Cupcakes for a Zebra

I found this recipe for Zebra cake at The Whimsical Cupcake
I tweaked it just a tad to make cupcakes instead of a whole cake.  I love baking cakes, but Ryan tends to like cupcakes better.  Plus, these were for lunch with some friends so I thought cupcakes would be easier to transport and a little less messy.

As I said these were for a lunch date with some former co-workers of mine at KCAVP.  I love these guys and since I will be leaving KC soon, I wanted to get together with them before I left.  I decided these cupcakes would be a good idea since, Santi, the only male of the group, often made comments about how he was a "Zebra among horses".

1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Double Dutched Dark Cocoa

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Reduce to 325 when baking begins Line 12 count muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2) In the bowl of your mixer, blend the sugar and eggs until lightened, about 2 minutes. On low speed blend in the oil, milk and vanilla until well combined and smooth.
3) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to remove any lumps. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine on medium speed 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and lump free. Be sure to scrape down the bowl halfway through mixing.
4) Remove 2 cups of the vanilla batter and place it in the measure you used for the liquid ingredients. Sift the cocoa over this batter, and stir well to combine. Be sure to use a sifter to avoid cocoa lumps in the batter.
5) Now for the stripes. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of vanilla batter into the center of each cupcake. Next, spoon 1 teaspoon of the chocolate batter into the center of the vanilla batter. This causes the vanilla batter to spread out. Continue to alternate batters, in bulls-eye fashion until muffin tins are 3/4 full. You will now have thin rings of each batter on the outer edges of the pan, thicker rings towards the center.
6) Bake 22-25 minutes until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.