Zebra Cake with Fluffernutter Frosting

Ages and ages and ages ago, I made a zebra cake for my Hungry Puppies.  It was an epic fail.  I'm not sure what exactly happened, but there was definitely no zebra happening. I thought I'd give it another shot, and this time it worked out beautifully.  My Hungry Puppies weren't exactly sure what a zebra cake was, and were fairly unimpressed until I showed them the end result.  At which point I was declared amazing (they thought the cake was pretty cool too).  The frosting for this cake is my second attempt.  The first attempt turned out to be a peanut butter marshmallow sauce. Oh well, this is how we learn, right? The frosting is incredible!  It is a fluffy marshmallow flavored with peanut butter.  And on top of that zebra cake?  Perfect.

Zebra Cake with Fluffernutter Frosting

Cake:
1 box fudge marble cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
Black gel food coloring (optional)

Fluffernutter Frosting:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, warmed slightly, but not hot!

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the cake mix (reserving the chocolate packet for later), eggs, water, and oil, and stir until well blended.  Place half of the cake batter in a separate bowl, and stir in the chocolate packet and a couple of drops of the black food coloring.  Stir until completely incorporated.  You will now have one bowl of white batter and one bowl of black.

Using a large cookie scoop or a measuring cup, pour about 2 tablespoons of the white batter into each pan.  Pour 2 tablespoons of black batter directly in the  middle of the white batter in the pan.  Continue to do this, alternating the white and black batter until all of the batter has been used.  Place the cakes in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove cakes from the oven and let cool in the pans for about 10 minutes.  Turn the cakes out of the pans and let cool completely.

For the fluffernutter frosting, in a small saucepan, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, and water.  Bring the mixture to a boil, and continue cooking until it reaches 240F.  While the sugar syrup is cooking, place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat until stiff peaks form.  

When the sugar syrup reaches 240F, slowly pour the hot sugar mixture into the stiff egg whites with the mixer running on medium speed (be sure to pour the hot syrup down the inside edge of the bowl to prevent splattering).  Increase the speed to high and beat the frosting until very stiff peaks form (adding the peanut butter will loosen it up just a bit).  Beat in the vanilla.  Gently fold in the peanut butter until incorporated.

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a serving plate.  Spread with a thick layer of frosting.  Top with the second cake layer.  Frost the top and sides with remaining frosting.  Makes about 12 to 16 servings.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy