Monday, May 19, 2014

Finnish Tiger cake - my great grandmother's recipe




My Kichwa daughter, Celia, asked me to teach her to bake a cake.

She had never baked one herself and wanted to know how it was done.

The first cake ever my mom taught me to do was a marbled chocolate and vanilla cake we call “tiger cake” in Finland.

The name comes from the black and white, or yellowy and brown, stripes that the cake has.
 
Mixing the sugar with the eggs.
It is also the cake my son has been begging me to do because he really likes it and we haven’t had it for a while.

The cake isn’t difficult to do.

You have to mix the softened margarine or butter with half of the sugar in one bowl, until it’s foamy.

In another bowl you mix the dry ingredients, or flour and baking powder.

And yet in another bowl, you mix the eggs with the rest of the sugar.

After the eggs are beaten into beautiful white foam, you need to add the dry ingredients and some milk.

Beat them together and add the margarine mix and at last, a swirl of vanilla essence.

When everything is mixed well, take a half, or a third, of the mix.

The amount depends on how much chocolaty stripes you want in your cake.

Mix this half with chocolate powder.

In a well-buttered pan that is covered with bread crumbs, I use the ones they sell in the bakeries that has really tiny crumbs, pour the white mix.

After you have poured the white mix, cover it with the chocolate mix.

Then you need to take a ladle or a spoon, a fork is OK too, and stick it in the mix.
Swooping around with the laddle.
 Swoop it around a bit and then rise it up.

Repeat this few times but be careful not to mix the two colors totally.

You just want to get some stripes on that tiger.

After the cake was baked and waiting to cool off, I had to leave to a work meeting.

I asked my son to look after the cake so that the dogs or the ants wouldn’t get into it.
 
This is what was left of the cake when I came home.
Well, that was what was waiting for me when I got home; I think the picture is worth more than thousand words this time.

 My son had two friends over and he had decided to serve them cake and since he was worried about cutting himself with the knife.

Or that’s what he told me afterwards, he just grabbed the cake with his hands.

Let’s say that I was a bit annoyed and I told him that he owned me a cake because I wasn’t going to eat that one.

Or give any of it to Celia so she could try it out.
The cake before my son decided to take a bite.
 The good thing is that we actually had fun with my son when I taught him how to make the cake.

He’s ten now, the same age I was when my mom taught me to do the tiger cake.

So I was happy to be able to continue the tradition.

This cake recipe is actually from my great-grandmother and it has been in her family even before it.

Hope you will enjoy it also.
 
Eating the batter, best part of baking a cake.
You’ll need:

4 eggs
4 dl sugar
250 grams of margarine or butter (originally calls for butter)
6 dl wheat flour
1 table spoon of baking powder
1 dl of milk
1 table spoon of vanilla essence
1 dl of chocolate powder

1. Mix the margarine with half of the sugar until it’s foamy.
2. Mix the flour with the baking powder.
3. Mix the other half of the sugar with the eggs until white foam forms.
4. Mix the dry ingredients with the egg foam, add milk.
5. Mix carefully the margarine with the rest of the batter.
6. Add vanilla essence.
7. Remove half (or third) of the mix and add the chocolate powder.
8. Pour the white mix into a well-buttered pan.
9. Mix the two batters to form stripes.
10. Bake in 175 Celsius for an hour.

Enjoy!

If you want to know more about my Kichwa daughter you can read a post here.

53 comments:

  1. My boys are big fans of marble cake and I think it's hilarious the way he served it to his friends!!!

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    1. It is fun now, and I agree, even hilarious, but at that moment I was really angry.

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  2. This looks absolutely delicious! We are going to have to try this one.

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  3. This looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing the culture AND the recipe!

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  4. YUM! I am going to have to make this with my children.

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  5. I love the look of the cake. My dad would love it since he is a Tigers fan.

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  6. Love that you are passing this down to the next generation. Our family has treasured recipes too. Thanks for sharing with us!

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  7. What a great way to bond. My daughters haven't asked me to teach them to bake. I think it's because they know I'm not as good in the kitchen as their dad. LOL

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  8. YUM! That looks so good, I need to try and make it with my son.

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  9. I love family recipes. The memories that go along with it is so nice.

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  10. Educate me.. what is Kichwa? The cake looks great and I love it when kids want to learn to cook! Very important thing to know.

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    1. Kichwas are indigenous people of Ecuador, it is also a language from the same family as Quechua from Peru.

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  11. Wow, this cake looks fantastic! We love a good family recipe!

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  12. I saw this on your FB thread today and printed out the recipe. Can't wait to try with my kids this upcoming weekend. Looks so yummy!

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  13. It's just beautiful and especially wonderful since it's passed down in your family. LOL to the messy cake waiting for you when you got home.

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    1. Thank you, Liz, I agree family recipes are wonderful. It is a funny sight now but at the moment I think I had smoke coming out of my ears, lol

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  14. Oh no! I'm so sorry but I had to giggle when I saw how your son served the cake to his friends! It sounds like something my son would have done when he was small :) Your Tiger cake sounds delicious, it's always fun to make cooking memories with our children!

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    1. I think it's very giggleworthy also, Henrieta. And in a way I'm glad that he did it because it made me realize that he's old enough to have those moments together but I must say I was pretty mad when I found the cake.

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  15. I love the history of this cake. And that is SO funny that your son left the messy cake for you to find! That is something I'm sure my son will do one day.

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    1. He thought it was totally logical, Jaime. And he told me he was SURE I would have let him eat it and give to his friends also. And he was just worried he would cut himself with the knife while I was out. Logic! LOL

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  16. I've never had this before, it sounds like a great recipe! Thanks for sharing!

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  17. That looks delicious! I think that's hilarious that your son cut the cake with his hands! Sounds like my brother : )

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    1. I think it has something to do with the male choromosome, Karen, definitely ;)

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  18. I bet it was just as much fun baking the family recipe as it was eating it afterwards! Looks good.

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  19. This looks tasty! I'd love to try this out :)

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  20. That is too funny! I cannot believe he used his hands and went to town on it. Boys! It does look pretty delicious though.

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    1. I could have never imagined he would do something like it, Laura. It just never even occurred to me, must be a boy thing, lol

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  21. There is too much sugar and butter for me to have this cake, but it looks really delicious. Looks like a lot of fun making it too

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  22. How funny is he, using his hands! It looks delish, thanks for sharing the recipe.

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  23. What a beautiful cake! I only wish I could make it as easily as you did. I am a terrible baker.

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  24. It does look delish! Though I am not sure what vanilla essence is. Is that just regular vanilla? You know, the liquid you find in the baking section?

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    1. I'm glad you like the recipe, Theresa. Vanilla essence is the black vanilla liquid. Hope your cake turns out delicious!

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  25. This looks so good! I love chocolate and vanilla together.

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  26. LOVE that your son was in the kitchen with you making the cake. Love creating memories in the kitchen. Someday he'll make this for his wife :) Cake looks delish.

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    1. Kitchen memories are precious, Chrysa. I hope he will remember and I hope I can teach him a lot more yet.

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  27. at least he thought of safety first? lol!! looks delish

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  28. Oh goodness!! Looks like your son loved the cake more then anyone realized. LOL It's very respectable of him to make a new one in replacement of the one he 'ate' and who knew it would be a great bonding experience? My philosophy is everything happens for a reason :)

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    1. I agree, Kayla. We just need to keep the eyes open to find that reason.

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  29. Yum! That reminds me of a chocolate and vanilla pound cake, which I love.

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  30. I love recipes that have a history, and that are passed down through the generations.

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  31. Finnish Tiger Cake sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing a family recipe.

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  32. Tiger Cake sounds delicious!!!!! Pinned!

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  33. It looks delicious!!! I love the photo of the kiddo licking the spatula.

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  34. Ah that does look delicious. And the best part of baking a cake is licking the stirrer.

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  35. That looks really awesome! I love your photos!

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  36. And now I want cake~ That cake looks amazing I love cooking with my girl in the kitchen.

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  37. Looks yummy! I love the story behind it. Your son really did a number on it! LOL!

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  38. Looks like a cake! My kids love licking the spoons after baking too!

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  39. I had never jheard of Finnish Tiger Cake before so it was nice to read about it. I would like to try to make it for my family.

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  40. I love that you have a family recipe that you can pass down to your children. We never did but I have started noting down recipes to pass down to my children. Hopefully, your son will make you one soon. It looks super yummy!

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