**The Zebra Cake: A Decadent Dessert with Minimal Effort**

When it comes to baking, many of us are often tempted by elaborate recipes and intricate designs. However, not everyone has the time or patience to devote to such projects. In this article, we'll explore a delightful dessert that defies conventional wisdom - the zebra cake.

This charming dessert features alternating layers of cookies and cake, creating a stunning striped effect that is sure to impress. But what makes it truly special is its ease of preparation. As our host notes, "Most of the effort is just letting it sit in the refrigerator until the cookies soften up." This approach simplifies the baking process, allowing home bakers to enjoy a beautiful and delicious dessert with minimal fuss.

**The Science Behind the Stripes**

When layering the cookies and cake, it's essential to cut them at an angle. As our host points out, "You won't get that beautiful stripy reveal if you don't." The reason for this lies in the way we perceive light and texture. By cutting the layers at an angle, we create a more dynamic presentation that showcases the contrasting textures of the cookies and cake.

**A Delicious Masterpiece**

The finished zebra cake is nothing short of breathtaking. With its alternating stripes of dark chocolate and raspberry, it's a feast for the eyes as much as the taste buds. When taken in a bite, the cake yields to a light, fluffy texture that's reminiscent of traditional Chinese baked goods. The dark chocolate flavor adds depth and richness, while the raspberries provide a refreshing contrast.

**A New Standard for Dessert**

So what sets this zebra cake apart from other desserts? For starters, its level of sweetness is surprisingly low, making it an excellent option for those who prefer lighter treats. The addition of fresh fruit also elevates the dessert to new heights, providing a delightful burst of flavor and color. As our host notes, "This has that level of sweetness, and I quite enjoy it." And with the dark chocolate flavor expertly balanced against the tartness of the raspberries, this cake is sure to please even the most discerning palates.

**The Perfect Dessert for Everyday Baking**

While some desserts may be relegated to special occasions, not everyone needs a fancy dessert to impress their guests. The zebra cake, with its ease of preparation and versatility, makes an excellent addition to everyday baking routines. As our host points out, "If you need an easy cakey recipe that makes a beautiful presentation, then this one might be the one for you." Whether you're looking for a dessert to impress or simply want something delicious to serve your family, this zebra cake is sure to fit the bill.

**Taking it to the Next Level**

But what about adding an extra layer of excitement to our humble zebra cake? Our host suggests pairing these cookies with a scoop of ice cream, creating the ultimate dessert sandwich. With its crunchy texture and smooth creamy center, this combination is sure to elevate your baked goods game. So don't be afraid to experiment and find new ways to enjoy this delightful dessert.

**Get Creative with Your Zebra Cake**

Before we sign off, our host invites you to share your own zebra cake creations on social media using a specific hashtag. As they say, "That's the whole reason why I made this recipe in the first place, because Brenda got in touch with me." By engaging with each other and sharing their baking experiences, home bakers can create a vibrant community of enthusiasts who inspire and motivate one another.

**Conclusion**

And there you have it - a beautiful, delicious dessert that requires minimal effort to prepare. Whether you're a seasoned baker or just starting out, the zebra cake is sure to become a staple in your repertoire. With its stunning presentation, subtle sweetness, and delightful flavor combinations, this charming dessert is an excellent addition to any baking routine.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(bouncy music)- Greetings, my beautifullovelies, it's Emmy.How are you?It's great to see you, and welcome back.Today, I'm going to be making a cakethat requires three ingredients,- - if you don't count any sprinkles --but if you want to count sprinkles,or little decorations,then that would be four,but we're going to be makinga three-ingredient cake.It's a classic icebox cake.It's a retro recipe for zebra cake,or the Famous Chocolate Wafer cake.So lovely Brenda, who'sbeen following me for years,got in touch with me,and asked me to make this cakethat she remembered from her childhood.And she wondered how,when you cut the cake,it got its beautiful striped pattern.I had never heard of a zebra cake before,so I went and researched it,and it's a very super simple, simple cake.It's a classic icebox cake.It's made of cookiesspread with whipped cream,or some kind of frosting,and then placed in the refrigeratorto sit for a few hours,or overnight, in which thecookies absorb the moisturefrom the frosting or whippedcream, and turn into a cake,a cake that doesn't requireany baking whatsoever.This is a feat of magic,and I cannot wait to seeit, and make it myself.Also, when this cake is cut,it has a beautiful zebra pattern.That's where it gets its name,zebra meaning that the whipped creamis alternated by thesedark chocolate wafers,and so you get this stripey pattern.And when you cut it ona bias, or on an angle,you can see the stripes.So I had to make thisbecause it's so super simple,and I want to know what it tastes like.I can kind of imagine what it tastes like,but this cake is super simple,only three ingredients.And two of those ingredientsare what make the whipped cream.The first thing we'regoing to need are these:these are Famous Chocolate Wafers.This is what they look like.I just purchased themat the grocery store.And this is an example of thecake we're going to be making.In fact, on the back of the box,it gives you the recipe right therefor the famous chocolaterefrigerator roll,also known as an iceboxcake, or a zebra cake.See, three ingredients, super simple.So I'm just gonna be following the recipeon the back of this box.I'm gonna be whippingup my own whipped cream,but you can save even more time,and use frozen whippedtopping if you like.But I really love the flavorof freshly whipped cream,even though I'm lactose intolerant,I will take a lactose enzyme,just so I can have a littlebit of whipped cream.So this couldn't be any simpler.First, you get yourself a box of cookies.Next we're going to whipup some whipped cream.I'm gonna grab some vanilla,and got my beater here.If you don't have an electric mixer,you can, of course, whisk this by hand,but we're also gonnaneed some electrons...so let me make sure I havethis plugged in, okay,and power's on....Actually I have two cupsof WHIPPING cream --this isn't whipped cream yet.I'm gonna add that to our bowl.It helps if the whippingcream is nice and cold,and we're just gonna beat this on highuntil we get nice stiff peaks,but not too stiff, becausethis will turn into butterif you overchurn it.So err on the side of doingit a little bit lighter:you can always add a few morelittle air bubbles afterwardsto perfect the texture. So, here we go!This is a really powerfulmixer -- it's super loud --so I'm not gonna talk while I mix this.So here we go.(mixer whirring)Level one, two, three, four.(mixer whirring)So that was all of 30 seconds,and already this isthickening beautifully.We want it to be alittle thicker than that.So a little bit more.(mixer whirring)Okay, I'm gonna grab a spatula,give this a couple turns.Look at that, isn't that amazing?It whips up so fast.Look at that: beautiful!A little bit more, I think,just a little bit more.Spatula down, a little bit more.(mixer whirring)So that portion that Ijust whipped in the middlegot a little thicker,and now mixing it with thepart that's not as thick.So, I think we are prettymuch there. Look, so easy....and it's pretty stiff. Okay!I'm gonna add our vanilla.I'm gonna add one teaspoonof vanilla extract.Bloop.Now we're gonna mix that vanilla in there.(mixer whirring)Okay.All right, I think we're there.Yep, there we have it.I'm gonna use an offset spatula.This is my favorite toolfor frosting and the like.This little bit of an angle hereis super handy, super handy.Okay, I'm gonna open my box of wafers.Here's the chocolate wafers,and there's a whole sleeve of them,and they're really nice anddark, like an Oreo cookie,but much thinner.See how thin they are?Smooth side, and the kind of rough side.So let's go ahead andgive one of these a taste.I've never had one of these.Snap nicely.Here we go.Itadakimasu!(wafer crunching)Mhm.And they're a lot like you would imagine.They taste just like an Oreo cookie:that dark chocolatey flavor,not overly sweet, just alittle bit of sweetness.It tastes so much like an Oreo.You kind of miss the sweet cream filling,and I'm like, where's the cream filling?And of course these aremuch thinner than an Oreo.Although actually the Oreo Thinsare kind of similar in this texture --they have more of a snap, thenkind of that crumbly bite.Flavor is very similar,just sans cream filling,which is almost kind of sacrilegious.But this isn't an Oreo.This is a Famous Chocolate Wafer.I like it.Mhm.(wafer crunching)Just slightly sweet,and I think it would be greatkind of dipped in coffee or something.Kinda soften that crunch.Although the crunch is nice.Alrighty, so now we areready to assemble the cake.So, I got myself a long plate here,and we're gonna take ourfreshly whipped whipped cream.It's flavored with a bit of vanilla,and we're gonna put a littlepile on here like thisin a line.This is gonna be the spacklethat holds up the cake.Okay, just like that.Doesn't have to be fancy by any means.Okay, now we're going to takea chocolate wafer like this,and then we're gonna takea dollop of whipped cream,maybe about a teaspoon and a half.And I found if tapping it in the middlekind of distributes it nicely,but there's really no specific method.We're just making a sandwich.Now we're adding another wafer on top.So now it looks a littlebit more like an Oreo.Give it a little squinch,so that the cream comes out the edges.And then we're gonna repeat.Take a dollop,tap it right in the middleto get it distributed.Take another wafer, andpush, whoop, whoop, whoop.Okay, so now we have a littlestack of three cookies,and now we're going to place it right hereon the end of our plate.Now, the reason why we did thatwas that we want it to bestable enough to stand up.If we just put one cookie,it wouldn't stand up as well.So there we have it.The beginning's of our cake roll.Now you just repeat,add a little dollop of cream.Boom, boom, boom, boom,pulse it, smear it.However you want to do it.And then attach it to the others,and give it a little press.Right?Repeat.Okay, I'm gonna go aheadand build this entire roll,and I'll be right back.We now need to frost thiswith more whipped cream.We're just gonna cover everything up,cover everything up,make sure all those nooks and cranniesare filled with whipped cream.They're going to hydrate the cookies,so that it turns into a cake.Now from my understanding,refrigerator cakes, or icebox cakes,are an old-fashioned treatback when people had ice boxes,and a very simple way to make a dessert,and not have to bake anything.And then just take something out,and have a sweet treat for everybody.You can make it the night before.In fact, the recipe says four hoursfor this to turn into a cake.But some other recipes I readrecommend doing the overnight thing,just to ensure everythingis nice and soft.So we're just gonnacover everything up here.No need to get fancy.I suppose that you couldpipe the whipped cream onif you'd like,but we're going for a kindof old fashiony look here,and just kind of swoopingthe whipped cream around.We're gonna pop this intothe refrigerator, cover it,pop this in the refrigeratorfor at least four hours,if not overnight, so thatthe cookies can soften.And last night, I did one of these,so that we could taste it today.So let me go grab it.I'm gonna do a little swap out,so then this one can soften up.So I wrapped this in a bit of foil,made a little crutch too outof a strawberry container,so that it wouldn't get crushed,or wouldn't touch the whipped cream.Worked really well, I think.So here is the cooledrefrigerator icebox cake.I'm gonna add some chocolate sprinkles.Around here in New England,we call these jimmies.These, chocolate jimmies.Look at those.Look, seriously, jimmies.Okay, and I'm just goingto sprinkle these on topfor that kind of old timey look.(Emmy humming)Okay, and I've got some raspberries too.Should we put these righton top, or down the side?I want to put these right on the top.Some raspberries, just because.(Emmy giggling)♪ Line them up like littlesoldiers right on top ♪It looks super fancy, but it's not.It's super simple.Now I'm gonna take a few pictures,and then we're going to cut this open,so we can see the big zebra reveal,and then give this a taste.(Emmy humming)(Emmy giggling)Alrighty, lovelies.We're gonna give thechocolate wafer cake a taste.It sure looks good, doesn't it?So cute, reminds me ofa sundae or something.So the trick for this cakeis that you need to cut iton an angle like this.See that?At an angle.If you cut it like this,and follow the way we layered the cookies,you won't get thatbeautiful stripy reveal.You have to cut it at an angle.So I'm gonna cut it at avery kind of acute angle.Acute or obtuse, itdepends on the direction.Acute, because the finishedslice is gonna be narrow.All right, thinking out loud here.(Emmy giggling)Okay, alrighty, here we go.(Emmy humming)Look at the stripes, so beautiful!Look at that.Isn't that beautiful?Look at all the stripes.(plate tapping)And in the cake as well, gorgeous.Gorgeous, that is why theycall it the zebra cake.So pretty.All righty, lovelies, let'sfinally give this a taste.Look how beautiful that is.Look that beautiful slice,no baking, no hardly working whatsoever.Amazing.And let's see how this tastes,because it doesn'tmatter about the effort.If it doesn't taste good,it doesn't taste good.Okay, let's see how thishas changed texture.Look at that.And indeed, it's like cakey in texture.Okay, camera, you can do it, look at that.Whoop, whoop.I'ma take a bite withoutthe raspberry first.Alrighty, here we go.Itadakimasu.Mm!It's totally cakey.It's light, and fluffy,vanilla, a lot of chocolate.Mhm.I like that.Mm, the raspberry, oh yeah.I do have to say, oh my gosh.Look at that texture.I mean, that looks like a cake.This looks absolutely beautiful.I do have to say, I thinkfor present day tastes,this is gonna be a little bit less sweetthan a lot of people are usedto, which I actually prefer.Mhm.It tastes like a dessert,but it's not heavy, andnot cloyingly sweet.It's a very light sweetness.In terms of level of sweetness,it reminds me a lot of the baked goodsyou might find at a Chinese bakery,just kind of lightly sweetened,some of the chiffon cakes or sponge cakesthat have whipped cream in them,and a little bit of fruit.They're just lightly sweetened,but again, it's dessert-like,and it feels like a treat,but it's not heavy,or just so, so sweetthat you feel likeyou can just take a little tiny, tiny bit.This has that level ofsweetness, and I quite enjoy it.And you get a nice injectionof chocolate as well.This really dark chocolate flavor.And then with the fruit,it's just a perfect little foil.You've got some freshness, some color,some tanginess in this case,because we're using raspberries.Mhm.And the raspberries go reallywell with the chocolate.Mhm.Delicious.Lovely!So there you have it.A lovely dessert that looks quite fancy,and it takes very littleeffort whatsoever.Most of the effortis just letting it sit in the refrigeratoruntil the cookies soften up.But the presentation isspectacular, spectacular.I love the layers inthat, and it's oh so easy,and really, just twoingredients, three ingredients.If you use whipped topping,it would be two ingredients,but if you make homemade whipped cream,it's three ingredients.And if you add fruit, then it's four,but we're getting a littletechnical here, aren't we?It's easy.So if you need an easy cakey recipethat makes a beautiful presentation,then this one might be the one for you.Although it is on thelight sweet sugary side,so if that's your cup of tea,then again, this might be yours,but if you want something really decadent,maybe a drizzle of chocolate syrup on top,or caramel might sweeten things upa little bit more for you, if you like.I don't think it needs it.Oh, you know what would be amazing?These cookies would make anamazing ice cream sandwich,just cookie then alittle ice cream, cookie.Okay, that's what I'm trying out next.Alrighty, my lovelies.Thanks so much for watching.I hope you enjoy that one.I hope you learn something.Please share this video with your friends.Follow me on social media.I love hearing from you.That's the whole reasonwhy I made this recipein the first place,because Brenda got in touch with me,and yeah, check out my website.I'll include a printableversion of this recipe.Like this video, subscribe,and I shall see you in the next one.Toodaloo, take care, bye!(soft music)(upbeat music)There's a really fat squirreljust crossing my yard.Mhm, I think it just ranout of the chicken coop.That's why it's chubby.Nothing like feeding the wildlife.\n"