ZEBRA!

Today is my Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! Yesterday the family got together to celebrate her birthday. She requested a chocolate cherry cake; not to be confused with black forest cake. I went to a copy of my Grandma's handwritten cookbook to find the recipe. After searching and searching for it and coming up empty, I called my Mom only to find out that this
cake was called "Cherry Fudge Bars" so I completely passed it during my search. Upon closer inspection, my Grandma does have "cake" written in the margin. I also found a note that this was from a Pillsbury Bake Off. Not sure when though. I adapted this recipe so that I was able to cover it in fondant and create the zebra affect. Ever since my parents went to Africa she has been a little zebra crazy. I'll explain my adaptations after the recipe. This one is so easy. You'll love it!

1 box Pillsbury Fudge Cake mix

1 can cherry pie filling

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp almond flavoring

Mix the ingredients together. Bake in a 9x13 pan or on a cookie sheet (to make into bars) at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes for the cake and 20-30 minutes for the bars.

Frosting:

1 cup sugar

5 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup milk

1 cup chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

Boil the sugar, butter and milk for 1 minute. Stir in the chocolate chips and vanilla until dissolved. Spread immediately.

Easy peasy, right? Instead of baking it in a 9x13 pan, I split the batter between 2 8-inch round cake pans. I baked them for about 40 minutes or so. Clearly the stove top frosting for this cake wasn't going to work on a round cake but I wanted to include the recipe in its fullness. Jess made a whipped ganache filling that was spread between the layers. The cake was then frosted with a chocolate frosting, previously seen on our ladybug cupcakes. The cherry pie filling in the cake makes it so moist and delicious. It was a hit, though my 4 year old nephew did quite see how the striped cake was a zebra. I'm sure he was expecting the full sculpted body. :) It didn't stop him from eating 2 pieces though.

Jess and I covered this cake in white marshmallow fondant. Then we rolled out fondant dyed black and cut out the stripes. We had no particular plan when it came to covering this cake and attempting to make it look like a zebra. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Bake on!

Michele