Tiger Cake

From Seriously Bittersweet (Artisan 2013) by Alice Medrich

Extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of white pepper produce a subtly flavorful cake with a moist close-to-pound-cake texture. It’s not too sweet and the “stripes” are beautiful! This cake is even better on the second day. Try it toasted for breakfast.

1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 177° C (350° F). Grease and flour the cake pan.

   In a small bowl, whisk cocoa, sugar, and water until well blended. Set aside. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt thoroughly and sift together onto a piece of wax paper. Set aside.

   In a large mixer bowl (with the whisk attachment if you have a choice), beat the sugar, 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 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and add one-third of the flour mixture. Beat on low speed just until blended. Stop the mixer and add half of the milk. Beat just until it is blended. Repeat with another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and then the remaining flour.

   Pour 710 ml (3 cups) of the batter into another bowl and stir in the cocoa mixture. Pour one-third of the plain batter into the prepared tube pan and top with one-third of the chocolate batter. Repeat with the remaining batters. Don’t worry about marbling the batters — that happens beautifully during the baking.

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