My mother made this for me with chocolate wafer cookies around the holidays. I’ve never been much of a baker despite my formal training, so it’s nice to have a “cake” that’s so easy to make for company that doesn’t require any baking!
On a basic level, a gingerbread zebra cake is just two ingredients: whipped cream and thin gingerbread cookies. I love making scratch whipped cream because it’s fresh and the ideal blank canvas for flavor, in this case, vanilla. I’m using that delicious paste from inside the vanilla pod. The vanilla paste will speckle the whipped cream with those distinctive vanilla bean seeds, and of course, infuse it with vanilla flavor. You can also use vanilla extract.
A crisp, thin gingerbread or gingersnap cookie is the second ingredient. From here, we build our “zebra.” A smear of whipped cream on the plate provides the base. This zebra gets its stripes from building layers of cookies and fresh cream, stacking them side-by-side to build a beautiful striped pattern.
The cake is frosted with a generous layer of whipped cream all around and then carefully wrapped in plastic wrap and tucked into the refrigerator to firm and set, about 12 hours, ideally.
To serve, cut along a bias to reveal the beautiful stripes! The cool and sweet whipped cream paired with the gingery snap of the gingerbread cookie is perfection. And, it’s sure pretty to look at!
As a kid, I always thought it was so fancy. Now, I love it even more, for the nostalgia and for it’s elegant simplicity. A Gingerbread Zebra Cake is comforting and delicious, a mom-recipe that I always come back to, especially around the holidays.
Gingerbread Zebra Cake
Watch How It's Made
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped (or 1 tsp vanilla extract/paste)
- 9 oz thin gingerbread crisp cookies
Preparation
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cream, sugar, and seeds scraped from the vanilla bean until stiff but still smooth.
- Using an offset spatula, rubber spatula, or even a butter knife, spread ¼ of this mixture in a line down a rectangular or oval plate.
- Then, alternating cookie and whipped cream, make a stack of 3 cookies and lay it on its side at one end of the line on the plate.
- Continue adding by spreading a layer of whipped cream on a cookie and adding it to the line until all the cookies are used. Use the remaining whipped cream to cover the “log” of cookies.
- Insert 2-3 toothpicks vertically along the cake, then drape plastic wrap over the top, using the picks to prevent the plastic from touching the whipped cream (it will stick!).
- Allow to set in the refrigerator overnight. To serve, slice on a bias to accentuate the layers.