Last Saturday I was taking part in the Clandestine Cake Club’s VCake Event Cake-a-Licious which is a virtual cake event. It was designed for those who haven’t got a local group near them or who can’t always make local events who can still join in the cakey fun online!  Of course you don’t get to actually eat the other members’ cakes as you would at a face-to-face cake club event, you can still have the fun of seeing what everyone else is making!

If you fancy joining the VCake Club then the details of how to take part are here: http://clandestinecakeclub.co.uk/groups/vcake-club/

I am the organiser for York Clandestine Cake Club and also jointly organise the events for the Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon group. I do have lots of exciting events to go to but I love any excuse to put on my apron and I would be baking for my family this weekend anyway, so I was delighted to be able to take part!

I chose to bake a Chocolate Orange Stripey Zebra Cake. The original idea and the recipe for this is in Lorraine Pascale’s latest book “Fast, Fresh and Easy Food”. Lorraine Pascale is one of my favourite cookery writers at the moment as her recipes are always simple, uncomplicated yet delicious and interesting at the same time.  I often use her books for inspiration for her midweek meals but had yet to try this recipe out.

Once my springform tin was greased and lined, the oven on, I set to with the mixing.  Sunflower oil, eggs, milk, vanilla extract and caster sugar were mixed together carefully in a large bowl. I then had to transfer half the mixture into another bowl, this I did by weight. Approximately half was 400g.  To one half of the mixture I had to add sifted flour and baking powder.  This formed the plain sponge part.  To the other I added sifted flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and grated orange zest.  These were mixed carefully.

Now for the fun part.  I had to start off with a large tablespoon of the plain mixture, then adding the chocolate so it looked like a bullseye on a dartboard!  This didn’t entirely work for me as I got in a bit of a mess and I ended up with little blobs. Instead of little stripes, my zebra would be more patches.  I didn’t care though as it was more important the cake tasted better.

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx