Fit For a Princess: Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Zebra Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Frosting

We're halfway through Vegan MoFo, and still going strong! Have you found something deliciously new this month?

Before I forget, please, please, pretty please go to this link and VOTE for my blog in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Food Allergy Moms blog contest! No registration required -- just a click! Remember, you can vote once EVERY 24 hours. The contest is winding down, and as a late nomination, I could use some help getting into the Top 25. Thank you!

Princess came home for her birthday weekend. I couldn't be more proud of that young lady... She's anxiously waiting to hear back on her applications to vet school, working, finishing her senior year at university with a major in Wildlife Ecology. It's a marvel to me that I had a hand in producing this amazing human being!

Anyway, for her 22nd birthday, I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. "Chocolate!" she said, which wasn't a big surprise. That girl loves her chocolate. Who doesn't?! "And," she added, "could you make that peanut butter cream frosting you did that one time?"

Ah, yes... That one time. See, it was The Dude's birthday, and our family was spending the weekend at Birch Bay. Our hotel room had a kitchen, so I'd packed everything I'd need to make a fabulous cake and frosting -- with the exception of the vegan margarine, which I didn't want to hassle with chilling during the several-hours-long drive. I figured I'd just pick some up at the local grocery when we arrived.

Except... none of the local groceries HAD vegan margarine. How was I going to make a creamy vegan frosting, with no margarine? I scanned our grocery booty, and spotted the creamy peanut butter. Hey, I thought, margarine is basically just fat, and peanut butter is full of fat. I wonder... It didn't have the exact consistency I wanted, but it worked well enough to cover the cake.

This time, I solved the consistency problem by adding a bit of margarine to make it even creamier and "buttery."

I was all prepared to mix up two layers of chocolate cake when inspiration struck. What if... What if I put peanut butter IN the cake?!

The result was a zebra-striped peanut butter and chocolate cake, and it was divine. The technique to produce zebra stripes in the cake is easy-peasy, and you can find many, many tutorials online, if my photos and description leave anything to be desired.

Happy baking!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Zebra Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Frosting

Peanut Butter Cake Ingredients:


1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1 c. cane juice crystals or natural sugar (I use Zulka)
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. fine sea salt
1 c. cold water
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1 T. vanilla
2 T. lemon juice


Chocolate Cake Ingredients:

1 2/3 c. unbleached flour
1 c. cane juice crystals or natural sugar (I use Zulka)
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. fine sea salt
1 c. cold strong coffee or espresso or water
1/3 c. canola or olive oil
1 t. apple cider vinegar
1/2 t. vanilla extract


Peanut Butter Cream Frosting


1/2 c. vegan stick margarine
2/3 c. creamy peanut butter
1 lb. vegan powdered sugar
1/8 - 1/4 c. vanilla soy milk


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl or with your stand mixer, combine the following Peanut Butter Cake ingredients: flour, cane juice crystals, baking soda, and salt, stirring until well-combined.

Blend in cold water, peanut butter, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat until light, airy and creamy.

Set aside batter and begin Chocolate Cake:

In a large mixing bowl or with your stand mixer, combine the following Chocolate Cake Ingredients: flour, cane juice crystals, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, stirring until well-combined.

Blend in coffee or water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Beat until light, airy and creamy.

Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.

Tip #1: Spray pans with non-stick cooking spray and use a paper towel to evenly disperse the spray over the pans' surfaces, then dust with flour.

Tip #2: Cut two waxed paper circles just smaller than the bottom of the pans, then insert into bottom of pans before pouring batter. Make sure to smooth out any air bubbles before filling. The waxed paper will ensure easy removal when the cakes are turned out.

Pour 1/4 cup Peanut Butter Cake batter into the center of the first pan, and 1/4 cup Chocolate Cake batter into the center of the second pan.

Pour 1/4 cup Chocolate Cake batter directly on top of Peanut Butter Cake batter in first pan, and 1/4 cup Peanut Butter Cake batter on top of Chocolate Cake batter in second pan.

Continue adding 1/4 cup of alternating batter into each pan until all batter is dispersed, and the batter has "smooshed" out to fill the edges of the pan.

On a flat surface, spin each cake pan to push the batter even farther out to the edges. The center of the cake tends to rise more than the edges, so this will help produce a more even cake top.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cakes pull away from edges of pan and a toothpick inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.

Allow cakes to cool for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

While cakes are cooling, make your frosting:

With a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream together margarine and peanut butter until smooth and creamy.

Add powdered sugar, turning mixer down to low speed, and blend in. The mixture will be a bit dry and crumbly -- don't freak.

Add 1/8 cup soy milk and blend in. If you want your frosting softer and lighter, blend in soy milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Return to cooled cakes. Remove wax paper (if used) from bottoms of cakes and flip one onto a serving plate or covered cake circle. Using a serrated knife, carefully level the cake.

Fill a decorator's bag with frosting and pipe a thick border around the top of the leveled cake. I use a Wilton #21 star tip for this.

Spoon out a generous amount of frosting into center of cake and spread a thick layer to the piped border. This will be your cake "filling."

Flip the second cake and place directly on top of first cake. Using your serrated knife, level off the second cake.

Cover the entire cake with a crumb coat and chill for 30-45 minutes.



To cover the cake, I used my Wilton #21 star tip and a decorator's bag to pipe random scrolls onto the top and sides of the cake.

Note: I actually ended up using one-and-a-half batches of Peanut Butter Cream frosting.

Princess picked out her own candles. I must say, I agree with her selection, as she's certainly a STAR!

(Cross-posted to The Gonzo Mama)

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Sins of the Mother: When Animals Attack

I’m hanging all of my hopes for absolution on my daughter’s future career as a veterinarian. Perhaps, through Princess’s dedication to helping and saving animals, I will be forgiven by the animal kingdom for whatever sins I have committed in my previous lives.

I’ve always clung to the belief that animals know, instinctually, who is out to get them and who, conversely, is truly an animal lover that means them no harm. Why, then, has my life been littered with random attacks by wild and quasi-wild animals? I’m a vegan. I don’t eat animals. I try not to wear animals. I don’t steal their eggs, don’t subject them to naked humiliation by shaving them to spin their wool…

Obviously, in some previous incarnation, I was a hunter. Or a trapper. Or, simply, an animal hater.

How else to explain the unprovoked attack by a swan when I was three? That’s right – a swan. I was walking in the park with my mom and brother when a swan charged me and bit me. Perhaps my pre-vegan toddler breath smelled of chicken nuggets or eggs. Whatever the reason, the swan found my presence offensive and targeted me.

When I was five, I was attacked by a swarm of bees. In the bees’ defense, I did tromp over their home, but it was an accident that occurred during a rousing game of Follow the Leader through the woods near my friend’s house. She led, I followed… right over the top of a nest of bees. Her feet shook the bees up; mine angered them so thoroughly that they attacked, en masse, the little child attached to the intruding feet. The neighbors stripped my clothing down to my underwear to get the bees off while I screamed. My mother arrived in short order and, without access to a car, called the hospital instead of rushing me to the emergency room. She was told to pull the stingers out with tweezers (she stopped counting at 50), give me Tylenol, and watch for any alarming symptoms, such as a temperature over 105 degrees, paralysis, or death. Should any of those symptoms occur, she was to call 911 immediately. That’s right… if I died, she learned, someone should call 911.

At the age of six, I was bit by a ferret. Ferrets are interesting creatures in that they don’t bite and then let go. Instead, they bite and hold on, chewing the meat free. My six-year old screams were heard throughout the neighborhood, and the fingerprint of my right middle finger is permanently altered by a V-shaped scar through it.

In junior high, my face was scarred by Bambi. Not the real Bambi, of course, but a relative closely resembling the original friendly forest creature. Family friends had been feeding a little deer that visited their home, and I was fascinated by how tame he appeared. The sweet little guy was so cute, with his little budding antlers and big eyes. I fed him a carrot, and then wandered off to talk to my parents. Suddenly, I heard my name called, along with a loud “Look out!” warning. Alarmed, I turned around to see what the danger was, and found myself facing Bambi, reared up on his hind legs, hooves raised, ready to beat on my head. Instead, his hooves gouged down the middle of my face. As I raised my hands to my bloody face in pain and disbelief, someone explained to me that young male deer “play” with one another by beating each other on the heads with their hooves. How delightful.

Equally delightful was the experience of actually having to tell my friends at school that the deep, scabby trenches down my face were caused by the real-life version of a Disney character.

I fully expect, once Princess graduates from vet school and begins saving the animal world, whatever sins I’ve committed against nature will be fully atoned for. In my opinion, raising a veterinarian is a small price to pay for being able to walk out my front door without fear of being jumped by a gang of angry squirrels.