly Perfect concentric circles. Maybe. Oh well, Zebras aren't
perfectly banded, right?

Fill the pans about 2/3rds of the way full and cook according to the box instructions. You will have some batter left over which you can use to make cupcakes with. I am gorging on my spares unmercifully right now. The cake will bake up in the stripe pattern you laid out. So in lieu of fighting with my crappy photo editor (still have not found an adequate replacement for my beloved Picnik.com) I will let your imagination go to to town about the results. Also, here's an important tip to remember...

Do not drop smart phones, IPads, or any other electronics into your batter.
Just a piece of friendly advice.

 Feel free to ice the cake as you wish, just make sure to level the cake first, lest there be a repeat of the
 wall cake incident. The party is tomorrow, so I'll post a slice shot from then. Happy baking.