zorses, zorses, zorses*

Have you ever seen a zorse?

It's a fairly awesome creation--a hybrid animal with a horse mama and a zebra daddy.

First things first: No, I did not eat any zorse.

I did, however, make a pretty terrific cake inspired by the beast's existence. You may be familiar with the zebra cake, which consists of swirled vanilla and chocolate batters and is extremely groovy. I changed it up a bit--the streaky effect is still there, but it's done with vanilla and cinnamon batters. Shocker, right?

Alternate recipe name:  Get-In-My-Belly Bella Cake

I'm pretty pleased with this twist on a classic. Granted, you have to be a true lover of cinnamon to really appreciate the taste, but as I'm sitting here pondering it, I can't think of a single person I've met who has said that she doesn't like cinnamon.

Moist, aromatic, flavorful, and attractive. Yeah, this one's worth the bit of extra effort.

*The title is a reference to the scene in Sleepless in Seattle where Meg Ryan's character is singing along to a Christmas carol in her car. Harses, harses, harses. Man, I love that movie.

Zorse Cake
4 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with a circle of parchment paper and lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan.
In a large bowl, mix together the eggs and sugar until the mixture is light and creamy. Stir in the milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Pour into the wet ingredients and whisk to combine. Measure out just over two cups of the vanilla batter and place it back in the medium bowl. Sift your marvelous cinnamon over the bowl and whisk until fully incorporated.
Put 3 tablespoons of the vanilla batter into the center of the prepared pan and let it spread slightly on its own. Put 3 tablespoons of cinnamon batter in the center of the vanilla. It will push out the other batter and, as it sits for a moment, will also spread itself. Alternating spoonfuls of the two batters, repeat the technique until all the batter has been used up. See? Easy peasy.
Bake for 38-42 minutes, until the cake is light gold and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then turn out the cake and remove the parchment paper. Reinvert on to a wire rack and let cool before slicing.