#tiger cake

I’ll see if my baking skill is still intact ^^

Hey, I never haven’t bake before, literally! And I managed to get this done in my first try! :’D So it’s not hard xD

Tiger cake:

200 grams of butter 1 1/2 - 2 deciliter of sugar 3 eggs 3 deciliter of wheat flour 2 teaspoon of baking powder 2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar 2 tablespoon of choco powder 3 tablespoon of milk Icing: 5 deciliter of sugar 50 grams melted butter 1,5 tablespoon of choco powder 2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar 3 tablespoon of coffee (or milk. I used milk because I can’t drink coffee) Icing is easy to do! Just add all ingredients in one bowl and mix!

Baking: 1.) Put the oven to warm up to +175C (I think it’s about 338 in Fahrenheit but I’m not sure at all. Check it via Google just in case if I’m wrong :’D)

2.) Mix soft butter and sugar into a foam.

3.) Add eggs one by one, mixing after every one.

4.) Mix dry ingredients (except vanilla sugar) together and add them in the dough, mixing all the time. Now add vanilla sugar and mix.

5.) Put about half of the dough in another bowl. Add choco powder and milk in another half and mix.

6.) Lubricate casserole (no needed if you use greaseproof paper in casserole). Add dark dough first and then light one.

                       Last weekend was one of my best friends’ birthday. So, due to her crazy animal affections I decided to bake her a tiger cake. A few months ago my colleague, Maggie, showed me a video of Lorraine Pascal’s zebra/marble cake, which gave me the idea of creating a tiger-patterned sponge! But instead of using plain colours, I made a black batter and an orange batter to produce some striking stripes. But Lorraine’s recipe was nowhere to be seen so I used my own, and it was GRRRRRRREAT! (A Tony the Tiger reference - for those who didn’t understand this hilarious pun).

It was unexpectedly easy to do actually, and did create an impressive finish. But I wanted to disguise this so that when Amy cut into the cake it was a surprise. So I made some orange, white and black butter icing and decorated the cake like a cartoon tiger.

He was really quite cute, so it pained me to see Amy carve into his chops the next day. But it was worth it as when she revealed the freshly cut slice it was a stripey mishmash of colour and fun! But in our slightly hung-over state we couldn’t quite face a bite, so I can only hope that it tastes as good as it looked!

Ingredients (makes 12)

Sponge – Tiger’s Face

225g butter, softened 225g self-raising flour 225g caster sugar 4 eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 3 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp black colouring 2 tbsp orange colouring

Sponge – Tiger’s Ears

115g butter, softened 115g self-raising flour 115g caster sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Icing

125g butter, softened 400g icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 3-4 tbsp milk 3 tsp orange colouring Black icing pen

Method

Sponges

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a deep cake tin in butter and cut a circle of baking paper to fit the bottom of the tin and place inside. 2. Put the softened butter, flour, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract into a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. 3. Separate the batter by spooning half of it into another bowl. 4. In one bowl, add in the cocoa powder and black colouring and mix, and to the other pop in the orange and mix. 5. Take two piping bags and spoon the black batter into one and the orange into the other. 6. Cut about 1cm from the tip of each piping bag to create a very thin nozzle. 7. Pipe a small blob of black into the greased cake tin, and then pipe a blob of orange on top of that. Keep this up until both batters are completely finished. 8. If the mixture hasn’t quite reached the edges, tap the tin down several times on your work surface. 9. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 35 minutes, or until it is springy to the touch. 10. While the tiger’s face is baking, this is the perfect time to whip up his ears! 11. Place the butter, flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and cocoa powder into a bowl and beat until combined. 12. Grease a shallow cake tin with butter. Cut a circle of baking paper to fit the bottom of the tin and place inside. Then pour in the chocolate batter. 13. Once the tiger face is ready to come out of the oven, leave to cool on a wire rack. Then pop in the chocolate cake and bake for 15-20 minutes. 14. Leave to cool completely before decorating.

Icing 

15. To make the icing, add the softened butter to a new bowl and beat until creamy. 16. Pour in the icing sugar and vanilla extract and mix, if the mixture is a little stiff add the milk, one tbsp at a time until it creates a thick, smooth finish. 17. Spoon about a quarter of the icing mixture into a different bowl, this is for the tiger’s mouth area. 18. Drop in the orange colouring into the original mixture and stir until combined. 19. Once the cakes have completely cooled. Cut two ear shapes out of the cake, either by hand with a knife, or using a circular cutter. 20. Place the tiger face and ears onto a sheet of baking paper ready to ice. 21. Using a black icing pen draw the line which separates its mouth from its head. 22. Carefully spread the orange coloured icing over the top half of the cake until it reaches the black line. Do the same with the white icing on the bottom half. 23. Draw the nose, eyes, stripes and whiskers in with the black icing pen. 24. Fill the eyes in by piping on the white icing, then draw his pupils on once set. 25. Tony the tiger is born!

Original Recipe Find: my own recipe

                                                                           Happy Baking!