Tuesday 11 February 2014

Tiger Cake















My thirteen year old son is a major Rocky fan. It all started about 6 months ago when we let him watch the Rocky movies (all six of them). A complete boxed set of the Rocky movies next to his bed, 2 pairs of boxing gloves (a black pair and a red pair), a pair of purple wraps, a boxing bag, skipping rope, speed ball, boxing lessons and a black and yellow Italian Stallion robe and shorts set later and he have our own skinny, much more articulate version of Rocky Balboa. So when Grudge Match starring his hero Sly Stallone was playing at our local cinema, we just had to take him to see it. Last night we headed out to see Rocky Balboa V Jake LaMotta, The Italian Stallion V Raging Bull. It got me singing "Gonna fly now" and "Eye of the Tiger" (against my will, I might add), and one thing led to another and I arrived at CAKE... story of my life.



Tiger Cake
slightly adapted from Lorraine Pascale's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food

250ml Sunflower oil
250g caster sugar
100ml low fat milk
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 pinches of salt
25g cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and spray a 23cm round springform cake pan with cooking oil spray. Line the base of the pan with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl, use a hand-held whisk to combine the oil, sugar, milk, eggs and vanilla extract.

Pour 400g of this mixture into a separate bowl.

Sift 175g of the self-raising flour into one of the bowls with a pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the baking power. Mix well and set aside. This the vanilla batter.

Sift the remaining 125g self-raising flour, a pinch of salt and the other 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder into the other bowl along with the cocoa powder and mix it all together and set aside. This is the chocolate batter.

Pour the vanilla batter into a disposable piping bag and the chocolate batter into a separate disposable piping bag. Cut a small opening at the end of each piping bag.

Pipe a tablespoon of the vanilla batter into the middle of the prepared cake pan, then pipe a tablespoon of the chocolate batter into the middle of the vanilla batter. Keep alternating between vanilla batter and chocolate batter until all the batter is used. As you pipe each portion, the batter will slowly spread out to the sides of the pan.

Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 

Leave the cake to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

9 comments:

  1. What a nice story :) & I love the two colours in the cake, I'm sure it's delicious!

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    1. Thanks Gabrielle. There's something about a two-toned cake.

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  2. Nooooooooooooo! Jen you are evil! Now it's going to take me DAYS to get 'Eye of the Tiger' out of my head (but then again, all is redeemed with the deliciousness of this cake. It looks amazing. *pause* AMAZING. I'm trying to channel Rob Lowe in Parks and Rec if you've watched that... if not, I'm probably just sounding quite ridiculous right now!) xx

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    1. Rising up, back on the street
      Did my time, took my chances
      Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
      Just a man and his will to survive

      I'll leave you with that.

      PS: I love Chirs Traeger, I mean Rob Lowe, okay I love both.

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  3. Number One: Cake is always a welcome, suitable, and delicious place to arrive.
    Number Two: I read this via email this morning and haven't been able to get 'Eye of the Tiger' out of my head all day!
    Number Three: I love a cheesy, awful, action hero from the 80s movie. I will now have to watch Grudge Match :)
    While eating a slice of this cake preferably :)

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    1. #1 I'm glad I'm not alone
      #2 Mission accomplished
      #3 Cake and a movie, I'm in.

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  4. hahaha + 1 on eye of the tiger.

    And your cake is so pretty!

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    1. It's the eye of the tiger
      It's the thrill of the fight
      Rising up to the challenge of our rival
      And the last known survivor
      Stalks his prey in the night
      And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger

      Sing it with me...

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  5. Haha, gotcha guys. I live to put annoying 80's tunes in people's heads... and cake.

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