Pink Zebra Cake

The other day my friend Lynda asked me if I would make a birthday cake for her daughter who was turning 3. She was going with an animal theme and had come across the idea for a zebra-striped cake – the first time I’d heard of such a thing. Needless to say I was excited to experiment and after some research on the method, I came up with a variation that I thought worked.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the way it turned out – and of course you can’t really go wrong with chocolate icing on top! (Excuse the messy cutting here, by the way. We had 10 three-year olds running around like maniacs at the time.)

Tri-Colour (or just Chocolate) Mousse

This is one of my favourite dessert recipes as it’s somewhere between a mousse and a cheesecake – two of my best things!

For years I’ve made it in a simple, dark chocolate version, then recently I decided to experiment with a tri-colour collection of dark chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Because you’re working with three different flavours, you need to pay close attention to each step and do a bit of multi-tasking (which is why this recipe is classified as medium to difficult), but it worked really well and I think is well worth the trouble for a special occasion. Serve it in small bowls as it’s quite rich.

For those who aren’t feeling so adventurous, I’ve also included here the simpler, dark chocolate version, which is totally delicious on its own. Or you could check below for how to make the vanilla or strawberry versions instead. Each flavour is quite easy on its own – it’s just when you’re making three at once that it becomes more complicated.

Strawberry, Banana and Avocado Smoothie

Looking for a quick, easy and healthy idea for breakfast (or for dessert)? This smoothie is a winner whenever you choose to have it and kids seem to love it too, probably because it tastes like ice-cream.

And yes, you read that right – there’s avocado in it. You needn’t worry though as it doesn’t taste like avo and it isn’t green, since the red colour of the strawberries pretty much overpowers everything else, and you end up with a pink smoothie which not only looks but also tastes delicious.