tiger cake

3 min read

It was during a family trip to Guangzhou back in 2003 that we first set eyes on this fabulous creation, rather sweetly named tiger cake because of its evocative stripy’skin’, which is made by baking a cornflour mixture at a high temperature. To this day the best tiger cake we have ever eaten was from the hole-in-the-wall bakery near our grandmother’s house, but we think that this one comes close.

Makes 1 for the inner cake separate eggs, separated 80g granulated sugar 3 tbsp vegetable oil 4 drops vanilla extract 2 drops red food colouring 50ml full-fat milk 60g plain flour 20g cornflour 12 tsp baking powder for the tiger skin 6 egg yolks caster sugar 60g caster sugar 14 tsp vanilla extract 20g cornflour for the filling 150ml double cream, whipped 1%2 tbsp icing sugar 1 Preheat the oven to 180C//Gas mark 4 and line a Swiss roll tin with non-stick paper. For the inner cake, beat the egg whites in large, clean, grease-free- bowl and gradually add6 0g0 of the sugar until soft peaks form. Set aside.

2 Beat the egg yolks and the remaining 20g sugar in another bowl for 2 minutes, until they have thickened slightly and become a pale yellow colour. Beat for another minute, gradually adding the oil. Add the vanilla, food colouring and milk, then beat for 1 minute.

3 Mix the flours and baking powder together in bowl. Sift the flour mixture twice between two differ-ent bowls. Sift the flour mixture again into the beaten egg yolk mixture, and whisk until smooth.

Use a spatula to gently fold in half of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture. Repeat with the remaining egg whites, folding only until just combined.

4 Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth over the top. Make sure that the mixture is spread out to the edges of the tin. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

5 Meanwhile, prepare the tiger skin. Beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until thick and pale. Add the cornflour and beat until smooth. Set aside.

6 Lift the cooked inner cake out of the tin by the paper and place onto a wire rack. Increase the oven temperature to 240C/475 F/Gas mark 9. Leave the inner cake to cool for 3 minutes, then cut a 1cm-wide strip off one of the short sides. Gently score a line 1cm in from the cut edge of the cake, slicing down about halfway into the depth of the cake, then roll the whole thing-the cake and paper-into a firm spiral before putting it onto a wire rack. Line the tin with a new sheet of non-stick paper, pour in the tiger skin mixture, and smooth over the top. Make sure that the mixture is spread out to the edges of the tin. Bake in the oven for 2-3 minutes.

As you can make out a stripy pattern, remove from the oven immediately. Lift the tiger skin out paper and put it on the wire rack. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then carefully peel the skin away from the paper.

8 To roll your tiger cake, take a piece of non-stick paper that is ittle larger than the cake. Put the tiger skin on the paper, pattern side down, then unroll the inner cake on top of the tiger skin and line it up at the edge that is closest to you The tiger skin should be slightly longer than the inner cake on the far side. Spread the whipped cream on top of the inner cake, then use the paper to help you firmly roll the tiger cake. Twist the sides of the paper so the cake looks like a wrapped lolly and leave until ready to serve with tea (a Chinese green tea called bi luo chun, or ‘spring snail’ is an excel-lent choice).