Tiger Cake and Stories in Disguise

A few people have recently asked me, both on the blog and in person, if I won’t miss Ozzy and The Landlord, maybe just a little bit? The answer is a resounding NO! I will not miss either of them showing up at my door reeking of cheap alcohol and crazy old man, respectively. I will, however, miss the stories they provided me with. Friends often asked me what they were up to and even went so far as to hope we’d run into them when they came over for a visit, just so they could witness the insanity for themselves. I’m sure I would have found the situation even funnier if it wasn’t happening to me, like when someone falls and I laugh. But the fact of the matter is that it was happening to me and I’m glad to be rid of it and the heebie jeebies I got every time I saw one of those two. With the move though, comes a whole new set of people and a whole new set of potential crazies.

I always debate how much I can actually share on the blog though because if I spend any amount of time with someone they inevitably find out I have a blog, (usually when I whip out my camera to take a picture of food like a weirdo) and that means that I have to watch what I say here. Not to worry though this won’t stop be from blogging about my experiences, it just means I’ll have to find a creative way of telling you about the new people in my life which won’t incriminate me. Nicknames and fairy tales will definitely be put to good use.

But before I say too much, hey look, cake! Lisa of Pittsburgh Needs Eated made this Tiger Cake
way back in April and I knew I wanted to make it as soon as I saw it. (I especially loved her square tube pan, and am jealous that she found it at a thrift store for cheap). After reading through the recipe though I decided I needed to changed it ever so slightly to make it live up to its name of Tiger Cake. It already has the stripes, but when I think of a tiger I think of orange and black and even though the stripes are decidedly vanilla and chocolate, I decided I wanted orange. So, using a technique I learned from Dorie Greenspan, I rubbed orange zest into the sugar to flavour my Tiger Cake with orange as well as chocolate. And I’m telling you, once you try this technique you’ll want to use it every time a recipe calls for sugar and zest.


Tiger Cake (adapted from Lisa of Pittsburgh Need Eated who adapted it from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet)

1/2 cup natural process cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup water

3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
Zest of 1 orange
1 cup flavorful extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp finely ground white pepper
5 cold large eggs
1 cup cold milk

A 10-12 cup tube or bundt pan, or two 6 cup loaf pans.

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour the cake pan or line the loaf pans with parchment.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, and water until well blended.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt thoroughly and sift together onto a piece of paper. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl (preferably fitted with the whisk attachment) rub together the sugar and orange zest with yours fingertips, then beat in the oil, vanilla, and pepper until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue to beat until the mixture is thick and pale, 3-5 minutes. Stop the mixer and add 1/3 of the flour mixture*. Beat on low speed until just blended. Stop the mixer and add half the milk. Beat just until it is blended. Repeat with another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and then the remaining flour.

Pour 3 cups of batter into another bowl and stir in the cocoa mixture. Pour 1/3 of the plain batter into the prepared tube pan (or divide it between the loaf pans) and top with 1/3 of the chocolate batter. Repeat with the remaining batters. Don't worry about marbling the batters- that happens during the baking.

Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes for either the tube or loaf pans. Cool the cake in the pan(s) on a rack for about 15 minutes. Slide a thin knife around the sides of the pan(s) to release the cake. Invert the pan(s) and invert again, setting the cake right side up on a rack to cool completely.

***I adapted this recipe from Lisa who adapted it from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet. You might want to check out either of those originals for something similar but different. The addition of orange zest was mine.